Wealth Pt. 02

"What? Just because I had red wine tonight, you think you getting some?" she asked as she dashed into their bedroom.

"Absolutely and you do too or why'd you come in here?" Henry asked as he yanked his tie off.

"My bedroom," Shirley laughed as she flung her blouse to the floor.

Faintly, they both heard Shirley's cell phone chime from Shirley's purse, which rested on their dining room table.

"Leave it; even if it's Caitlin, it can wait until tomorrow," Henry demanded.

"Well!: Shirley laughed. Looks like I'm not the only one had some red wine tonight!"

In her bedroom, Caitlin smiled as she sent Shirley another text message, then, out of pure malice, sent Barry a text message, telling him she loved him.

A moment later, she laughed out loud when her phone buzzed.

"Caitlin, Grandmother's sleeping," Theresa snapped harshly just outside of Caitlin's closed bedroom door.

Caitlin ignored Theresa and answered her phone.

"Why you didn't text me?" she asked.

"I do not text, I will not text, I will never ever in a million years text," Barry's smiling voice informed her. "Now, what's up?"

Downstairs, Toni and Anita laughed as they kissed, cold tongue to cold tongue. Toni shook her head as Anita insisted on cleaning up the table and the counters, even though both were clean, then put the two dishes into the dishwasher, instead of just leaving the dishes in the sink.

"Like, you ready?" she asked and pulled Anita to the stairs.

Buttons had decided somehow that she was Anita's cat and so was curled up tightly on Anita's pillow when the two girls entered Toni's bedroom.

"Useless cat," Anita playfully complained.

"No, here's useless," Toni corrected as Pumpkin peeked out from under the bed.

"They're all useless," Anita said and yanked open a drawer.

In his bedroom, Barry used his handkerchief to catch his semen. He was a little embarrassed; since dropping Stacy and taking up with Caitlin, he had masturbated more times than he'd like to admit.

But Caitlin, as hot and passionate as her kisses were, was determined that she would go to her marriage bed a virgin.

For the briefest of seconds, Barry did wonder how Stacy was doing. They had dated for four, nearly five years. He'd hated how it all ended, but he had been honest with her; he did not see himself marrying her.

Stacy had been a very willing sex partner, though. He'd not had to masturbate quite as often while dating her.

She had asked him, once, in a very peeved tone, why he had to masturbate at all. Barry had smiled at Stacy and told her, he didn't need to talk nice to his hand, didn't need to worry about his hand having 'that time of the month' and didn't have to apologize to his hand if he didn't satisfy his hand.

Stacy had denied quite vehemently that she masturbated. Barry didn't believe her; she was protesting far too vocally against it.

A low moan filtered through the wall from his daughter's room and Barry felt his erection wilt completely.

Chapter 18

Anita waved to Jenee's mother as Jenee bounded down the steps and dashed to the car.

"Bye Mrs. Wolfe," Anita called out and the woman smiled her ever present smile and waved then returned to tending to her garden.

"Thanks," Jenee said, scrambling into the back seat of the car.

"Uh, like let me guess, you uh still haven't told them why you can't ride the bus, huh?" Toni teased from the passenger seat of Anita's car.

Toni laughed when her cell phone chirped and she read Jenee's text.

"Like eat me back," Toni responded.

"And I don't know why Mr. Peters is being such a dick about it; I said I was sorry," Jenee complained.

"Jenee, Pam had to go to the hospital," Anita reminded her friend.

"No she didn't; she was just faking it; they didn't find nothing wrong with her," Jenee snapped.

"Didn't do a psych on her," Toni suggested.

But she was let back on the bus and she's the one that started it," Jenee complained.

"Yeah, well, like as soon as they found out she was all like P.G. they bounced her fat ass out of there," Toni chimed in.

"Uh huh, and now she's working for y'all," Jenee said.

Anita had finally complained to Toni that A And A Soaps was taking all of their time, every spare moment was spent in the hot, stuffy garage, working.

"Fuck! There's like a pool right there!" she complained, opening the side door and pointing at the in-ground pool of the Delacroix back yard. "We ever been in it?"

So they cornered Mr. Barry that night, after he'd had his scotch and soda.

"The solution is so simple, I'm surprised you haven't thought of it," he smiled after they presented their problem.

"I was working at First Union Bank," he started.

"Oh God, he's like going to tell us one of his like stories," Toni playfully complained.

"Good night," Barry said.

"No, Dah... Mr. Barry, come on; toni'll shut up," Anita begged.

"Ha ha, you like almost called him Daddy," Toni teased.

"Shut up!" Anita said hotly.

Barry smiled and affectionately squeezed Anita's hand.

"No, no long drawn out story," he said and tweaked his impertinent daughter's nose.

"Ow!" Toni complained, rubbing her nose.

"No, when I need help, I ask for it," Barry said. "And when I opened Superior Motors, I asked Mr. Henry for help. And I knew Mr. Bob used to own his own dealership; he did classic cars and Mr. Jack worked at Huvall's Texaco and was the only one there even kind of sort of knew what he was doing, so I asked them to come on board."

"But I don't , like we don't want any more like partners," Toni interrupted.

"Then hire them," Barry said.

"And Pam just got expelled," Anita said. "Thanks, Mr. Barry!"

Now, sitting in Anita's BMW, pulling up to the parking lot of St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Toni smirked at Anita.

"Uh huh, like it depends on what your like definition of 'work' is," Toni said.

Her first day of working for A And A Soaps had almost been Pam's last day of working for A And A Soaps She showed up, complained about the heat in the garage and Toni conceded that she and Anita had grown accustomed to it, but to someone else, it might actually be too hot. So she dragged out an old box fan and opened the side door.

Then Pam complained about being thirsty, so Toni brought in two bottles of water. Then Pam needed to urinate, using her pregnancy as an excuse.

"Bitch ain't even been here like ten minutes and I'm so like ready to kill her," Toni complained to Anita.

Then Pam complained about the pay; ten dollars an hour, and the hours, or lack of hours, only twenty five hours a week, and complained about the scheduled hours. She was scheduled to work from one PM until six PM.

"But that's the hottest part of the day; why I can't work in the morning when it's not so hot?" Pam had protested.

"Because we're not here until three thirty, four thirty," Anita had said.

Finally, Anita had just held up a hand to still Pam's shrill demands.

"Hey, Pam, you want the job or not?" she asked point blank. "You want the job, we'd like be thrilled to have you; you don't? Oh well, like no hard feelings and we'll get someone else wants to work."

Now, getting out of Anita's car, Anita shrugged in defeat.

Although none of the girls had particularly cared for Pam and her overbearing ways, when Jeremy Leblanc waddled past, all of the girls purposefully turned their backs to him.

"How come, he gets her knocked up but he don't get bounced out of here?" Susan asked no one in particular.

"Because it's a man's world, baby," Alexis shrugged.

"If that ain't the truth!" Jenee agreed.

In sixth period, Toni, Jenee, Susan, and Anita all looked questioningly at each other when Caitlin was paged to the office.

"Oh, thank God, they finally figured out red hair and freckles is a sin," Susan quipped and several students gave a nervous laugh.

Walking down the hall to the school office, Caitlin had been mildly curious, but suddenly was gripped with dread.

"They're in the office waiting for you," was all Miss Ormond, the school secretary would say.

Caitlin knocked once, reflecting that she had never, in her five years at St. Thomas Aquinas, ever been called to Brother Dominick's office.

"Just go on in," Miss Ormond urged.

Caitlin opened the door and saw Theresa's tear stained face and knew what had brought her mother to the school.

"Grandmother," Caitlin said and burst into sobs as well.

Grandmother would have loved the attention and would have been thrilled with the tasteful dress Shirley St. Martin purchased for her, would have loved the mahogany casket Barry purchased for her.

She would have gone on and on about the beautiful flowers and would have smiled at Caitlin's friends and thanked them for the elegant arrangement they'd bought for her.

Of course, she would have told them they didn't need to do that for her, but she would have held on tightly to the flowers anyway.

Ed and Barry smiled at each other and both agreed that they needed to get together for lunch again soon.

Theresa gulped in a deep breath and approached her ex-husband.

"Hello, Ed, thank you for coming," she said, trying not to sound bitter.

"Of course, Theresa," Ed smiled, actually enjoying how uncomfortable his presence made his ex-wife.

"My uh, my mother always asked about you," Theresa admitted.

"Hey, loved the old girl," Ed agreed.

"And uh, Ed, would you be one of the pall bearers?" Theresa asked.

"I would be honored," Ed said sincerely.

Stacy Falgout had read of the woman's passing, saw that the woman was sixty three and had suffered a long bout with emphysema and other respiratory ailments. She attended the funeral as she had found that most of the time, the survivors, and left with a mountain of medical bills, were willing to do a quick sale of real estate holdings.

Stacy had red the names of the surviving family members, and had not made the connection of Caitlin Weinstein being THE Caitlin that had stolen her boyfriend.

Stacy watched and felt bile rise in her throat as Caitlin clung desperately to Barry. That bile turned even more sour as she watched Barry react with genuine warmth and love, instead of the cool detached, almost aloof demeanor he had always displayed toward her.

Stacy determined to simply leave a business card at the registration desk; if Theresa Weinstein decided to sell, perhaps she'd give her a call.

Stacy then went to the closest bar, the Dead End and ordered a scotch on the rocks and washed back the bile.

"Crawfish Creole's the special today," Kirsten, the bartender/cook said as Stacy gestured for a second drink.

After five drinks, Stacy realized, she hated Caitlin Weinstein with all of her heart, hated Barry Delacroix with most of her heart, and hated his little slut daughter and the little slut's hanger-on Mexican with most of her heart.

After a sixth drink, Stacy thought it would be a good idea to go home and sleep off this drunk; forgetting that she had a three o'clock closing to do.

"Ma'am, can I call you a cab?" Kirsten asked when Stacy jerked herself to her feet.

"No, thanks," Stacy angrily snarled.

"Ma'am? You've had way too much to drink; please let me call you a cab," Kirsten asked again.

"Fuck you, all right, fuck you, fucking bitch," Stacy snarled and weaved out of the bar.

A few hours later, Stacy came to, laying face down on a stained, sour smelling mattress, face liberally coated with vomit.

"Oh God," Stacy groaned as she looked around and recognized the jail cell.

"Come on, Ma'am, let's get you cleaned up, Sergeant Elise Richards said pleasantly as she slid the door of the cell open.

"Oh God, not you again," Stacy groaned. "I suppose you want to stick your fingers up my ass again?"

"Twice in one day?" Elise asked, wrinkling up her nose. "No thanks."

At the cemetery, Barry again gave Theresa Weinstein his sincere condolences, then sought out Ed Weinstein.

"Let's go to lunch," Barry said.

Bye, Daddy," Caitlin said, hugging her father.

"Bye Daddy," Briah followed suit.

Bobby ignored Mr. Ed and Mr. Barry; he was too cool for them.

"See you tonight," Barry said to Caitlin, kissed her and guided Ed to his car.

"Want to drive it?" he smiled, holding out the keys.

"You know, you're very quickly becoming my favorite out of all of Caitlin's boyfriends," Ed joked, taking the keys.

Ed immediately yanked his tie off and Barry smiled.

Barry again sat with is back to the dancers and Ed looked around for the cute blonde that had waited on them the last time, but did not see her.

Dallas, a long legged blonde with silicone enhanced breasts informed them that it was Brooke's day off (Dallas did not offer Brooke's name, simply said 'that other girl' when Ed described her.)

Ed shoveled his food in, then had to wait on Barry to finish his meal.

"I am going to try that caramel pie, oh, and a coffee," Barry said.

"Cheesecake's too good to pass up," Ed said, eyes firmly glued to a petite red head that swiveled and gyrated to 'I Feel You' by Depeche Mode.

"Tell you what, Ed," Barry laughed. "I'll pay for lunch; you go give that girl a five, huh?"

Barry wondered briefly what Stacy had been doing at the funeral, then put it out of his mind as Dallas put two slabs of dessert and two steaming cups of dark rich coffee in front of them.

At the Delacroix home, Toni and Anita, who had taken the day off from school to attend Caitlin's Grandmother's funeral, went upstairs and dressed in work clothes, basically just tee shirts and cut off denim shorts. Miss Alverez insisted that they eat a lunch before going to the garage and smiled when Toni said her customary 'God bless the cook!'

Then Anita followed Toni into the garage.

She bumped into Toni when Toni stopped short.

At the workbench, Pam sat, head down on the wooden plank they used as their work area, snoring heavily. Anita again shrugged her shoulders in defeat; she had been the one who had begged Toni to give the former classmate a chance.

"Like no matter how many chances you give some people? They'll like always need more chances because they don't want to like do anything for themselves," Toni had said. "They'll always like be wanting you to do it for them."

Anita had been sure that Pam couldn't fit into that category; Luther, Louisa, and Marco fit into that category.

Put Pam had grown up in a good Catholic home, with both parents, had gone to good schools, and seemed to be intelligent.

Toni also shrugged her shoulders, grabbed the batch of soap that Pam was supposed to be working on and started the mixer. Pam did not move. Anita smirked at Toni, grabbed the ingredients and started measuring out a second batch.

Pam did wake up, when Toni poured the mixture into a tray, then dropped the tray quite hard, to rid the soap of any air pockets or bubbles.

"Huh? I uh, hey, I..." Pam stammered.

Toni ignored the girl, just dropped the tray a second, third and fourth time, then leveled the thick mixture out while Anita slid her own bowl under the mixer and began to mix her own batch.

"Hi Pam, like how's it going?" Toni asked pleasantly.

"It's uh, oh, I must have just dozed off for a second," Pam lied.

"Like a second, huh? Is that right?" Toni asked sweetly.

"Yeah, I uh finished making a couple of trays and sat down, you know, catch my breath, and next thing you know..." Pam said.

"Yeah, like I could see how that could happen," Toni agreed. "It is like pretty hot in here."

"So uh, let me get on the next one," Pam said.

"Sure, sure, uh, like where's the other ones?" Toni asked, looking at the bare workbench.

"Other uh other ones?" Pam said.

"Yeah, you like said you did a few trays and sat down but I don't like see any trays there," Toni said.

"Be right back," Anita said and Toni glared at her as Anita left the garage.

"Well, it's your own fault!" Pam shrilled. "Fuck! Make me like work at the hottest part of the day, huh?"

"Here," Anita barked, stomping back into the garage.

She slapped a check on the table.

"Here, I paid you for the whole week, all right?" she said. "Best of luck on your future endeavors, Pam."

To Toni, Anita snarled. "I paid her out of my own account; no reason A And A Soaps should have to pay her for sitting on her fat ass doing nothing."

Pam snarled some insults toward the two girls, then burst into tears and waddled out of the stuffy garage.

"Like, any other ideas on who we should hire?" Toni asked.

"Anyone that won't key our cars," Anita said as she held up her cell phone, making a video of Pam scratching the paint on Toni's Lexus, then Anita's BMW.

"Hi, yes, Like I'd like to report some vandalism?" Toni said into her cell phone. "Yes sir, someone like keying my car and my girlfriend's car."

While they waited for the police, Toni hugged Anita and smiled.

"I like wanted to kill you when you ran out of here; I'm like 'oh great, she's leaving me here like with this fat bitch,' you know?" Toni said.

"Like I'd ever do that to you," Anita shook her head.

"I love your hair like that," Toni said, playing with Anita's pony-tail.

"Yeah?" Anita smiled and began flailing Toni softly with her long black hair.

In the Bender Police Department, Stacy Falgout looked with real concern as her hands shook uncontrollably as she tried to feed herself the dinner the police department provided for her.

"You like a spoon for that?" Elise asked gently as most of the green peas scattered off the plastic fork.

"Yes ma'am," Stacy mumbled.

"Here you go," Elise said gently and also put two sugar packets on the table. "Here, sugar helps with the withdrawals."

"Withdrawals?" Stacy snapped, glaring at the uniformed officer.

"Alcohol," Elise said. "Stir it into your fruit punch, all right?"

"I'm not..." Stacy started to deny and Elise sat down across from her.

"Ma'am, this is the second time I've had to come in here and do a cavity search on you," Elise said quietly. "This is the second time you've been in here, reeking of scotch, the second time you've cursed me out..."

"Sorry about that," Stacy mumbled, embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it," Elise said. "Goes of the job."

Then she grew serious.

"Ma'am, you're a professional woman, a real estate agent, you're better than this, don't you think?" Elise asked.

The spoon did make getting the peas a little easier, and Elise smiled softly at Stacy's triumphant grin.

"Ma'am? I am not saying you're an alcoholic but would you like to talk to someone who is?" Elise offered. "I mean, she can answer a lot more questions than I ever could and hey, if you're not alcoholic, then great."

"I uh, I'm not..." Stacy denied.

"I'm sure you're not, but what could it hurt to talk?" Elise asked.

"Fine, fine," Stacy said and tired of trying to pick up the fish stick with her plastic fork and simply used her fingers.

"Be right back," Elise said.

Stacy looked up as a beautiful blonde woman came into the small room. The young woman smiled and Stacy felt herself smile in return.

"Hi, I'm Julie Chamblee," Julie said.

Julie pulled up a chair and looked around the room.

"Boy does this bring back memories," Julie said. "Those jumpsuits still smell like four oh nine cleaner?"

Stacy gave the sleeve a sniff and again felt herself smile.

"Yeah, but it's better than what my other clothes smell like," Stacy admitted, then she grew serious. "But I thought that cop was getting me some alcoholic to talk to?"

"My name is Julie Chamblee and I'm an alcoholic," Julie smiled widely. "And I've sat right there in that chair more times than I'd like to think about and I felt a whole lot worse then I'd like to think about and I've made more promises to God than I can remember."

She leaned forward and lost some of her smile.

"And before you know it? I was right back in that chair and I'd start the whole damned cycle all over again and wondering how in the hell it happened again," Julie admitted.