Circles Fan Fiction
Time Marches On
Series 02: A New Crossroad
Book 1
Chapter One: Jason and Becky's Business grows [Spring 2013]
My Dearest Phillip,
Spring is here once more. I have mixed feelings about it. I have been doing more and more taxes for people these days. It is not the money, it is just Kathy really needs the help. It also takes me away from you. You are just teaching swimming and first aid classes and you are usually home early, I just wish I was.
Feebi is still doing good in school and with the Brownie Scouts. She is such a bright little girl and become quite the cook. She wants to make us both breakfast this morning. I told her she would have to wait until one of us is up.
Taye is excited too, today is the audition for The Summerville Community Theater. They actually contacted him. He does not know what the part is, but they told him to prepare a soliloquy and a musical number.
Ken is going to be home again. He seems to be getting less and less work recently and does not know why. He seems to only have two high points right now. His morning runs with you and Micheal.
Your Loving, Douglas
PJ and Ken were on their morning run. Both sort of seemed out of it. Ken was in deep thought most of the time and it took PJ to keep him from not stopping at intersections. PJ on the other hand grabbed the wrong news paper once again at the Quick-E-Mart. At one point they both just stopped at the park and looked at each other.
"What the hell is wrong with the both of us this morning?" PJ asked Ken looking at his paper that was all in Spanish.
Ken shrugged. "I don't know what your problem is, but…I don't know, it seems like work has been really hard to get recently."
"I have notice." PJ said with a nod. "My mind must be elsewhere to. I seemed to be making stupid little mistakes like this." Holding up the newspaper. "Last week I took Feebi's school books with me to work instead of mine."
"I bet that made things a mess." Ken let out a light chuckle.
"Well lucky for me I noticed before I got all the way there." PJ rolled his eyes and shook his head rubbing the bridge of his nose from the start of a headache. "I would have liked to seen the teacher though when Feebi told him that her Papa stole her homework."
Ken chuckled again. "That would have been funny. Though I had in my 5th grade class that as an assignment."
PJ just raised an eyebrow.
"We had this homework assignment and most of the class just did not do it. After the 5th 'my dog ate my homework' excuse she made all of us write an essay on how we had lost our assignment. The only ones that did not have to were the few who had actually done theirs." Ken said with a grin.
PJ smirked. "So how did it go?"
"Great." Ken said with another chuckle. "It was the first one that everyone did and we all had to read ours in front of the class. I never had so much fun in school before. We had stolen by aliens, taken by the swamp beast and my sister used it to make her volcano for the science fair."
"So what was yours?" PJ just had to ask.
"I got lost in the woods and I had to use it to start a signal fire that was spotted by the space shuttle and the President sent the Marines to save me." Ken said with a big smile.
"I would have loved that assignment." PJ said smiling back. "But it probably would have been me having to use it as bait to catch a fake monster along with the rest of the gang."
Ken rolled his eyes this time. "You and that silly show."
"Hey, the new series is really good." PJ said defending himself. "It has a continuing story line and everything."
Ken just shook his head. "At least you never started wearing an ascot."
"Rhat Ras Rred's Rhing." PJ said in his best Scooby-Doo voice causing Ken to start laughing until he had to stop to get air in his lungs.
"You...bastard...I...will...get...you...for...that!" Ken said in between breaths.
The rest of the run was a series of jokes and one liners until they both finally got home.
"Roney RI'm Rome." said PJ as he kissed Doug on the cheek.
Doug just looked at PJ and shook his head. "What am I going to do with you dear? I know just shut you up." As he gave PJ a deep Kiss.
Jason had asked Doug to meet him and Becky at his office of all places.
"So what did you want to talk to me about here?" Doug asked looking at them and around the office.
"You know me I am not a big numbers guy like you are." Jason started. "But we have been looking at the numbers for 'Paulie's Good Eats and I keep thinking there was a mistake some place."
Becky nodded and added. "We know your computer at home does not have the same financial software as here so we thought it was best to come to you."
Doug just nodded. "Sure let me take a look."
Jason handed over the flash drive with everything on it. Doug then opened up the file and started going over their bookkeeping. After a half hour he just looked at them not paying attention to the final amout.
"I am not seeing any mistakes so far, so what made you think there was a mistake?" Doug asked the two of them.
"Well to be honest we have not really been looking at our 'Paulie's Good Eats' account. We knew we were making money so we just tossed the money in it and did not worry about it." Jason said looking like he was still unsure. "Then on Monday I went in to see about pulling out $2,000 to buy some new tires for the truck and the cashier told me it was not a problem and handed me this." Handing Doug their account balance.
Doug looked at it and his eyes grew big as he paid attention to the amount. "$68,432.34!" He looked at it a few more times blinking.
"That was my response." said Jason "That and the money Paulie left me gave us over $75,000."
"Wow" was all Doug could say for a moment. "So what are going to do with all of this money?"
"Well..." Jason started, but could not quite figure out how to say it.
"We saw this nice house that we both like." Becky said with a smile. "It needs a little work, it is a foreclosure and if we act now we can get it real cheap."
"I looked into it if we put $40,000 down our payments will be less than $1,000 a month." Jason continued. "It needs a paint job and some appliances, but is is in good shape."
"The only real issue it is on an acre lot and there is a lot of junk on the property." Becky said with a mix of disgust and a sense of adventure.
Doug had mixed feelings about it. It would mean Jason and Becky moving out, but how could he say no? They both seemed to want to do it so much. Eventually he just let out a deep sigh. "If it is what you want I say go for it. So how much is it going to run you to fix up the place?"
Jason let out a smile. "Only about $15,000."
"So what are you going to do with the rest of the $20,000?" Doug asked the two of them.
Jason let out a smirk. "How about over dinner at your place. I want you and PJ together for this." Becky just nodded.
"Sounds good, but I am cooking." Doug said with a smile.
Doug and PJ were not sure what the two of them wanted to talk to them about, but the two insisted that Feebi have dinner down with Taye and Marty. Doug made a sausage tortellini and white sauce along with a bread pudding. Jason and Becky brought up a bottle of wine that Doug could tell was expensive. Jason and Becky kept the conversation about small stuff until the very end.
"Well dad...how do I put it..." Jason seemed not sure how to put things.
"You have one more chance then I am doing it." Becky said with a grin.
Jason looked at Becky with a smirk. "How about how Ken and Micheal did it?"
Doug and PJ looked at each other and then back at the two of them both a little confused.
Becky just smiled and held up her hand showing off a large diamond ring.
"I just spent $1,000 of it today." said Jason with a big smile. "It is a little pricey for an engagement ring, but we did not care."
Doug looked at Jason for a moment. "I don't know what to say other than...I...so you got a date?"
"Yes, we are going with the 1st Saturday after the 4th of July" said the smiling Becky.
"It seemed to work for them." said the smiling Jason.
My Dearest Phillip,
I almost don't know what to write. Today was the day I have waited for. My son is going to marry that girl. He has always been a smart boy, but I think this is the smartest thing he has ever done.
The only thing we all know for sure is that we will not be having the wedding here. They really wanted something small and intimate like Ken and Micheal's wedding, but her family is going to want something big. They think they may have an idea of how to do it, but they needed to do some research.
As for you my dear, do not planning on getting any sleep tonight as I have not felt this good in a long time.
Your Loving, Douglas
Jade sat in on the weekly LGBT meeting at Triangle Books a little nervous. This was not her first time here, but Tristan, a zebra who ran the meetings had asked her to speak. There was a few new faces that had joined from the local colleges. He had asked her to speak after seeing a special on being gay in the third world on LOGO.
After basic introductions Tristan asked Jade to speak. The cheetah was not in her normal sweatshirt with the hood up, but in a hijab. This was partially to show others her heritage and give her some comfort, not being used to public speaking.
"Good evening." Jades said with a gulp and a deep breath. "I do not even know where to start, so I will talk about myself. I was born at an American Air Force Base in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. My father is a Saudi Prince who served as a pilot for the Royal Saudi Air Force, that is where he met my mother, a Nurse with the U.S. Air Force during Desert Storm. I do want to get a few things strait, my father is one of a thousand Saudi Princes. I have over a dozen siblings from both my mother and his other three wives."
One hand was raised by a female German Shepard, and Jade just nodded. "So it is true that multiple wives is a thing there.?"
Jade nodded. "Yes, though many only have one. Part of my father having four wives was political, but my mother was his first and primary."
"So what was it like growing up there?" Asked Tristan.
"I would say good for me, being in a position of privilege." Jade said with a smile. "I had the best teachers and instructors money could buy. I have been to almost everywhere in the world, except for Antarctica is seems. I even spent a year in the states living in Virginia with a cousin when I was fourteen. that is part of the reason I came to live here."
Another hand was raised, this time it was a male panda. "So when did you find out you were a lesbian?"
Jade blushed deeply. "That trip when I was fourteen." Taking a deep breath knowing what the next question was going to be as John who was listening in on the meeting raised an eyebrow. "We were only related by marriage in case you all wanted to know."
Tristan blinked a few times before speaking. "So how did your parents take you coming out so to speak?"
"Quite well actually." said Jade with a large smile. "My mom had figured it out. However my father once he knew did not say anything. He just asked if I wanted to go to school in the states. I jumped at the chance and with my duel-citizenship it was not a problem. As far as coming to Boston, it had to do with this being the birth of freedom."
Once again it was Tristan who spoke up next. He was feeding her questions now, partially it was helping Jade speak and part of his Journalism classes. "And how did you find this group?"
"Coach Johnson." Jade quickly replied. "He was the first openly gay person I had ever met and he was very helpful."
John smirked as he listened on as more questions were asked. When it was over Jade sat on one of the large chairs trying to calm down after revealing so much of herself before John sat down next to her and handed the cheetah a cup of coffee.
"You did real good there." said John with a smile.
Jade just nodded as she took a long sip of the coffee. "Thank you, I don't know if I want to do that again."
John nodded. "You should though, once you got started it almost became natural."
Jade nodded again. "Maybe, it did feel good."
"By the way the scarf thing, what is it called?" asked John.
"A hijab." Jade said. "Why do you ask?"
John got up looking down at her with a smile. "You look good in it, much better than the hoodie thing and it will show your pride in your heritage like you showed you had tonight."