Wealth Pt. 04

Toni found a nice set of sapphire earrings for four hundred dollars and David told Patrick, "Since you're getting the whole wedding set; I'll throw those in, no charge."

"You got it," Patrick said, smiling happily.

Toni agreed to hold on to the rings until Christmas Day; let Harmony think that the sapphire earrings were all she'd be getting. The earrings themselves were a very nice set; even if Patrick somehow changed his mind about asking her to marry him, Harmony Kohl would have no reason to complain.

Then Toni drove home. As she backed her car into her garage, she felt the same weariness, the same loneliness she felt every night when she returned home descend on her.

Toni rarely went upstairs any more, other than to bathe and change clothes. She slept on the couch, back firmly pressed against the back of the couch, remembering when Anita would press herself into Toni's back. Pumpkin liked to sleep on the back of the couch, and Buttons liked to sleep at Toni's feet. Boopsie, Toni wasn't sure where that animal slept. The only time Toni would see the cat was when Boopsie wanted something to eat.

Toni fixed a microwave dinner, reflecting that she needed to go grocery shopping and wishing that Anita had shown her how to cook some of the things she used to cook for them.

Anita would have been happy to show Toni how to cook these things, if Toni had ever shown any interest.

Then after eating an unappetizing dinner, Toni stripped off her clothes, lighted a joint and lazily masturbated while smoking the joint. Each time she neared orgasm, she would stop and pinch her nipples, hard.

Then when she finished the joint, she did allow herself an orgasm.

In her own condominium, Anita slipped into her favorite nightshirt, a short silk blouse that just reached to mid-thigh. Snowball was already on the bed, curled up tight at the far corner. Anita arranged the pillows, then crawled under the heavy blanket.

Within moments, she was hunching her bald mound against the pillow between her legs. Anita squeezed the other pillow to her chest, squeezing as tightly as she could, feeling her hard nipples rub against the silk material of her sleep shirt. She stiffened in orgasm, then slowly drifted off to sleep, clutching the pillow tightly.

Christmas Day 2013 was a cold, blustery day. The first thing Kelli wanted to do when she arrived at Grandpaw's house is go in the ice cold garage and work on the car.

No, the presents could wait; Mom said they had to wait until everyone was there anyway.

"Go ahead," Caitlin smiled and kissed Barry. "I know you can't say no to a red head anyway."

"So, BJ's marrying your mom, huh?" Barry asked as he showed Kelli how to operate the hoist.

"Uh huh," Kelli said.

"And he wants to adopt you and make you a Delacroix; what you think about that?" Barry asked and guided the engine into the car.

"I don't know," Kelli said and hit the 'stop' button when Barry held up his hand.

"Are you a Delacroix?" Kelli asked as she inspected the job she'd done with the hoist.

"Sure am," Barry said, removing the sling.

"Then I want to be a Delacroix too," Kelli decided.

"And that's why you're my favorite granddaughter," Barry said and hugged the girl.

"Uh, I'm your only granddaughter," she reminded him, returning the hug.

Inside the house, BJ stood, dressed in his Santa suit and waited.

"Okay, here they come," Heather called out as she spotted Ed Weinstein, Brooke Weinstein, and Star and Luna Weinstein coming up the sidewalk.

BJ grabbed the large bag and slung it over his shoulder.

"Oh no! You're too early!" Caitlin said when Star and Luna burst into the house.

"Ah!" Star screamed as she saw Santa sprint for the side door.

"Ah!" Luna screamed as she saw a flash of red run out the side door.

"He's here! Santa Claus is here!" Star screamed and gave chase, Luna right behind.

Outside, Briah and Michael loudly shook sleigh bells, ceasing just as they heard the two girls screaming.

"Did you see him?" Star screamed at Aunt Briah and Uncle Michael.

"Did you see Santa Claus?" Luna screamed.

"Yeah, he ran right by," Briah said, discretely tucking her bells into her coat pocket.

"And jumped in his sleigh and took off," Michael said, scanning the sky.

"Aw!" Star and Luna whined and looked up, hoping to catch a glimpse of Santa's sleigh.

"Santa! Come back! We love you," Star cried out.

Inside the garage, Kelli laughed as BJ stripped out of his Santa suit.

"Shush, you," BJ ordered as he quickly pulled on the heavy sweater he'd placed in the garage earlier.

"So, um, I got to call you Dad?" Kelli asked as Barry slid out from underneath the Bentley.

"What you want to call me?" BJ asked.

"I don't know," Kelli admitted.

"Kelli, I'd be thrilled if you called me Dad, but you're nine years old," BJ said and hugged the girl. "At nine years old, you're old enough to make up your own mind on what you want to call me."

Toni smiled as she saw Michael, Briah, Star and Luna standing outside, looking up at the sky. She grabbed the bag of presents off the back seat and then approached the group.

"Aunt Toni, we seen him!" Star yelled.

"Yeah, we seen him!" Luna echoed.

"Seen who?" Toni asked, giving both blonde girls hugs and kisses.

"Santa!" the girls screamed.

"What? Where? In the sky?" Toni asked, mouth open in shock.

"Hey, nice sweatshirt there," Michael said, tugging playfully on the sleeve of Toni's U.L.D. sweatshirt.

"Well, I am a student; got to show my school pride," Toni said glibly.

"Now that is a great Christmas gift," Barry said, following BJ and Kelli out of the garage. "Now, what's all this yelling about?"

"Mr. Barry we seen Santa!" Star screamed at him.

"Oh my! Well, what did he bring us?" Barry asked.

"I don't know," Star admitted.

Brooke and Caitlin were in the kitchen, preparing brunch for everyone and comparing pregnancy tips and tricks.

"Prune juice is so nasty; I have to cut it with honey, but nothing, I mean absolutely nothing is worse than constipation," Brooke claimed as she whisked the eggs.

"You sure you pregnant? You're not even showing," Caitlin said.

"Oh you liar!" Brooke laughed, lifting the hem of her Christmas blouse. "I'm pooching out so much I had to take my ring out!"

A blast of arctic air cut through the house as Star and Luna led the procession back into the house.

"Well, did you catch him?" Brooke asked her daughters.

"No," Star said sadly.

"Yeah, Uncle Michael said he flew away," Luna said.

"Oh well, listen, y'all ran out of here so fast I didn't even get my Christmas hugs and kisses from y'all and it just won't be Christmas until I get my Christmas hugs and kisses," Caitlin demanded.

"Hey!" Harmony shrilled when she spotted Toni.

"Hey!" Toni called back as the blonde woman bounced over to hug her.

"Look!" Harmony demanded, pulling her long blonde hair aside, showing the beautiful earrings.

"Nice," Toni smiled.

"Yeah, Patrick said you helped him pick them out," Harmony said, hugging Toni again.

In her condominium, Anita stretched out on her leather couch, 'breaking in' her Christmas gift from Honey Childress.

Over the Thanksgiving break, the dormitories of U.L.D. were closed, supposedly for cleaning and the diminutive red head did not have the money to go home. So, Anita invited her to stay at her condo.

"Bring your own pillows," Anita had stated.

"Why you need so many pillows?" the girl asked on her first night there.

So Honey had given Anita a body pillow. Anita had woken up that morning, wished Snowball a Merry Christmas, and unwrapped the various gifts from her employees and the one from her mother, Marco, and Luther. She nodded her head in approval at the sight of the electric skillet.

Then she had unwrapped the large box Honey had shoved into the corner and laughed happily at the sight of the pillow.

"I love you," she said aloud, thinking of the small red head.

Now, sprawled on her couch, Anita pulled the fleece blanket down from the back of the couch and pulled it over herself. She then wiggled out of her fleece pajamas and rubbed herself against her new pillow until she had an orgasm.

"I love you," Anita said again.

In their formal dining room, Shirley St. Martin looked at her four boys, the three wives, and Andy, their youngest son's partner. Gary's wife, Missy, was already making noises about other engagements and obligations and Mattie, Frank's wife would be quick to follow.

"Good God, just go, all right," Shirley wanted to scream at them. "Sorry it's such an imposition to spend a little time with us."

"So, Miss Shirley, how's your little friend doing?" Andy lisped, somehow managing to sneer and lisp at the same time.

"Caitlin? She's doing well," Shirley smiled. "She's due on March twentieth; anyone here know why that date's so significant?"

"And before any of you guess my birthday, which is January ninth, or our wedding anniversary, which is April twenty sixth, you need to remember who Caitlin's best friend is," Henry said.

"Yes, am I the only one here that finds it terribly interesting that a little what? Twenty? Twenty one year old would be running around with a sixty nine year old woman?" Andy sneered.

"Number one, you pompous jack ass," Shirley spat. "I am sixty five, not sixty nine. And number two, Caitlin Delacroix is ten times wealthier than I am so if you're implying she's running around with me because of my money, you are sorely mistaken."

The table lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. Shirley looked up as Henry reached across the table.

"Henry Michael St. Martin, put that down," Shirley laughed as he waggled his eyebrows playfully and poured her a glass of red wine.

Chapter 32

Anita sighed, looked at the menu board of the cafeteria, and then looked back outside to the ice covered ground.

People don't think it gets cold in the Deep South, but it frequently does get cold enough to snow. Three days before the start of the spring semester of the University of Louisiana at DeGarde, it did snow. The next day, the temperature reached thirty six degrees, so the snow began to melt. Then it snowed again, freezing the melting snow into a sheet of ice.

Anita had to laugh when she picked Honey Childress up at Lafayette's small airport and the girl shrieked in disbelief, "I thought I left this behind when I flew out of Kansas!"

Then one of the pipes burst at Murphy Hall, so Honey was staying with Anita while the University scrambled to fix the pipe.

"God, goulash again?" Honey squeaked as she read the menu.

"There ought to be a place..." Anita said, then clammed up.

"Come on. Let's go home; there's still some of that black bean soup and we got to get rid of that ham before it goes bad," Anita said.

At her condominium, Anita cut up some of the ham while Honey attempted to entice Snowball to chase an electric mouse, Maggie's Christmas gift to the beast. Snowball was more interested in looking out the window at the winter landscape.

"I'll get it!" Honey squeaked when her cell phone gave a chime.

"Uh, yeah, it's your phone," Anita said as she flipped the sandwiches in the electric skillet.

"Oh, hey, Murphy's is open again!" Honey said, reading the text message.

"Oh, okay; when you want to go back?" Anita asked.

"Um, after lunch, I guess," Honey said.

"I mean, Honey, you want to spend the night again tonight and go back tomorrow, it's no problem," Anita said, putting their plates on the table.

"No, I kind of want to get my stuff put away," Honey said.

"Oh, okay," Anita shrugged.

She could understand that; here at the condominium, Honey was living out of a suitcase and a backpack.

While they ate, Anita used her laptop to search the St. Elizabeth Parish Government sites, then verified an appointment with Dean Sims via email.

"Oh, I seen that Toni," Honey said around a mouthful of soup.

"Oh yeah?" Anita asked, turning off her laptop.

"Yeah, she's in my World Economics class," Honey scowled.

"Keep doing that, your face is going to freeze like that," Anita teased, pinching the girl's nose.

"My momma used to say that too!" Honey said.

"But good, glad she's back in college," Anita said, picking up their plates.

"Yeah and she's all like 'Hey!' and I'm all like 'Bitch, better get on away from me,'" Honey said.

"Honey, how many friends you got?" Anita asked.

"You," Honey said.

"And?" Anita asked, putting the pot of soup back into the refrigerator.

"That's about it," Honey admitted.

"Then," Anita said, kissing the top of the girl's small head. "Can you really afford not to at least be civil to her?"

"She peed on me!" Honey shrilled in indignation.

"In a stoned stupor," Anita reminded the girl. "You can't tell me you've never done anything stupid when you were high."

"Probably," Honey confessed.

"Now, come on, check the dryer, make sure you got all your clothes," Anita said.

At the Administrative Building, Dean Robert Sims' Administrative Assistant Penny stood in the doorway.

"Why I got to be here?" Penny complained.

"Because I do," was his answer.

"Go on in; he's not busy," Penny said when Anita Lopez entered the outer office.

"That is not true; I'm extremely busy," the man said, putting his Nintendo game console into a desk drawer.

"Then I'll try to make this as quickly as possible," Anita smiled, shaking the man's hand.

Last year, she and Toni and Honey had attended the school fair and Homecoming weekend at St. Thomas Aquinas, greeting former teachers with squeals and hugs and introducing the faculty to Honey.

Then Honey smelled the food trailers and they all had to traipse over to the trailers and gorge on hot dogs and hamburgers and fried cheese sticks until Honey was sick.

Now, in Dean Sims' office, Anita outlined her idea and the man smiled, shrugged, and agreed it was worth a try.

"Why didn't you come to me yesterday?" he asked. "I had to eat that stuff the cafeteria calls goulash."

"That's what made me think of this," she laughed and he smiled wider.

They shook hands again and Dean Sims did admire her tight looking backside in her snug jeans as she left his office.

"It's snowing! Again!" Penny called out and Dean Sims looked out the window to see that it certainly was snowing again.

Anita stepped out of the Administration building and looked up in surprise to see that it was, once again, snowing.

She walked as rapidly as she could on the hard packed snow to the McMillan Building and stamped her feet when she entered the building.

"Ooh, girl, I know, huh?" another Latin girl said. "My feet ain't never warming up, know what I'm saying?"

"I mean, what? I thought we had us some global warming going on," Anita said.

"Oh, we do," the other girl said. "See, because of global warming, they got more humidity and that's what's causing all this snowing."

"So if the world was getting colder, we'd have less snow?" Anita asked and the other girl scowled darkly and walked away.

"Shit, just asking," Anita said and scampered up the stairs to her next class.

Anita saw Merita Ichnov, Professor Jurnigen's Teacher's Aide taping a note to the door of Room 224.

"Aw don't tell me," Anita said, walking up.

"Ja, I mean yes," Merita smiled tightly. "Sum beech wait 'til I'm here then he call and say 'no class is too much ice' and I say 'you couldn't call sooner?' Eh?"

"And now I walk all the way back," Merita continued as Anita wrote down the assignment the note instructed the students to prepare.

"Where you live?" Anita asked as Merita walked away.

Merita named an apartment complex just past Anita's condominium, smiling tightly.

"And you walked the whole way?" Anita asked.

"Normally I ride bicycle but yesterday I hit something under all ice and it break," Merita said.

"Come on, I'll drive you home; I live right by there," Anita offered.

"Thank you!" Merita said happily.

"Was hoping he pay me today, I get stipend and I am out of food," Merita explained, then frowned at the sight of Super 1 Foods empty parking lot. "But is no matter, grocer's is closed, eh?"

"What time is your first class tomorrow?" Anita asked.

"Nine in the morning," Merita said.

"Grab some clothes and your toothbrush," Anita decided, pulling up to Merita's apartment building.

"You sure?" Merita excitedly asked and got out of the car.

She returned a moment later and Anita carefully drove to her condominium.

"Ja, nice," Merita said, looking round. "You wear the nice clothes, drive the nice car, you got maybe Sugar Daddy?"

Anita burst out laughing, shaking her head no as she hung up her coat then held out her hand for Merita's well-worn coat.

"No, no Sugar Daddy," Anita said.

"Oh!" Merita's face actually lighted up. "Sugar Mommy?"

"No, no," Anita said and showed Merita her home office. "I work for my money."

"Then why you in college you making money?" Merita asked.

"Just because I make money doesn't mean I don't need to learn ," Anita said, showing Merita where she could put her small overnight bag.

Outside of Cecil Coutre Hall, Toni gingerly negotiated the steps. Honey Childress, one of the few students that had braved the falling snow to attend class, came scurrying out of the building, hit a patch of ice and skidded down the eight concrete steps on her back.

"Oh! Are you all right?" Toni gasped, walking over to where the dazed Honey lay.

"I think so," Honey said, sitting up.

"I thought you were like used to ice and snow," Toni said.

"Uh huh, and I'm used to falling on my butt all the time too," Honey admitted and accepted Toni's hand to get to her feet.

"You sure you all right; you like need me to get anyone?" Toni asked.

"No, no, I'm just going to go back to my room and thaw out," Honey said.

"Oh, hey, you ever like see Anita?" Toni called out as Honey walked away a little stiffly.

"See her all the time; she's like my best friend," Honey called back.

"Tell her I love her,' Toni whispered, turning quickly and tramping to her car.

In front of BJ's house, Kelli, Star and Luna were making a snowman by scraping the top layer of snow off the layer of ice with an mop bucket. Kelli had to admit, having two cousins was pretty awesome, and especially two cousins that worshipped her. To a five and four year old girl, Kelli, at nine, almost ten years old, was a big person.

"And my Daddy keeps wanting to eat my nose," Luna giggled to Kelli.

"Does your Daddy do that?" Star asked.

"No, my Daddy..." Kelli shot a quick look to where Heather and BJ were sitting, determined that BJ didn't hear her and smiled. "No, my Daddy keeps saying he's going to shave my hair all off."

"Shave it all off!" both Star and Luna screamed.

"You heard her?" Heather whispered.

"Yeah, I heard her," BJ smiled.

"Yeah 'cause it won't do right in the morning; we got to wet it down before we can brush it," Kelli explained.

At St. Richard's, they were already calling her Kelli Delacroix, even though it wasn't official yet. Her first day at the new school, frightened and overwhelmed, and trying hard not to cry, Kelli heard someone shrill, "Kelli!"

Suddenly, Star ran up, hugged her cousin tightly, then ran back to get back into line with her classmates.

"That's Kelli, that's my cousin," Star Weinstein proudly told Jennica Richards, her best friend.

"But we're not supposed to get out of line, are we, Star?" Paris Mouton, their teacher gently but firmly chided the five year old girl.

Kelli blinked back the tears; it wouldn't do to cry. She was a big cousin.

Now, outside of house, the new house that she and mom lived in since her mom and Daddy were engaged to be married, Kelli dumped another bucket of snow on top of the pile they'd already formed.

"Okay Da... Daddy," Kelli called out.