Stuff

"Tammy you're beautiful in my eyes, and that's all that counts," I said leaning in to give her a kiss. "Now let's dry those eyes and let me see you smile," I said giving her my bravest smile.

And so it went for the next month and a half. She was in a little better spirits and now friends and people from her work were starting to visit her in the evenings. Me? I had other issues to resolve.

To save money, Tammy hadn't taken the premier insurance policy. It covered the necessary items at eighty percent, but none of the elective items. Hell, they weren't even covering the damn TV in her room. With Tammy on short-term disability she was receiving only seventy five percent of her normal salary. Since our normal salaries barely covered our monthly expenses, having it cut by twenty five percent was going to be a real hardship. After the second month, our cash reserves were gone and with our credit cards maxed out we were in trouble.

I figured I needed another $2,000.00 a month just to make it. The monthly payments were killing us and with her surgery next week, I still had a minimum of three months before I got any relief. I sat at the kitchen table night after night making list after list but in the end I knew we were screwed. Our free spending had come back to bite us in the ass.

Even with paying eighty percent when Tammy's bills hit $60,000.00 I made a few hard choices.

My Cadillac Escalade was half paid for and was in excellent condition. I drove into the Chevy dealership and worked out the best deal I could. I came out with a two year old HHR but I didn't have that payment any more. I did the same with Tammy's car and ended up with one-year-old silver Neon for her. Her shinny red Corvette was put on e-bay and sold four days later for almost $32,000.00. That put a good dent in our debts but we still had a long way to go.

The boat brought us very little but my Harley I found was worth more than I'd paid for it. Both sold on e-bay in two weeks. We weren't gaining a lot on the existing debt, but we were getting rid of a lot on monthly payments.

I spent every evening with Tammy and painted this rosy picture of what was going on at home and told her to just get well and leave the rest to me.

It was almost three and a half months after the accident and just after her dinner when we talked about the elephant that had been sitting in the corner of the room.

"I didn't do anything with him, you have to believe that Roger. We went after work and had a bite to eat but drank way too much," she told me. "The more I drank the madder I got at you," she now said in an almost ashamed manner.

"I guess I shouldn't have baited you with Sue, but you'd taken that arrogant attitude and I finally got tired of all the games we were playing on each other. I'm sorry, but all that is in the past. The only thing I want right now, is for you to get better so I can take you home," I told her.

"Speaking of home, how's it really going? I pretty much know we must be flat broke by now, and will I have a home to come home to when I finally get out of here?"

"All I can say is trust me. There will be a lot of changes but we'll still have each other and that's all that counts," I said kissing her again.

"You know Roger, my door does lock and I know they won't be checking on me for the next hour or two," she said with this wicked look in her eye.

"And what happens when your blood pressure and pulse go sky high? They rush in and find me between your legs with this shit-eating grin on my face. No thank you, you'll be home soon and then we'll have all the time in the world to make up," I said tweaking her nipple.

"Alright then no teasing me until then," she said grabbing my dick.

We were still short money and I was getting down to some hard choices. Our Rolexes were now listed along with my gun collection and Tammy's Laredo figurines. I was getting almost what we'd paid for each item but it wasn't enough. We were getting close to living on just what I was bringing in but needed to get rid of one more large item. I listed both our house and the lake cabin with a realtor.

I figured that we could live in the one that didn't sell first. Our house was forty-five minutes from where we worked and the cabin was about the same distance, just in the opposite direction.

The neighbors asked how Tammy was doing and a few went to visit her, but most were too busy with their own lives to really care. My parents offered me money but I knew it was their nest egg and wasn't about to let them bail us out.

When I got an offer on the house I jumped on it. It was a little lower than I would have liked, but it gave me almost enough money to pay off everything else we owed. I had Tammy's power of attorney and signed all the paperwork a week later.

I had a huge garage sale because most of the furniture wouldn't fit in our two-bedroom cabin. I cleared just under $10,000.00 and that amount put us over the top.

All the toys and collectables were now gone along with anything else of value. All the stuff we'd worked so hard to acquire were now history. The house was basically empty with the exception of Andy's bedroom furniture and ours. Now came the hard one.

I sat Andy down the next day. "Sport, I've got some bad news for you," I started. "You're going to have to switch to a new school after next week. Your mom and I have sold the house and we're moving up to the lake. That's where you're going to be going to school from now on," I told him waiting for his reaction.

"We're going to be living up at the lake?" he asked.

"Yes, we're moving this weekend."

"How cool is that," was his reaction. "Can we get another boat?" he asked.

"Maybe down the road, but not right now," I told him. That went better than I thought it would.

Well, that was the last thing on my list. There was just one more thing to do, and that was happening on Friday morning.

Friday, after taking care of the papers in the hospital office, I wheeled Tammy out to my car. It had been a long recovery but she was in good spirits, at least for now. The cast was off her leg, but I still had to push the passenger seat all the way back on the HHR just so she could get in. She didn't say a word about the change of vehicles only that she was looking forward to going home.

"I don't know how in the hell I'm going to get upstairs to our bedroom. Even with help it's going to be rough for a while," she said looking out the window. It took her about twenty minutes to realize we weren't going home. "Roger, where are you taking me?" she asked.

"Home, Andy's waiting there for us," I replied. When we got within five minutes from the cabin she finally figured out where we were going.

"Good idea honey, this way I won't have to worry about stairs, you're so smart she said touching the side of my face.

Andy was sitting on the front swing when we pulled in. He ran to the car when we pulled up yelling and screaming. He about knocked her over in his excitement and grabbed one of her bags racing for the house.

Our parents had helped me get the place ready for Tammy. They had figured out what I was doing and wanted it to look perfect when she walked through the front door. And it was.

I sat her down in one of the living room chairs as I got the rest of her bags in from the car. Andy was talking a mile a minute and I finally told him to go outside and play so his mother could catch her breath.

"I really do love it here. It's always so quiet and peaceful," she said reaching out to me. "I love you Roger," she said kissing me on the lips. "We've had our problems, but no more. Starting tonight you're back where you belong, in our bed next to me. I will never shut you out again, I promise," she told me. "In two weeks I'll be back at work, so we've got fourteen days to make up for the last two years," she said trying to stand.

"Babes, I need you to sit down here for a couple of minutes. Are you thirsty? Do you need anything?" I asked. "No I'm fine, get yourself something if you'd like."

I came back with a Corona and pulled a chair up next to hers.

"I've got a few things to tell you and now is as good a time as any," I said sloshing down about half the bottle.

"Let me take a wild shot at it ok? Let's see, the Escalade is gone along with my 360ZX," she said looking at me. "I don't see your Harley or my vette so unless they're at the house their gone too. Am I getting warmer?" she asked.

"Well you've hit the easy ones so far," I told her.

She got a strange look on her face and looked around the room. It was different. Upgraded and now more like a home than a weekend get a way. She stood up, walked into our bedroom and saw the bedroom suite from our house. From there she went into Andy's room and saw the same thing. I was now scared shitless.

"You've been busy," she said now not looking at me as she walked out onto the back deck. "What do we have left?" she asked holding my hand.

"Just what you see, but it's all ours, we don't owe anyone a thing," I told her. "Well, that's not exactly true, I still have two payments left on your nose and next months surgery on those scars, but that's it."

"And Andy?" she asked kind of now looking for him.

"He started school up here last month. He loves it and now says its like being on vacation living here," I said with a smile. "I guess that'll last until the novelty wears off."

"Anything in the bank?"

"A little, but I'm putting twenty five percent of what I make away and with you going back to work, we shouldn't have a care in the world," I said.

"There is one thing I need however," she said looking at me.

I was about to give here a lecture about how stupid we'd been all these years and how we'd almost spent ourselves into the poor house when she reached for me.

"There's something I've been looking forward to for months and you're not going to deny me this time," she said as she pulled herself to her feet.

We walked into our bedroom and kissed before sitting on the end of the bed. I think she was going to say something about her foot or the scars on her face so I stopped her with a kiss.

"I love you more than the first day I met you. I don't know what I would have done without you, luckily I didn't have to find out," I said as I started to undress her.

We made love. That's right, we made love for the better part of an hour. If it weren't for Andy banging on our door, I would have kept her in my arms for the rest of the day. After dinner we walked down to the lake and sat there until the bugs drove us in. We showered, slipped into bed and fell asleep just watching each other. Once or twice during the night I felt her move and shift around as she tried to get use to our bed again. I just put my arms around her and pulled her in a little tighter.

Stuff. Stuff doesn't mean shit unless you've got someone special to share it with and even then, you've got to remember what's really important.