SiCela EstNoël
AnniKay
Sam/Mercedes/Puck
Disclaimer: I own Nothing…Murphy, Falchuk, and Brennen along with Fox and others own this fandom and all the characters there in…Anything you recognize obviously belongs to them
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Thank all of you for being avid readers & reviewers of my stories
Special thanks to Isis Aurora Tomoe who is my current Beta rock star
Summary: Winter Break for the College Sophomores of the Learning French Series.
A time to reconnect with family and friends.
It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas
Devon PoV
The final semester of my formal education was…well…it was the best of times and it was the worst of times. Defending my dissertation was…unpleasant. No, it was as hard as anything I have ever done scholastically or otherwise. First, there was the whack-a-mole of trying to get everything scheduled. Then there were all the meetings with my advisor. And boy were there a lot of them. But I'd really lucked out. Doctor Gertrude Robinson was a black woman of a certain age who thoroughly enjoyed her job. She'd loved my dissertation topic from the get go since it was a subject that was near and dear to her heart. At least the rumors on campus would have me believe it was near and dear to her heart. Supposedly Dr. Robinson was the sister-in-law of First Lady Michelle Obama. But I'd never seen any proof of that and if being MeDe's brother had taught me anything since they got famous…never believe rumors about famous people.
Once I was completely done with the paper, the committee for defense had been selected, the defense had been scheduled and I had perfected the changes Dr. Robinson felt would make it pass the committee…I was dying trying to wait for the date of the defense. That last semester, I wasn't working, I wasn't interning…I was totally in Complete Dissertation Mode. And so was Tonya. We each spent hours creating the perfect defense presentations. We meticulously critiqued each other's overall session. We tried to consider what questions our two, vastly different, committees might ask; to prepare ourselves for any eventuality. Our apartment was a powder keg just waiting for a match. Thankfully, all those internet trolls gave us plenty of external targets at whom to aim our ire. One would think since we'd already successfully defended our master's theses, we'd be less concerned…but nope. Tonya's defense came first. She spent the entire day before it working her nervousness out by making my brains cum out my dick, well, after she sent out a nice, pleasant reminder to the review committee about the date and time. For real, as much as I loved making love with my woman, I was almost sick of sex by the time she was finally done with me.
But it was exactly what she needed. My beautiful bride woke early the morning of her defense to make a seven o'clock appointment with the woman who'd been caring for Tonya's long locs since we'd started college. She got home at ten with her hair done up into a really complicated, but hot and professional at the same time updo. Tricie had dragged her for a mani-pedi and facial two days before, so she knew she was going to look completely put together when she got dressed. As soon as she got in, Tonya hit the shower, taking a nice long, relaxing one before asking my help in shea buttering her entire beautiful body. My wife may never have been as into fashion as my mother and sister…or even her own mother were, but she knew how to do it up right when she was ready to. That day she seriously put her best self forward. Two weeks before the big day she had dragged me shopping with her…okay, maybe I didn't mind that. Having something new for my own defense a few weeks away wasn't a bad thing. Together we'd found her a really hot, but completely appropriate black Armani, pleated front dress with a fitted top part, sleeves that stopped at the crease of her elbow, simple rounded neckline and a slight A-line skirt. Looking around, I found her a great little rose gold, cable chain necklace with a small bezel set diamond pendant, a pretty rose gold Michael Kors watch. Both of them were on sale. She finished off her look with a pair of rose gold, endless hoop earrings.
Then I talked her into going to the lingerie department…just for fun. Yeah, I managed to talk her into getting a pretty little, light pink 'balconette' bra and thong set. Damn my baby's ass looks amazing in a thong. Once again, my smooth talking served me well, I convinced her to leave the department with those two semi-necessary pieces and a red, sheer L'Agent Provocateur teddy. Once she'd made me a very happy man, she dragged me to the shoe department and ultimately found a pair of patent leather, Via Spaga, high, platform, peep toe pumps that she absolutely had to have…especially when she realized that they were half off. Then she decided that she needed a new purse. It took us forever to find her a black, Lauren by Ralph Lauren tote that had a lining that was a perfect shade to match her rose gold accessories. Thankfully it was on sale…because there was no way I was spending more on a purse than on a watch. By the time we had her straight, I was so tired that I almost wished that my silver tongue had managed to talk me out of my own new clothes…but that didn't happen at all.
Tonya dressed for her defense like a general dressing for war. After her shower and the shea butter was rubbed in, my wife slid on a little eyeliner, some mascara and a very light dusting of powder. Only then did she pulled on her bra and panties set, then a thigh length black slip. The dress went on over her head and after she smoothed the skirt and fixed the sleeves, she put on her jewelry and watch. I was sitting on the bed already dressed in a pair of navy slacks and a bright blue polo shirt. I watched her smile as she placed her Star Trek wallet into the new tote. It was followed by her iPad and the bright purple flash drive that contained her presentation. The last thing to go into the bag was the garter my grandmother had made her with the bat'leth pendant sewed on. She said it was her good luck charm. I guess it worked. Or maybe it was the fact that her presentation was epic.
We met Kev and Tricie on the way down to the garage and rode over together. Her defense was scheduled to begin at one thirty, so we made sure to arrive by just a few minutes after one. Tonya went in there and she killed it. Kevon helped her make sure that everything ran smoothly with the tech. When the professors arrived, my gorgeous woman was waiting on them at the door, looking regal as she greeted the committee members with handshakes and pleasant conversation. Her advisor presented her to the committee with a glowing introduction. From there, it was her time to shine. Her presentation was roughly twenty-five minutes and it was completely perfect. Every slide matched her statements exactly. She wasn't long winded and she handled every interruption with aplomb. She was able to answer every question the six-member committee threw at her without any hesitation or difficulty. Once they were satisfied, the committee had her step out as they reviewed her two hundred and eighty-one-page paper a final time. When they called her back in, she was still poised and confident. She passed her defense with only one page of notes for correction. That was extremely good, almost unheard of really. She had those completed and her totally finished and 'published' paper ready for the library shelves well before her deadline. And then it was just a matter of getting a job. In her field, her dissertation was what a portfolio was to an artist.
As she started her job search in the cities we'd all agreed we wouldn't mind living; Chicago, Atlanta, Charlotte, DC and Boston; I started knuckling down on my presentation. Three weeks before our projected graduation date, I went through the same trial. Kevon and Patrice had both passed their Master's defenses with only a few pages of notes each. I found that I was much more nervous than when I'd defended my MPA thesis. But I went in there in a great, charcoal gray, Canali suit, ice blue shirt and navy and gray tie…I was feeling great since Tonya's idea of a good luck kiss was a blow job before I got dressed. I had to admit the dicks on my committee were seriously assholey…they questioned my use of an ellipses in a Woodrow Wilson quote. It took longer to get through the damn questions than it had to get through the summary. But after their little tete-a-tete, I passed with two pages of pretty nitpicky notes that I dutifully updated and submitted for publishing.
I don't know how my dissertation got into the hands of the mayor of an Atlanta suburb, but before the damn thing made it onto the library shelf, I'd been called for an interview for a position that was a fast track to county manager…from there it shouldn't be any trouble to become a county commissioner or a mayor. Best of all they were offering me a starting salary a full thirty thousand dollars more than I'd hoped to start at. Before I could even tell Tonya that I'd gotten the job, she was telling me about her new position at Emory. She'd been in the running for one at Spelman as well, but the school had closed out the position without filling it. Best of all, before Spelman had pulled the listing, Emory had upped their offer by ten grand. Tonya had, understandably, jumped all over that one. Kevon was the next to get an offer in the metro Atlanta area. Amazon offered him a job in their software development department and he was literally able to pick which office he worked from. Since two of us had jobs in Atlanta already and Patrice had three interviews in the area too, he picked there too. Other than the Georgia capital, I'd gotten interviews in Charlotte and DC. Tricie had gotten an offer in Boston and a completely unexpected one in Denver.
By Thanksgiving we had our future all lined up. It was great. Telling our families was pretty epic. It was easy to see the pride they had in us and the relief that we'd been able to find our start. Of course, they all had advice. Dad thought we should just rent out our condos rather than selling them. Grandma, Essie and Auntie MJ all thought we should sell everything, our condos, our furniture and just take our clothes and such. We definitely decided to sell the condos. We didn't know anything about renting property…that was MeDe, Sam and Puck's deal, not ours. We'd originally planned to keep our furniture. It would be expensive enough to move and pay rent again until we could find new homes…we didn't want the added expenses of buying new furniture too. But then, amazingly enough, we got offered so much for the furniture we couldn't resist. Granted Tricie's furnishings made double what ours did, but it didn't make sense to rent a big ass U-Haul when we could just sell ours too. So that was what we did.
Graduation got there quickly after Thanksgiving. The NYC siblings got to Ann Arbor first with Hudson and our newest niece, Nikki. The five of them held us down. They put in work helping us get all our shit packed, helping us get the condos ready for their next owners. It was a trip seeing them packing and moving our stuff. I couldn't resist taking a picture and posting it on my twitter feed with the caption 'even major rock stars can't avoid helping friends or family move'. Darcy picked it up and shared it on her and KAMA's feed. People loved it. I liked that people got to really see that Mercedes' hubbies were good guys and they treated her family as their own as was right and proper. I wanted the world to see them like we all did.
Graduation was…it was graduation. Mom forced all of us to get new clothes, which Tricie loved but the rest of us just humored her in doing. It was nice to make our parents proud and allow our families to share in our accomplishments since they had had our backs all throughout our entire lives. Once we got the pomp and circumstance all done and over with, we had a little twitter drama for KAMA. Tonya and Tricie really wanted to find old girl and go ham on her ass. Kev and I didn't disagree, though we couldn't touch her. The whole big ass family went out to dinner and we got all the 'graduation gifts' from the Jones family members who weren't going to join us for Christmas. The Harris side of the family, other than Mom's brothers had sent us money. So had most of Tonya and Tricie's extended family. We'd put it all in our accounts…a total of around fifteen grand per couple was going to go really, really far. Granted, it had to be said that it wasn't that we'd gotten fifteen one-thousand dollar gifts…it was that we'd gotten so many hundred, two hundred, two-fifty buck gifts from so many different relatives.
Still, we went into Christmas more than stoked. When we saw MeDe's house, I worried just a little. I mean we were happy as hell for her, but damn that was a lot of house. We knew we were staying there every time we came to visit Lima. But even more than that, we saw through all the parents. They wanted the three of them to see Lima as their primary home. So they designed a house that would make that more likely to happen. All the guest rooms were very good sized and they each had their own bathroom. Our guest room was directly above the library…which was still waiting to be filled, though it already had walls full of bookshelves and some seriously comfy looking chairs. Plus, Mom or someone had brought over the books MeDe had left at home. It had the same bamboo floors as the rest of the house, and the walls were painted a soft gray with subtle hints of mauve. The room had a small sitting area in the dormer, a decent walk in closet and a really nice three-piece bathroom with a double sink vanity. We managed to get our things unpacked before getting dragged shopping for 'temporary' home goods. MeDe had us each pick out the towels and stuff for the bathrooms in our rooms. It was actually a little bit fun.
What was both less and more fun was sitting around listening to all the stuff they needed to get to really complete the house. It was less fun because it was hella daunting and seemed like it was gonna be expensive as hell. It was more fun because, hell, me and Tonya were both taking notes. That whole making a house a home came real natural to MeDe and Tricie…but me and Tonya would decorate everything with sci-fi paraphernalia…in fact we kind of had where we'd lived before the condo. We wanted our next place to look adult and put together in case we ended up needing to entertain bosses and co-workers and such. So we listened and we learned. We knew that it would be helpful to make our ATL apartment a nice, if temporary, home.
Then the next day, we went shopping with the only person in the world who could medal in shopping at the hypothetical Olympics…Mercedes Antoinette Jones. Okay, that wasn't as bad as it could have been…especially since with all the drama of our thesis and dissertation defenses, not one of us had done any Christmas shopping. Truth be told Tonya and Tricie could claim that, but me and Kev we never shopped early. Unless we happened to be somewhere and just saw something we knew was perfect for one of our family members. They could bet that their gift had been purchased between December twenty-first and twenty-fourth and if it was wrapped instead of being in a gift bag that was only because the store offered free wrapping service and the line wasn't crazy long.
Going to Easton Towne Center with the family…I got all my shopping done in half a day and it wasn't even all stuff from the same store. Which was awesome, because we'd only gotten three gifts by that point. I'd gotten Becah a two hundred and fifty-dollar gift card for her dream medical school, Case Western in Cleveland. Tonya had taken care of George by getting him the same thing her dad had wanted, a Lowes gift card. We walked around in a pretty large group at first. Though Tonya stuck close to Tricie and MeDe so she could figure out things like what thread counts meant and which ones were the good ones like we'd slept on the night before. When I could, I'd slip away and check out cool little places like Brookstone and Paper Source. It was in Brookstone that I found gifts for Angel Mom and Sander, Saul and Mills. Sander was hell on headphones. He was just…constantly killing the cords and Gabby wasn't any better. So I grabbed them a pair of matching black gray QuietComfort 35 acoustic noise cancelling wireless headphones I found Saulie a cool Livescribe 2GB Echo smart pen which was a pen and a voice recorder together. I figured that dealing with all those schiesty banker types that could def come in handy. Then I found Millsie a Yellow Jacket, black stun gun case for her iPhone. That seemed like a perfect gift for her. Sometimes, she went into sketchy parts of Manhattan.
While I was in Brookstone, Tonya was finding Mom and Dad a pair of matching Giraffe at Home 'Luxe' Throws, black for Dad and one in a pretty shade of mocha for Momma. She also found Bubbie Ruth a Waterford Lismore Diamond eight by ten picture frame and Kev and Tricie each a cool new professional looking bag that were expensive enough we could get away with calling them joint Christmas and graduation gifts. I had to give her credit the Tumi black Davenport messenger bag she got for Kevon was twenty percent off and Patrice's black Tory Burch Block-T leather tote bag was like half off. MeDe's black leather Marc Jacobs biker backpack was just as good a deal. But I was sure I'd done good since I found Puck and Sam's PS4, Stevie's Rosetta Stone Klingon edition and the cool Bluetooth droplet speaker for Jake. Kevon talked me into going half on a Nintendo DS and a bunch of games for Nikki. Good thing we did too. Tonya got little Beth a whole bunch of books and clothes and boring stuff.
As the day slipped away, we were getting desperate looking for things for the rest of the crew. I found MamaChole a pretty lamp that I knew she would love at Things Remembered. Tonya got Tessa, Sarah and Hudson beauty gift sets from Nordstrom…which just left us with Stacey. As sweet and gentle and kind as Stacey was…she was ridiculously hard to buy for. But by the same turn she was ridiculously happy for whatever she got. Eventually, we finally settled on a pretty little silver cross necklace with diamond chip accents and a center stone of aquamarine…her birthstone. We had helped Mercedes and her guys get all the stuff they needed to get, we'd managed to learn what the hell we would need to get. In fact, we got two sets of six-hundred thread count sheets for the king sized bed we were going to buy when we got our next place. When we got back to my little sister's big ass house, we had work to do. There were linens that had to be washed. We had to put everything away. There were dishes to wash and put away. But MeDe pressed her friends into servitude and the parents joined us too so it didn't take near as long as it could have. Mainly because we used every washing machine in that big ass house.
While Kev and I were lugging a load of fresh towels up to the fourth floor linen closet, he asked me something that scared the shit out of me. "What did you get Tonya for Christmas?" I guess the look of horrified mortification on my face told the answer to that. "Yeah…me neither. I thought that I could get Pattie something today…but I got so busy trying to find more and better gifts for the fam than she could that I kinda forgot."
"So what's the plan?" I shot back.
He shrugged. "Tomorrow we sneak away and hit the mall." It was a good plan…nice, simple.
It was working too. We caught Sam and Puck after they had finished their assigned chores and so had we…we scooped up Jake and skedaddled before anyone could tell us something else we needed to do. We talked on the ride to the mall as Kev tried to come up with something to get Tricie. We clowned Puck a little bit for his Daddy gone viral moment when the two of them were at Whole Foods. Then Jake came up with a great idea as we were heading into the mall. Once Kev's reticence about his budget was done away with, we knew what Trice would love…so we were off to the jewelry store. Sam and Puck decided to run and get my little sister some stuff I didn't want to think about her wearing. But Jake had Puck's card and he could sign for it. So we were golden.
Or so we thought. As soon as we walked into the store, the sales person started acting like we were casing the joint. It was more than a little fucked up…but in Lima there wasn't a lot of choice, so we dealt with it. Trice didn't really like cheap looking things, so Kev was getting really frustrated with the things 'Ben' was showing us. I took control of things. "Man, look…my brother cannot take his wife of a grand total of six months a cheap gift for their first Christmas. We're looking for a tennis bracelet in white gold or sterling silver, half carat or better. The only way he is going under half a carat is if you are showing us something that has superior quality diamonds or platinum." I told him authoritatively.
That finally got him to show us some bracelets that Patrice Seraphina Foster-Jones would allow to touch her wrist. It still took a few tries to finally find a round cut, half carat tennis bracelet with fifty-two diamonds and a tongue clasp. It was a great starter diamond bracelet. It looked good, Tricie would love it and it wasn't so far outside Kev's budget that he felt some kind of way about it. So we get ready to check out. The clerk rung us up and Jake hands him the card and goes to hand him his license, when ole dude takes the card and disappears into the back. we looked at each other like 'that was weird', then boom two rent a cops bust in and start shouting at us. I move towards Jake and next thing I knew one of the assholes had me and Kevon at gun point, so I slid in front of Kev a little bit to shield him. I looked over at Jake. "Jake, don't worry…"
"Shut up, Nigger. We'll do the talking here." The one by Jake shouted. He grabbed Jake and forced his head to the display counter. "Where did you steal that credit card, Domino?"
"Hey man, the card wasn't stolen. And watch yourself, he is seventeen years old. There is no call for all of that." Kevon said bluntly.
The one with the gun on us got belligerent too. "He said keep your mouth shut, Buck Nigger."
I growled. Those racist muthafuckas were really pissing me off. Before I could say anything, Sam and Puck came storming in mad as hell. Even hearing that the card wasn't stolen and that Jake was a signatory…hell, even when the real cops showed up and heard what happened and told them to let us go…they still didn't leave us alone. Nothing changed until Dad and Uncle Ethan rolled in with the store manager. Only then did that asshole finally get his gun out of my face. We all listened as the clerk got fired and the manager gave some lip service to how that wasn't acceptable behavior for the store's employees…but I didn't believe that for a second. Something in his tone told all of us that if we came back in a week or two Ben's ass would be right back behind the counter.
Sam must have heard it too. Because once the dust settled, he told the jackass that we were going elsewhere. So we went to Macy's and hit their jewelry department hard. Tricie ended up with a three carat, round cut diamond tennis bracelet, a matching necklace and a pair of onyx and gold medallion earrings…the tennis bracelet and necklace, Sam had brought, and the earrings Kev spent the better part of his budgeted money on. Tonya wasn't very much into bracelets so I found her a beautiful blue and white sapphire, white gold necklace. I was going to buy it. But Sam grabbed it before I could. So I went back and got her a pair of sapphire stud earrings that were really nice and real, but that were simple enough to wear on the daily if she wanted. I made sure to pay for those myself. As I was wrapping up that purchase, Puck called me over to check out the ruby and diamond in white gold bangle bracelet he found that he thought Momma would love. He was right it was perfectly her. I found a pretty watch with both white and chocolate diamonds around the face looking like a hurricane and a brown satin strap that looked like it would be perfect for Me Maw.
We found the perfect bauble for every woman in our whole family from Grandma Mae all the way down to Mara. Hell, Sam was so mad he even got MamaChole and Ms. Quita a pair of two carat diamond stud earrings each. Puck made Jake pick something nice for his girl Chase…but that Jake couldn't get her anything over two-fifty. That was to make sure that it wasn't too much or made her think that Jake had more feelings for her than he did. But he managed to find her a really pretty little sterling silver and CZ oval locket that we all thought was perfect. Once it was all rung up, Sam and Puck had Jake pay and sign for the purchase and the lady almost fell all over herself being polite and personable to us. Hell she even offered to have everything wrapped before we left. Too bad we didn't have time to take her up on that. Once they were all wrapped, most of the tags said it was to the woman from Santa. But Tonya's, Tricie's and Chase's all said the gift was from their respective significant others.
On the way out of the mall, Sam did just what he said he was going to do. He walked right into Kay Jewelry and slapped that foot long, Macy's receipt on the counter, told that guy how badly he'd fucked up and walked away. When we were leaving, the manager started to cry. Maybe I should have felt bad for him…but then again the person he hired and trained had caused a gun to be held on me and one of my brothers and the bruises that were almost destined to be appearing on Jake's cheek. Unfortunately, we still couldn't head back to their house, we had to go and give statements against the one 'security guard' that they had arrested. It kind of pissed me off that they kept trying to make it seem like this was all Puck's fault for not staying with us. If I hadn't already loved Puck like a brother before, when he told that cop that black men shouldn't need an 'approved white person' with them to prevent racial profiling and harassment…I'd have proclaimed him family in that moment.
Thankfully, Christmas Eve was kind of chill. The seriously awesome Mario Kart game MeDe had gotten Puck for Christmas had been delivered the day before so whenever anything needed to go down to the basement me, Kev or Jake handled it. We did get away to take Triple S, Nikki, Melli, and Double A&S into the big ass back yard to play in the snow and build snowmen. That was pretty fun. At least it was until Tonya and Tricie decided that we should be pelted with snow balls. Everyone opened one gift on Christmas Eve from our trio of hosts. Every gift was a pair of pajamas. Mine and Tonya's were the best. They had gotten us Star Trek pajamas. Kevon got stuck with a pair of boring green, old man pajamas…I felt bad for him. We all slept good that night.
Christmas morning was more than awesome. We opened gifts in rounds. I was loving all the cool things everyone had gotten Tonya and me. We mainly got combination graduation and Christmas, couple gifts. A lot of them were big gift cards to furniture stores…we definitely appreciated those. The eighteen to twelve set got us a large gift card to William Sonoma…Tonya might not have known sheets, but cookware was her bailiwick. So that was awesome. Personally, my favorite gift came from Lil Nikki. She got me a Doctor Who: The Matt Smith Years Blu-ray set…I loved that. Tonya loved her copy of Living Language Dothraki: A Conversational Language Course Based on the Hit Original HBO Series Game of Thrones too. Nikki was an awesome kid. Definitely one of my two favorite nieces. However, the absolute best gift came from MeDe, Sam and Noah. They bought us a house in Atlanta near Emory…well a townhouse. For real, they bought me and Tonya a two bedroom, three-bathroom townhouse. We opened a shirt gift box to find a folder inside it.
When we opened the folder we saw the picture of a pretty little set of townhouses. The next thing behind the picture was a set of directions that went from Mom and Dad's house to thirteen-forty-four Stillwood Chase, Atlanta, Georgia. I pulled that out and handed it to Tonya and saw a two-page floor plan. The top page was the first floor. There was a two car garage and office at the back of the house, a first floor master bedroom and bath with a good sized walk in closet. The living dining, and kitchen were all open to each other and the laundry room was on the first floor behind them and across from a full bath. Up the stairs were the guest room, the third full bathroom and a nice loft area. I looked at Tonya and she was already up and across the living room trying to hug MeDe, Sam and Noah all at the same time. While I was sitting there looking at the things in the folder confused, I noticed that in the bottom of the box there were two sterling silver key rings with two keys on each. I was ashamed to admit it, but it took me five full minutes to realize that they had given us a house.
Just as they finally got Tonya to stop hugging them, I launched myself at them and started hugging them like crazy. Trice was a smart cookie, she'd looked through the rest of their stack and found an identical gift box for them. They were going to be right next door to us. When they caught up to on what all the papers in the folder meant, they glommed onto the hug too. I think Kev cried…maybe I did too. I was sure that I promised MeDe our first born child if they wanted it. It was really great. I had the best family in the world. So much so that I didn't even complain about all the giftwrapping paper we had to clean up once all the gifts were finally opened. Hell, even though MeDe had gotten a custom, fully loaded Mercedes and Nadia had gotten Uncle Bryant, I was still sure that Tonya and I…and I guess Kev and Tricie…had had the best Christmas ever. The rest of Christmas day was a freaking blur. I know that we told MomaChole and Lester all about the new house and I overheard Tricie and her mom giggling about the marvelous layout of the house.
There was some paperwork we'd have to complete before we moved down to Atlanta, but Uncle Ethan was sure that it would all be taken care of with no problem before we left New York. Once dinner and dessert had been devoured, the leftovers put away to be taken to the party the next day, and everyone had retired for the evening. Tonya and I finally had a chance to talk. "Thank you for my necklace and earrings. I love them." She whispered as she rested her head on my shoulder.
"Well, the earrings were me…the necklace was part of Sam's idea of revenge." I told her the story of the Macy's trip, minus the part where I bought those earring that night.
Tonya laughed. "Dear Lord, they have no idea what is about to happen to Kay Jewelers…Sam is southern, and southerners hold grudges like a toddler holds their favorite binkie. Think about it…some of them are still mad about the Civil War."
"Yeah, well, I'd feel bad for them if I hadn't spent ten, fifteen minutes thinking that me or one of the brothers were going to end up as the next hashtag." I grumbled.
She gave me a long, lingering kiss to calm me down. "Von…MeDe and her boys bought us a house." She said happily. She pulled away from me to kick her legs up and down under the sheets. She even grabbed a pillow to hold over her face as she squealed in joy.
When she was calm again, I pulled her back to me. Then changed the conversation to a happier subject. "You know…that means we don't have to wait until summer to get you a car." I reasoned. We'd been planning to wait a while, get used to our new bills schedule and budget before buying her a car of her own. It wouldn't have been hard to do; my office was very Marta accessible. She'd have driven the SUV my parents had gotten me years before and I'd have ridden mass transit. But the two-year plan was to get her a car, pay it down for a year to sixteen months, then replace my vehicle. The five-year plan was to pay off her car and pay down mine before we started looking for a house with enough bedrooms to start giving the parents some grandchildren.
"So, are we still going to wait five years before we have kids?" she asked quietly.
I looked over at her. "Do you not want to wait?"
She sighed. "Every time I see you with Mara, Maea or Sloane…my ovaries weep. Watching you with Nikki and Beth is almost as bad as the babies. I can't wait to make you a daddy. But by the same turn…it makes sense to wait on selling the house until things rebound a little bit more…plus we can save up on the side to have even more to buy a forever home with. Then there is the fact that I would love to make tenure before I have kids. Giving myself five years to work that out first is the best thing for my career. Yeah...I don't want to wait, but I know it is the right thing to do."
I nodded. "I'm actually glad to hear it. As much as I cannot wait to have children with you…I'm enjoying this time that we have that's just the two of us." Tonya's appreciation of that sentiment led to a second round of lovemaking that was slow, thorough and even more satisfying that our earlier bout.
"You think Kev and Trice will ever realize that we only picked cities with good sized to huge comic or sci-fi conventions?" She asked drowsily after we grabbed a quick shower, slipped on our Christmas pajamas and got back into the almost ridiculously comfortable bed.
I shrugged and was asleep before I could tell her that if they didn't that was their own fault. I slept deeply and had awesome dreams. In fact, I thought I was dreaming when MeDe shook me awake. "De…Dev…Devon…wake up. Come on. I need your help. Wake up."
"I'm up," I said groggily. I was a little surprise MeDe was up and dressed so early after what was probably a pretty late night for them. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong. I want to go and get Sam and Noah a little something extra since they got me so many really awesome gifts not even counting the Mercedes." She whispered.
"They weren't counting." I groaned. "They wanted you to be happy so they bought you stuff you'd love. You wanted them to be happy, so you bought them stuff they love."
She rolled her eyes. "I spent less on the two of them together than they spent on my car alone…when you add in the earrings and everything else. It looks like…"
"You don't want to hear on E! that you're stingier than they are or that the relationship is inequitable." Tonya said sleepily as she pushed me to get up. "Go…help her. Sam and Noah won't get it…but the infotainment media will rip her apart. I'll explain things to her boys."
So I got up brushed my face and washed my teeth, or whatever and put on a pair of Dockers and a sweater and we headed out. MeDe had me swing by and grab Sander too. "You sure about this Mercy?" he said handing us both travel mugs of coffee. God Bless the man. "Sam is definitely gonna feel some kind of way about this…Christmas giving shouldn't be about one-upmanship."
There was more eye rolling from my little sister. "Are guys just unable to get this one? I'm not trying to one up my husbands. I'm just trying to make sure that we don't give the media or our naysayers any ammunition on saying that I'm in this relationship for anything other than love."
I could see from Sander's gobsmacked and slightly angry expression that he was having the same realization I'd had twenty minutes before. "Yeah, Tonya said she would explain to the guys what MeDe is facing and trying to avoid. You know how hard the media always go at her in the first place." I told him with a long suffering sigh.
He just nodded. There was nothing else to say. If there was a way to help keep the media from batting at MeDe, anyone of the men in the family would do it. "So…what did you need our help with?" he asked since he finally understood.
"I know how to change a tire. I know how to take a car for the needed maintenance…I don't know how to buy one. I know that Sam likes pickup trucks…I looked online and the Ford F-150 is the gold standard of pickup truck…but I have no idea what specs to look for and what features he would want. Same thing with Puck and his love of muscle cars. I know that I won't be able to get a cool paint job in their favorite colors like they did for me…but I, at least, want to get them what they would walk on the lot and get for themselves." Mercedes told us with a grin on her face.
"So Reineke and then Tom Ahl?" Sander asked and we agreed quickly. The Ford and Dodge dealerships were right up the road from each other. We went up to the further away one and made the left turn careful of those who weren't quite used to driving in the snow. One of my high school classmates had wrecked his Christmas present car on Boxing Day just because he was driving too fast for the conditions. We parked and entered the Ford dealership to find several sales people milling around the floor. As soon as we stepped foot inside, three of them headed our way. "We're all together. Just need one of y'all."
I don't know if they recognized Mercedes for her career, or the air of 'definite sale' that she was giving off…or if they were just that bored. But the fact that only one of them was needed set them to arguing. An older gentleman of Middle Eastern descent came around the bickering trio…one of which I recognized from high school and greeted us with a warm smile and a firm handshake. "Hey." The guy from the class behind me objected.
Reza, as he'd introduced himself gave an unconcerned shrug. "Well, since I had to leave my wife and two kids to come to work this morning…I'm going to work and not bicker over who gets the sale." He threw back over his shoulder. Then he turned to us. "Besides…if I can go home and take my thirteen year old daughter Mercedes Jones autograph…I'll be Dad of the year for sure. So what can I help you find?"
"I need a truck." MeDe said with a smile. "It's for Sam and I need you to tweet it out and tell them I got it before Christmas but you promised not to say anything until after."
Reza looked confused for a long moment. Then he laughed. "You know…the first Christmas after my wife and I got married, she got me an antique pocket watch…I got her lingerie. The next day I was at the jewelry store in the mall the second it opened. I probably looked a lot like you're looking now."
Sander chuckled. "Cept in this case her husbands loved what she got them too…they just spent two to three times more than she did…"
"And if the tabloid media gets ahold of that information…they will vilify her." I finished.
"Well…considering that my wife and daughter both just bought your album on iTunes…I don't want to be any part helping that to happen." Reza assured us. "Now…from what my little girl tells me, Sam is the blond from somewhere in the south…so you're looking for an F-150. He'll want it tricked out…but not a play thing…a working truck. We talking two or four doors?"
"Trucks can have four doors?" MeDe asked quietly.
He gave her a big ass smile. "You are not a truck person are you?"
She scrunched up her face. "I drove my dad's old Tahoe for the last few years, but I've never seen a pickup truck other than Papa Burt's, Sander's, Puck's and Finn's and they all have two doors. I thought that was the norm."
"Well, it may be the norm…but there are extended and crew cab trucks that have four doors and seat up to six." He explained. Then he took us and showed us the differences between the cabs. Then he started in on the different features and he and Sander worked out which ones Sam would want and which ones wouldn't matter to him. It only took two test drives to narrow their stock of eighty-six trucks down to sixty-four…from there we went through the features Sander was sure Sam would want and that narrowed it down to three. One of those was nixed because it was Titan Red, "Sam only looked so good in his uniform on the field because he had his helmet on." She reasoned. "Otherwise that shade of red made him look sad." The other two were blue and white. Sam ended up with the blue one.
When we went into Reza's office to complete the paperwork, the truck and all its bells and whistles came out to over forty-eight thousand dollars. I almost had heart palpations, but then he kicked in some incentive packages and it came down to just over forty-five grand. Then he added in the tax, tag and title and when MeDe handed him a black credit card, he put almost fifty-two thousand on that bad boy. I didn't even know you could use a credit card for that much. I mean, I listened to rap so I got the concept of a black card…but the thought that my little sister had one blew my mind.
After that went through, there were still a bunch of things that needed MeDe's John Handcock. While she was doing that Sander, called Mrs. Abrams and got the truck added to the car insurance she had set up for Puck and Sam's motorcycles and that MeDe's Mercedes was on. Once MeDe got the email with the digital cards, we were able to drive that bad boy off the lot. Before we left, Reza took a picture of MeDe petting the front wheel well. We took a picture of her with Reza with his phone for his daughter. She signed the kid a great autograph. Come to find out his daughter was huge into musical theater, so Mercedes' autograph included a supportive comment about following her own star. It was nice and Reza thanked us profusely Sander got into his son's brand new twenty-fifteen Ford F-150 XLT Crew Cab four-wheel drive pickup truck and me and MeDe got back into my two-thousand-ten Suburban and we all drove up the block to Tom Ahl Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram. When we were leaving Reineke Ford, their showroom floor had gotten a hell of a lot busier, so it wasn't surprising that Ahl's was pretty busy too.
We still didn't have to wait long on a sales person. One of the guys I had played football with at McKinley came over. "Devon Jones…ain't seen you in about a minute. How you been doing?" he asked as he came over and give me a handshake and bro hug. "Is this your Little Mercedes…the Diva? Saw you win the AMAs last month. Congratulations."
"Thanks…you're Jason right?" MeDe always had a much better memory for people than I did. "Your younger brother James played too. He was a junior my freshman year." She smiled.
"Yeah…he's trying to be an orthopedic doctor. He's a senior at Kent State." Jason said proudly.
"Awesome." She told him with a grin.
"So…what can I help you with? Devon, you trading in that Suburban on a Durango?" he joked.
MeDe shook her head. "Actually, I'm shopping and I need a huge favor."
Jason smiled even bigger. "Whatever you need. I'm positive that Devon and Kevon were the reason my behind didn't have serious concussion when I was playing a Titan."
"I need to get my boo, Puck, a muscle car…and I need you to tweet out later that I did it earlier this week." She told him honestly.
Jason actually got it immediately. "They got you something awesome and you need to make sure the paparazzi and shit doesn't think you're with them for them to buy you things or that you're too tight with your money. I feel you. Shoot, just last night there was a thing on Extra about celebrity birthday and Christmas gifts. I've got you Mercedes." He assured her.
I gave him a side eye. "How come you got that right off the bat?" I was a little shocked. "Tonya had to explain it to me and we've been explaining it all morning."
Jason shrugged. "My girl loves tabloid television…those infotainment shows and E!. You can only watch it for so long without figuring out their formulas and getting hip to their games. They were already speculating about what a poly-thruple gets each other."
"Well, Sam and Puck got me a hundred thousand dollar Mercedes. So I got Sam a fifty thousand dollar, tricked out F-150…and now I need to get Puck a muscle car. I know he doesn't care for Fords…and the only other muscle car I could think of was the Challenger." She told him with a big, bright smile. "I want it red and souped up."
So he showed us the four that they had in stock. The car came in two different shades of red. Torred or Redline Red Tricoat Pearl…the first was a super cherry red…she hated it. The second was a deeper, richer almost blood red that looked a lot like Titan Red. Jason went over the features of both though and even after test driving both cars MeDe stuck to the same Redline red model she's preferred from the get go. But there was something bothering me. It niggled at the back of my mind until it slipped out my mouth without ever fully manifesting itself in my consciousness. "MeDe…you can't get the Challenger. It barely has a back seat."
We looked at the car again and yeah, it had a bench seat in the back, but it wasn't one that would comfortably fit the three people Sam's truck and MeDe's sedan would fit. "Does that matter?" I could hear the confusion in her voice.
I nodded. "Yes it matters. Think about it, we're here because you're concerned about the inferences the media may make about you based on the gifts they gave you. Well if you get Sam a pickup truck that fits a family and Puck a penis-mobile…won't those same people assume that he isn't really as important to you as you claim? Like Sam is the family man and Puck is just the play boy."
"Shit. But he won't want anything that looks like a Dad car. Puck prides himself on being an awesome…but still cool as hell Daddy." She argued back.
Jason smiled. "What about a Charger?" he interjected. "They look way more sporty than your average sedan…they handle just like the Challenger…they just have a bigger back seat and four doors."
Sander nodded. "Not a bad choice. Slightly less likely to be pulled over too."
"And…unless it sold last night or this morning, we have one that has the same feature package as that Challenger you were about to get." Our sales guy threw in.
Not only was it still there, it was even the right color. MeDe took it for a test drive and came back even happier with it than she had been with the Challenger. The paperwork was…well it was pretty much a breeze. Mrs. Abrams had been expecting the need for adding another car to the policy and we had the digital cards real quick. Jason took a cool picture of MeDe standing in the open door of the car looking like she was about to get in. She took one with him and me…dude had a girlfriend and little sister didn't want him getting in trouble for nothing. She left having spent another fifty grand and she didn't even bat an eyelash.
We were quite the caravan driving back to the house. MeDe in the middle in the Charger and Sander pulling up the rear in the F-150. I texted Tonya and told her to get the guys outside…if she had managed to make them understand. I guess she had because when we pulled into the courtyard, everyone was outside despite the cold. I pulled over to the side rather than pulling into the garage bay that had been emptied by my exit that morning. As soon as I parked, I hopped out and grabbed my Nikki from her daddy's arms so he could see his present. I don't know who had the better reaction Sam or Puck. Puck's jaw hit the floor. "She got me a Charger. Babygirl is my boo, she knows me so well. Damn, Sammy Boy, I don't know which one is prettier…the car or our woman."
Sam was just as funny. "Now I'm all conflicted. I don't want her to think she had to get us anything else. I mean, she gave me every nerd's dream comic book and now she is getting me my dream truck." He said softly. "God Damn, I love that woman."
I just laughed. Sander got out and handed Mercedes the truck keys. She sauntered over…there was no other word for it… and gave each of her hubbies a family appropriately hot kiss and handed them their respective keys. As a thanks for the sweet rides, they each took turns slobbing Lil Sis down, which, while understandable, was still really gross. Nikki wanted down. It was weird that she was so little and light when she was already eight. Even Stacey had been bigger than that when we first met her and she hadn't been that much older than Nikki was that Christmas. My adorable eldest niece walked over to her embracing parents and tapped them on the legs. That broke the kiss up before EJ could mention, again how gross it was to witness…or the triad could really forget they had an audience. Once she had their full attention she pointed at the two newly purchased vehicles and then at the third new car in the garage. "Your cars are just like you…Blue and red make purple."
The way she said it, as if it was the simplest and most obvious thing in the world and she wanted to be the one to point it out before anyone else cold was hilarious. It was made even more funny when Sander chuckled and said, "Well, I'll be dipped in buttermilk. I hadn't even noticed that one. Was that planned Mercy?"
MeDe, Sam and Noah all looked at their cars and started to laugh with the rest of us. Standing there in the falling snow, I knew that it had been one of the best Christmases of my life. But it was also the last one where I would truly call Lima home. It was a sobering thought, but at the same time…I was ready to take that final step into adulthood. However, knowing that your family always had your back just in case you stumbled on the road called life…that was definitely not a bad safety net to have. Still Looking around at the massive assemblage of our weird and untraditional family, no matter how far afield we moved, I knew we'd never be far from their hearts nor them from ours.
Kevon PoV
I couldn't believe the way that Christmas break went down. I never thought it possible for graduation and getting a bomb ass job to have been the least exciting parts of the holiday. We did more shopping in two days than should have been humanly possible. But I couldn't complain because it allowed those of us who had been ridiculously busy graduating to get our Christmas shopping done. It wasn't easy either. There were about thirty to forty people that we had to find gifts for and Pattie said that anyone married as long as the parents in the group were probably wanted non-couply type gifts. Thankfully the place MeDe and her boys took us to had stores that had some of everything. I found Sander a Star Trek toy set that had the communicator, phaser and tricorder from the original series, and the JJ Abrams reboot. My beautiful wife texted me to tell me that she'd gotten his beautiful wife a Dior 'J'Adore' Eau de Parfum Set and my own wonderful parents two bottles of fragrance from Creed's new line; 'Silver Mountain Water' Cologne for Dad and 'Virgin Island Water' Parfume for Momma. She also got her mother a bottle of her favorite Chanel Number Five.
It was our traditional Christmas give to MamaQuita. Pattie remembered that when she was little, MamaQuita could only afford to get the smallest one possible when she could spend anything at all on herself. As soon as me and Pattie got old enough to be able to actually buy her some ourselves, we always got her a nice gift set or big bottle of the perfume. We'd taken care of that when we were at the mall outfitting Pattie for her thesis defense and we happened to find the perfume 'on sale' meaning that it had a really fabulous 'free with purchase' gift. When Tonya and Dev had told us what they were getting Becah and George, we'd glommed on and gotten them the same things. It wasn't that we weren't as close to them as we were Sander and Gabbie, it was just that we didn't know their likes and dislikes as well. Add to that the fact that Becah had not had the chance to cultivate any hobbies as she worked so hard to keep her and her kids afloat for so long…we just decided that getting them things for the future was the best idea.
The eighteen to eight set were the easiest to shop for. We just got them what we'd have wanted at their age. The five and under crew all got the same thing, a new outfit complete with matching shoes, two new books, one picture book and one for bedtime being read to, a cuddle toy and a fun toy. So they were pretty easy too. Hudson was the hardest. MeDe wanted us all to make her feel welcome and part of our family since she didn't have one of her own…but at the same time we didn't know her all that well. We knew she spoke either as many languages as Tonya or close enough. We knew that she was painfully shy until she got to know you. We knew that she was ridiculously efficient and could roll with whatever punches life threw at her. Finally, Pattie just decided to grab her something she might not buy for herself but would more than likely come to love. That turned out to be Pattie's favorite Clinique cleanser in a gift pack with a sonic brush. In fact, the deal on that was so good, Pattie went ahead and got one for herself.
The next few days were crazy. I mean, I almost ended up as a hashtag over that bullshit in the mall all because of some dickheads who weren't good enough for the Lima PD and were too racist to stop and ask questions before resorting to physical violence. That shit was ridiculous. But still it ended up working out alright. Pattie ended up getting a hell of a lot more Christmas than she expected…the tennis bracelet and matching necklace were big hits, but it felt good that she loved the gold and onyx earrings I picked out just as much. It was a great Christmas morning, watching those we loved opening their gifts from us and from each other was warming and fulfilling in a way that was hard to define and harder still to put into words. I hadn't seen MeDe get so joyous about a gift since that damn princess retreat she'd talked, cajoled and threatened me, Dev, and our Jones cousins into getting and putting together for her. Seeing her reaction to that 'Purple Rain' purple Mercedes was heartwarming. Then when we went back inside and we saw the pleasure and joy on Devon and Tonya's faces when they opened their gift from the triad was even better.
Perhaps my internal musings were what slowed my own intelligence. It was Pattie that figured out that we'd probably received something similar to whatever it was making Devon and Tonya react like that. Tonya was screeching her babbles in a mixture of languages that contained at least Klingon, Romulan, N'avi and French. Devon was completely speechless so we didn't actually know what they had gotten. When we opened the folder that came out of the box, I think my eyes almost bugged out of my head. "They got us a house?"
Pattie nodded. "They got us a house. Right next door to Devon and Tonya." She laughed merrily. We got up to give MeDe, Sam and Noah our gratitude.
I was shocked when MeDe seemed a little apologetic. "I know that we're doing combo and couple all in the same gift…but hopefully you'll forgive that since they are houses. Of course, they are really just starter homes. We didn't want to go too big in case you didn't like them or something. And they are yours. We have to do the paperwork to complete the deed transfer, but when you are ready to get a place to, oh I don't know, give me a few nieces and nephews to spoil, you can sell it and use that money for something bigger."
"Oh I see you…you knew that we were planning on holding off on kids until we were thirty and you're trying to get us to push up the time line." I joked.
MeDe laughed. "Yup. You got me. I'm a megalomaniacal mastermind intent on forcing you to populate the world with your knuckleheaded, demon seed…so they can be my minions." She tossed back. Unfortunately, Momma called her to go and help with something for dinner in that moment, so I didn't get to launch a witty rejoinder…which was actually good for me since I didn't really have one.
Dinner was excellent as always. If I had not known how new everything was, I'd have assumed that Mercedes' home had been the go to holiday spot for our family for years. Things went that seamlessly. After dinner we headed down to the rec room and played games or watched movies. It was a perfect post-holiday evening. When the little ones started getting tired, despite having napped earlier, things dissolved and soon enough only those who were staying at MeDe's house were left. Saying our goodnights, Pattie and I went up to 'our room' and made love until we had no choice but to get some rest. The next morning, we went down to find that MeMaw Rose, Tonya and Hudson had made everyone breakfast. Sam and Noah were chilling with Mellie and Nikki in their den watching movies. Saul, Mills, Daniel, Riker, the Uncles, Amanda and Nadia were chilling out in the home theater watching Gone with The Wind. MeDe and Devon were nowhere to be found.
It didn't take long to find out where they had gone and what their mission was. I also very quickly learned that Sam and Puck hated that MeDe had to worry about things like that a lot more than they did. I had to admit that I really fucking hated the uneven coverage and treatment the media gave Mercedes. Not too long after me and Pattie made it downstairs, Momma and Dad showed up with the rest of the family except Sander who was with MeDe and Devon. So we were all there when MeDe, Dev and Sander pulled in with Sam's F-150 and Noah's Charger. Nikki summed them up nicely. It was a cool moment and a reminder that our houses weren't really that much of a big deal to our famous triad…even if they were still just MeDe, Sam and Noah to the rest of us.
That afternoon there was the party for the New Directions and their families. As much fun as it turned out to have been the year before, me and Dev and our wives were set to have dinner with our wives' families so we could exchange gifts with them in private, rather than having to try and find a quiet spot to do so the night before. Before heading to our dinner, during the NDs party, Trice and I got together with Devon and Tonya and we all surfed furniture stores to furnish our new homes. The very first thing we did was traded our Ethan Allen gift cards to Dev and Tonya for their Haverty's ones. Pattie preferred Haverty to Ethan Allen and Tonya didn't care one way or the other and the total amount on them all equaled out the same. So it was no big deal.
In no time at all they had decided to use the four twenty-five hundred dollar Ethan Allen gift cards they had to order their furniture online and to start with their bedroom. It took them no time at all to agree on a fully upholstered bed with wooden feet called Haven, with the high foot board. They went with a California king size and the finish for the wood in seconds…then we watched while they spent thirty-five minutes arguing over the colors swatches before we finally showed them one called Boone Spice, which was almost the same color as the bridesmaids had worn in their wedding…or Next Gen Command Red, as it were. The search for night stands went smoother. They knew that they wanted ones with drawers. There was one called Rowan with its clean lines and a fantasy based name, no way could they resist ordering two. And though the finish went by a different name, it sure looked like the one they'd picked for the wooden parts of our bed. Then they found out that all the dressers they needed came in the same style and finish too. Yeah, that was happiness. They were even able to schedule delivery for Saturday the third. Which meant that they would only have to spend one night in a hotel or in sleeping bags.
We left them to that, just keeping an ear out on arguments where we could be the voice of reason. We chose to start furnishing our place on the first floor by making sure that we would have places to sit and eat. We hit the Havertys site for our living room and maybe even dining room furniture. Since the floor plan showed both a large, formal dining area and a breakfast nook, we decided to go for a formal dining set in the dining room for schmoozing and entertaining and then a four seat, casual set in the nook for us and Dev and Tonya the rest of the time. We quickly agreed that we wanted regular chairs for both. I hated trying to eat at the bar level tables…not even at restaurants did I want to go through that. It didn't take us very long to decide on the contemporary Astor Park dining set with six regular chairs and two arm chairs for the head and foot of the table. We got the server and the buffet too, but left the china cabinet alone. We also grabbed the round table from the same set for the nook. Pattie wanted 'uber comfy' chairs to go around it. I picked the Aubrielle Parsons chair since it had the same shape as the Aston Park chairs and came in the same dark finish. We looked that same finish for the wood in the living room. But we still started with the soft furnishings first. Neither of us liked the thought of leather seating so those were tossed quickly. Sectionals would either overwhelm the room or not give enough flexibility in arrangements so we got rid of those next. When we finally decided on the Elizabeth sofa in Wheatley Barley, we quickly chose to get the matching cocktail ottoman and two of the swivel armchairs as well. Thankfully the sofa…which was usually almost twenty-five hundred by itself was on clearance for half off. The whole collection was on sale…or else we wouldn't have been able to afford to get the Concave occasional table set which included a coffee table, two chairside tables, two end tables and a sofa table. The sofa table was probably going to go into the front hall for keys and such. But the deal was in getting the whole set, so we got it and figured we'd be able to figure out where to put it once we were actually in the space.
That left us with furnishing the master bedroom, office, guest room and loft ourselves. Since doing so then would ensure that we'd be better able to establish ourselves in Atlanta, we decided to go ahead and do so. Besides…it was fun and we had the time. Even though technically we also still had the office to handle on the first floor, we started with our own bedroom. Pattie didn't want dark wood in the bedroom and I wasn't a fan of painted or too light a wood tone. That cut our choices down considerably. Then when we removed the upholstered beds, neither of us liked those, we were left with a much more reasonable selection. The bed turned into a compromise. It wasn't as light as she would have liked it, in fact it was almost as dark as the woods in the living room. But the Welcome Home Poster Bed was pretty much perfect in every other way. We checked out the rest of the collection, but the rest of the furniture looked far too heavy and old fashioned. So we went back a few pages and looked through the nightstands to find one we liked. The Mandara nightstand matched the wood tone of the bed so we went with that line for our dressers and mirror from that set too.
We had to change sites to get the sleep number mattress of our dreams. "Hey Dev…did you remember to look into mattresses."
"Ummm…no." He groaned. "Tonya, did you want Sealy, Tempur-pedic or Sleep Number?"
Tonya looked thoughtful before getting happy. "Sleep Number, with the pad that has dual cooling settings. You, husband dear, are hot like fire."
In a little under the two hours we had between when the rest of the family went to the Wyndham and when we were both heading to the Nelsons and the Fosters we managed to order all the furniture for our townhouse. Well, not the loft because unlike Dev and Tonya who were planning to use their loft space as a library/collection display area…we had no clue what we were going to do with ours. MamaQuita already knew about the house, so she'd gotten us a step and full ten-foot ladder set. "When we got that first house, you were barely toddling around, Patrice, we had everything perfect…I just knew I had thought of everything until the first time I had to change a light bulb. So that is why I always give ladders to first time homeowners." We all shared a long laugh. She also gave us each a Visa gift card that we could use for whatever we wanted. I think she was a little embarrassed that they didn't have as much on them as maybe those my family members had given us but she didn't have to feel bad. She still had two children left at home and most of my relatives either had none or just one almost out the door. Or, in the case of Franklin and Hannah, had that Citizens United money. When money became speech, Franklin's organization more than doubled his salary to make sure he stuck with them since he was one of their best and most persuasive lobbyists. After dinner we just chilled with the family since we wouldn't be seeing them again for a little while.
Over the course of the next seven days we flew to New York. First thing Monday morning, Uncle Ethan had us all in his office to get the deed transfer paperwork all signed and he overnighted the originals to the Fulton County Clerk of Court office. When we Uncle Ethan was done with us, the whole family went shopping so we would all have something blue to wear for the portrait sitting. Tuesday we posed for another gigantic family picture for Bubbie Ruth and a million other shots. Wednesday night, we rung in the New Year like rock stars at the most expensive club I'd ever seen not on television. That joint was for real expensive. We each had two drinks…just in case there was a minimum. Pattie and Tonya had two glasses of wine each and me and Dev had a really good craft beer each. Four drinks per couple ended up being a hundred bucks, for each couple. It was absolutely ridiculous. Then that afternoon, after an amazing steak lunch at Wolfgang's, the non NYC contingent of the family flew back to Lima.
The four of us were really only there long enough to get some rest and say our goodbyes. We left Friday morning. The almost nine-hour drive to Atlanta was undertaken with both Dad and Mr. Lester. We had things pretty much planned out to the last minute. A necessity since both Devon and I started our new jobs on the fifth and Tonya started hers on the twelfth. Pattie technically had to report to her new office on the fifth as well but she wouldn't officially start her job until the twentieth when the person who would be training her returned from their vacation. That gave her time to decorate our home as she wanted to piece by piece…just as she liked. So she and I agreed to spend the time we had over the weekend, before Dad and Mr. Lester flew home on Sunday evening, to concentrate primarily on helping Devon and Tonya get their place all together.
So we did so. Having left Lima at four, we got to our new homes not long before one o'clock. We had the keys that had been in our gift boxes, but had to switch them because MeDe or her guys had accidentally given Dev my keys and vice versa. The foyer was pretty small, but it was bright and airy. We'd need a coat rack of stand because there was no closet but the floorplans had warned us of that already. The floors were a darker cherry stained hardwood throughout and it complimented the lighter cherry cabinetry in the kitchen, laundry room and bathroom. The 'public' first floor bathroom was technically a full bath, though it only had a shower not a tub as the third piece. The walls were done in a very light aqua color glass tile that gave you the feeling of being in the water, in the best possible way. As we walked through the townhouse with Dad, I couldn't quite explain how quickly the place felt right…like we'd left home only to come home.
Thankfully our schedule held. As soon as we finished the walk through, we unloaded everything in the small, towable U-Haul and our SUVs into the closets and onto the kitchen and bathroom counters. I really and truly adopted Hudson Friedman as one of my people as we were unloading. We were done in a snap since every box was labeled with a D&T or a K&P as well as what room it should go in. That done, we returned the U-Haul, checked into the hotel, showered and got dressed in some non-sweaty clothes. Then we drove to the Atlantic Station and had an early dinner. Once we'd replenished our energy stores, we went shopping. Atlantic Stations was one of those open air, but also interior, shopping and other retail meccas. There wasn't much for our houses that we didn't find there over the next few days. The biggest kerfuffle we faced all weekend was that the mattress delivery guy was late. But they still made it and had our beds assembled before bedtime on Saturday night. Pattie was going to do the guest room herself as she had the time, so we hadn't ordered anything for it at all. okay, so the truth was that we'd been running late for dinner at MamaQuita's so we'd agreed to hold off on it until we got time to do it later. But saying it the other way had sounded so much more mature.
The fathers helped us tremendously, I'd never put up curtain rods. But they both knew exactly what they were doing. It was almost scary to take them to the airport, and not just because it was our first time on Marta. When they left we were responsible for everything. That was a weighty feeling. We made love that night for the first time in our new home. I was very grateful that our townhouse was a mirror of Devon's. our bedroom wall was shared with a stranger. That was perfect to us. The next morning, we woke early and Pattie and I went for a run before coming back, showering and getting dressed for the day. We'd done the mapping and it would be easy for Pattie and I to carpool until we were ready to get her a car after our ninety day probationary periods were over. Driving together gave us time to talk and laugh and it made traffic less of a nightmare.
Work was pretty cool. I mean yeah, I spent my morning in the HR office completing a shit ton of paperwork, but when I finally got to meet the guys I would be working with, we got off on the right foot. Even if I was in a full suit complete with tie and most of them were in coffee stained graphic tees and flannel over shirts. Still just talking with them it was soon apparent that they knew what they were doing and that was all that mattered to me. Over the next several months, we would learn a lot about each other. They would learn that I wasn't one to let them down women in STEM and was in fact married to a shining example thereof. I would learn that many of them had had experiences in high school much like MeDe's. They would learn that I was not one for bullying, ever. Ultimately I was happy with my first foray into employment. I couldn't ask for a better benefit package, without working for MeDe and her hubbies. I couldn't ask for a better starting salary. I was in a great place and I was happy.
Pattie was waiting on me when I was done for the day and we stopped on the way home to grab dinner for the four of us. As we sat and ate and drank wine with our best friends, I couldn't imagine a better start to the next stage of our lives.
Credit to Illy's Hubby Mr. Synnerster. He pointed out that the TMZ set would go in on Mercedes if she didn't give as good as she got...by their opinion, not Sam's and Puck's.
When it comes to reviews & comments, like the T-Birds sang
Gimme more, gimme more, gimme more
Seriously,
The plot bunnies are dying.