SiCela EstNoël
AnniKay

Sam/Mercedes/Puck

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Summary: Winter Break for the College Sophomores of the Learning French Series.
A time to reconnect with family and friends.

Ocho Kandelikas

Gwen Abrams PoV

My second year as the accountant-slash-business manager for KAMA was even more exciting and honestly more lucrative than the year before. I was still splitting my time between handling the money for our parents' corporation and KAMA and their real estate business. It was fun, but rather exhausting. However, that would be changing not far into the new year. I'd already found four newly graduated accounting and finance students from UNOH and OSU Lima. They were going to start as soon as we got into the new office in February, hopefully not March…that was the worst case scenario for me with Tax Day coming so soon thereafter. In addition to those three young men and one young woman, I'd found a young lady who had a degree in business management from the University of Pennsylvania. She was a perfect candidate for the position as my assistant business manager. She had been laid off from Countrywide Finance after the housing bubble burst. After looking for a new job in New York until her savings had been exhausted and she'd been forced to move back to Findlay. Currently she lived with her mother in her childhood home. Sunni Gonzalez was not quite thirty, but she was rebuilding her life. I was happy to give her the chance to make a start at getting back to independence. She would earn her freedom by helping me manage the three major clients for whom I was responsible.

She and I discussed her finding an apartment in Lima, but when I mentioned the housing development that we were going to start building and our projected build start date of January twenty-sixteen, Sunni wisely made the decision to save up and buy one of the townhomes that would be the first stage of the residential build. She missed living by herself, but after having rented for years and being left with nothing to show for it, she was far more comfortable with the idea of homeownership than she had been when she was younger. While the junior accountants would not officially begin until the new office opened, Sunni had started almost immediately after being hired. There was enough room for her to work with me in my home office. Over the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I brought her up to speed first on the financial dealings of Amicitiae Amore.

At our first meeting I had Sunni complete her human resources paperwork and the non-disclosure agreement that Antwan had created specifically for my staff moving forward. We also had some very, very rigid agreements that laid out how stringently they would be prosecuted if they tried to steal from any of my clients from KAMA all the way down to Mrs. Gunderschmund whose taxes I'd been doing since I was twenty-two years old and fresh out of college. All my employees had the same benefits package as KAMA's band and employees…all of the employees of Amicitiae Amore and Amor Verissima's employees really. Her salary package started at ninety thousand but would go up to a hundred based on performance, by the end of her first year. The accountants would start at sixty-five and build up to a more competitive seventy-five thousand by the end of their first year.

To begin teaching her all that she needed to know, I started by explaining to her how it all came about. Then I launched into how it had morphed and changed since its inception. "So where we stand now, is that KAMA has paid down the original debt of the corporation from the just under three point two five million dollar total debt they had on the record when the kids moved to New York down to where it currently stands at slightly under one point one five million. That changes every time the kids get a royalty check and Artie, Santana and Brittany get paid. I'm fairly sure that they will stop the current rate of repayment when they feel as if they have paid off all the debt that we parents took out to see to their education…but the thing is that they haven't said that so I may well be wrong." I shrugged. I was fairly certain that I was wrong, but Roger, Sander, Benton, George and Burt all said that I was to cut them off from being able to affect the debt of Amicitiae Amore as soon as the original debt of the house was paid off. We parents were just as determined as our children to stand on our own feet.

Sunni gave me a wicked grin. "I haven't actually met Sam Evans, Mercedes Jones or Noah Puckerman beyond what I've seen on interviews and read in articles and even I know that they are already coming up with a work around for whatever you told the other parents you'd do. You know that too, right?"

I nodded. "Probably." We shared a laugh. "Now, moving forward, there is the new debt that we parents have taken out to start their commercial and residential real estate venture. However, that debt will begin to be offset by the income from the commercial venture within the next two months. We're under contract for all the anchor stores and eighty-seven percent of the other store fronts. The office park behind the retail plaza is under contract for ninety-three percent of the spaces and the other seven percent are actually being held for a couple of us that we are hoping to talk into joining us there rather than continuing to work from home in one case and the other will be the space for the residential build sales office." I didn't add that if all went as planned with the commercial spaces we'd have paid down the new debt in four to five years. We went over the full spectrum of the plan for the residential build in Allen County. "If this is a success, Sander, Benton and George will be looking at expanding this a little further."

Once we finished with looking through the needs of the parents' business, we had lunch, then came back and started to look into the kids' business. Without giving her any more information that what Sam had already shared in the media, I helped Sunni understand the reason that KAMA was diversifying their portfolio so broadly and spending comparatively little of their quarterly earnings. Then we got to work. I showed her how when their quarterly royalties came in, I moved the money from the main account to all the other accounts where the funds needed to 'live'. The first set of buckets were their individual accounts. One half of one percent of their earnings went into their individual checking accounts. Those accounts paid for their day to day living. The next thing that needed to happen was the payment of their outstanding debt. That debt was actually almost completely comprised of the money they'd borrowed for all their land buys. The apartment complex in Georgia, the townhome complex in South Carolina, the quadplex in Harlem. They group had taken out loans to buy or build those, but every quarter since we'd moved on them, I'd been able to pay off a full year of the principle of each of the loans. I had another bucket that held the money for the auto-payments on their small credit card balances. I also filled the 'buckets' that are utilized to handle their payroll and their coming touring costs. The last thing I did personally was to refill the money available to pay off the black card charges. Saul actually handled the transfer since he had set up that account for them…but I made sure that the money was available for him every quarter. I may have also double checked that it was always paid as close to in full as humanly possible…I was a mom…I worried.

The rest of the money they earned was divided among the different investment portfolio. However, that wasn't the end of my job. Once that was done, and all the quarterly income taxes were handled, I started looking around for KAMA's next property venture. I had several criteria for those properties. I looked in all the MAJOR cities and in smaller cities that had large college presences or massive business development. I also looked into how well that city was or had rebounded from the most recent recession. If their housing market had been decimated by the bursting of the housing bubble, that usually meant there were a lot of people who had gone through foreclosures and maybe even bankruptcy. Now if the city's housing market had then rebounded well, those same people wouldn't have the credit to get back into homeownership for at least seven years. They would still need good, quality homes. They often turned to apartment complexes and rental homes to keep a roof over their heads. In places with a large number of people hoping to rebuild their credit and be able to move back into owning their own homes, being the owner of a really nice apartment complex was a great revenue stream.

Sam had certain criteria that lessened the short term profitability for many of the builds. He wanted to basically offer luxury apartments and yet keep the rent to the lower end of the spectrum. I loved his dedication to helping others, but it did lengthen the time it would take to recoup the entire initial outlay and start to see seventy-five to eighty percent profitability on their investment. While Noah and Mercedes saw the ways that we could increase the moneys coming in from their real estate ventures, they loved Sam and he very happy with doing things in a way that he knew helped others…so that was the way we were doing them. I was hoping to have their property management group ready with complexes in every region of the country by the end of twenty fifteen or the end of the first quarter of twenty-sixteen. Saul and I had made quite a bit of in roads on setting aside the funds to do so. While Madeline St. James and I had been scouring different commercial property sales sites to find the right complexes to purchase.

As if I didn't have enough on my plate, while I was training Sunni, handling several of my small business tax accounts, managing the accounting of Amicitiae Amore, KAMA, and Amor Verissima; George had me choosing fixtures and paint colors and flooring from the palettes Terry had created for our office park. Terry, himself, would have one of the small offices for his independent design firm…and Antwan and I were helping him set up his LLC. Thankfully, that meant that he was available whenever I needed his help. I certainly wasn't comfortable with all of that, but Sander had been kind enough to handle the layout of the office for me so I couldn't really complain about having to pick the colors. Even after I made the decisions, I wasn't sure about my choices so I made sure that I had Roger go over them. I was right to do so. He'd had to change my darker flooring choice to a honey colored bamboo hardwood that worked better with the ivory with hints of very light gold that I had picked for the walls. To be honest, I think Roger was more excited than I was about the new office. He'd already gone online and picked out some 'dream' furnishings for the office and everything.

When Artie and his girls got home for the holiday, I was very, very happy to have my baby boy home. It was especially meaningful since he was able to be home for all seven nights of Hanukkah. It was a wonderful feeling to have him with us for such an important night. We didn't necessarily attend synagogue every Sabbath, but we did observe all the high holidays. And yet as much as I loved having him with us without having to share him with his girlfriends, I could tell that being away from them for so long was negatively affecting him. He wasn't sleeping well and that was making him very, very cranky. By the time Saturday came around, I was pretty sure that I was happier about their date day than he was. So much so that I was rushing Roger out the door a little before we'd planned to leave to go and look at furnishings and supplies for my new offices. George had let us all know that he was on schedule for us to be in the space by Valentine's Day. Benton, Burt, Antwan, even George, Sander and Jake had all begged me to handle finding the best office supplies distributor for our offices and store fronts. So Roger and I were planning on scoping out what the retail chains could offer us that day. Then I'd send out feelers to the regional and national online suppliers on Monday.

However, before we got to the 'work' of the day, we were scheduled to have lunch with Maribel and Santiago and Melanie and Christopher. While we had more technically in common with Melanie and Chris Pierce, Roger and I tended to get along better with the very charming Latino couple. It did help that Maribel loved to help me whenever I had to find clothes for the numerous events that came with being a member of KAMA's camp. She said she really enjoyed it and to be honest, I enjoyed shopping with her more than I'd ever enjoyed shopping in my life. We met them at noon at Vivance Cuisine in the public square. Despite it being a vegetarian restaurant, we each found something delicious to eat. Maribel was kind enough to wait until we'd finished eating and chatting about our kids and the return on investment that would probably be seen by all the parents in the corporation's newest venture before she dropped the kid's newest bombshell on us. "Santana is planning on talking to Artie and Brittany about the three of them building a house here in Lima where they would live together when they come home for visits."

I think my jaw hit the table. 'But…but…But…we'll never see them." I stuttered.

Roger reached over and patted my hand. "Come now dear…if they have a house here, where they can lived together as they do in Harlem…then chances are good that they will come home more often, not less. You know that as long as my parents were alive, we saw them a lot less often than yours. If they have a place here, as long as the Pierces and the Lopezes don't move away, we are a lot better off than a lot of parents of sons."

I couldn't really respond with anything more than a blush. It was true. I'd picked where we lived and Lima was far closer to my parents in Toledo than it had been to his in Pittsburgh. Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah and Passover Seders had always been spent with my parents. His parents got shorter holidays like Yom Kippur and Purim. "I didn't think about how they must have felt."

He just chuckled. "My parents knew that it would happen…it's just part of having a son. Wives and mothers tend to have a stronger bond with their families. Now, if we can show Santana and Brittany that we fully support and care about them, as I know we both do, they will make sure to include us more. You and my mother…"

"Your mother hated me." I pointed out. I looked at our friends. "It was true. She thought that I was too prissy and prudish. I heard her tell her husband when we first met and nothing I could do got her to change her mind." I defended.

Maribel's laughter rolled over us. "Darling, you are prissy and prudish. You probably would have been better served by realizing that and relaxing around her. You were trying too hard and often that becomes an unforgivable sin."

I sighed. The only problem with Maribel Lopez was that she had all the social aptitude I lacked. It was quite irritating at times. "Where were you when I was twenty years old?" I asked rhetorically.

"Oh Gwen, if you and Mari had known each other in college…you wouldn't have been prissy or prudish by the time you were twenty." Santiago said giving his wife a loving, and slightly salacious grin. "She was quite the corrupting influence on all her college roommates."

Melanie and I shared looks. In that moment we were both very grateful that we'd not encountered Maribel Manjarrez Lopez any earlier in her life than we had. "Thank you Santi…now, as I was saying, I think it is a marvelous idea for the kids to put down their roots here in Lima. If they have a house here when they finish school, given that they hope to have jobs where they will have large blocks of time off they are far more likely to come here during those blocks if they don't have to get a hotel room or worse sleep apart. Santana hasn't gotten a full night's sleep since she got back. I'm sure that Brittany and Artie are just as bad."

Melanie and I nodded in agreement. "Brittany isn't just not sleeping…I haven't seen her dance in two days."

We all understood exactly how major it really was if Brittany wasn't dancing. Anyone who'd met her for five minutes would have understood that. So I had to put aside my own selfishness, again, and do what was best for our kids. "So, what can we do to help?" I asked. Roger gave me a one armed hug to show me his pride and cosigned the question. So for the next half hour we talked through what we could to do to help. Maribel was already planning on helping them by picking colors and flooring and all that crap. Roger quickly volunteered to act as her assistant. He and I were going to get together the current ADA compliance guidelines for Sander, who would more than likely end up doing the plans and blue prints. Melanie and Christopher just planned to help out wherever they could. When we broke to enjoy the rest of our afternoon, I was actually rather enthusiastic about the whole prospect. For the most part, I did for Artie, Santana and Brittany the same financial management that I handled for Mercedes, Noah and Sam so I knew that they would be able to afford a very nice home and I really did want that for them. We had a lovely dinner that night also with the people who, according to the plans our children were making, would share my grandchildren just joined by our kids as well.

Even though I really didn't have a whole lot on my plate work wise over the holiday, time still seemed to whiz by. Before I knew it, it was Wednesday and Artie was getting ready to take his girls out to dinner. It was to be one of the most important dinners of his young life. He'd told us all about their plans at breakfast. A part of me finally understood how Roger's mother had felt when she met me. As if I had specifically come into the picture just to steal her little boy away. I'd felt that way about Santana and Brittany at first. Then I'd decided that they were probably just using him for his brains and satisfying their own pride by bartering their bodies for his help in passing their classes. It hadn't taken but one conversation with Santana, and one time when I was muttering a long string of number as I added them together only for Brittany to give me the correct answer without a scrap of paper or a calculator, to disabuse me of that theory.

"So we all know that we cannot get married…Mercedes and I did the research on those laws one day when we were bored in study hall senior year…but we want people to understand how deeply we are committed to each other. We understand that our love is strange and wrong to a lot of people. We saw the reactions to Commune's engagement…but we want to do this for us." He said honestly.

"It is your right." Roger told him with a proud smile. "If anyone has trouble with the three of you loving each other and being committed to each other…you can do as your friend Noah does and just tell them to kiss your ass."

I agreed stridently. "So you got them each a ring? Can I see them?"

He smiled and reached into his pocket. "Well, me and Tana went in together to get Brittany's ring and Brits and I did the same for Santana's." He showed me a pretty ring that looked like a blooming rose with pave diamonds in platinum or white gold as the petals and forming the band. The center diamond was large, but not obnoxiously so. The ring was really pretty and I knew immediately that it was the ring he and Santana had picked for Brittany. Santana's ring on the other hand was very simple. A platinum band with three small diamonds leading to the eight tines holding the octagonally cut center diamond in place. The thing that set her ring apart was that the center diamond was big as fuck. I rarely cursed, but that was the only way I could put it even in my head. That more than spoke to the tru size of that rock. Santana and Maribel would love it as much as Brittany would love hers. I was certain that while Melanie might be a little uncomfortable with the untraditional nature of Britt's ring, ultimately, she would come to love it as well since it was so uniquely, utterly Brittany.

"They are perfect for Brittany and Santana." I assured my slightly nervous son. "I can just look at them and tell exactly whose ring is whose." I gave him a firm hug. "I know that you might not believe me after how I behaved when you guys first got together…but I really do think that this is wonderful and I will never be able to express how grateful I am to them for how happy they make you."

His father clapped him on the back with fatherly pride and Artie headed back into his room to finish getting ready. We did our family's menorah lighting before we took Artie meet his girls for his date and after he headed into the restaurant, Roger and I went and grabbed a bite to eat ourselves. As we sat on the couch with our Chinese dinner, Roger said something that I hadn't even been considering at all. "You know…once Artie moves out…we could sell this place and make a hell of a lot of money."

I didn't say anything for a long while. When I did open my mouth, the inane came out. "I didn't know that you were even contemplating that yet. We have quite a ways to go before retirement."

He just shrugged. "Yes, we do. But if we wait, the area may not still be the it place to move to and then we won't get as much for the house as we could now."

"Do you really think we'd get enough for our house to make that much of a difference?" I asked in disbelief.

"The Watkins around the corner…they were approached by a family and couldn't resist the offer. According to Mike, they got five seventy-five for their house and they have one less bedroom and bathroom and they don't have a barrier free first level."

We did have an extra selling feature in Artie's room which had originally been a second living space. After the accident, we'd weighed the idea of installing a lift or an elevator versus turning the rarely used family room and powder room into a suite for our son. Ultimately, it had been a better idea to create a nice sized wheelchair accessible bathroom and bedroom for Artie which gave him almost total independence. We were all extremely happy with our decision. Okay, the truth was that Roger and Artie had been determined that I wasn't going to make Artie into an invalid and eventually I'd realized that they were right. Over the years we'd, bit by bit, as we could afford it, made sure that Artie could go wherever he wanted on the first floor of the house. We'd removed all the barriers to our son's independence. It was the very best choice we'd ever made and we didn't regret it at all.

"But then where would we live?" I asked stupidly.

He chuckled and gave me a hug. Roger had known me for a hell of a long time. He knew that I was pretty resistant to change until I found something to get excited about. "I was thinking about that. You know that Sander and George were talking about having three phases to their residential section…he showed me some of the plans he's started playing with. He has one plan for a three bedroom, one level house with one of those master bathrooms like you see on those shows you watch on HGTN. It has a study for when you want to work from home and will hold all my books. He said that the blueprints will include an unfinished walkout basement on the lots with a slant to them. Of course, for an extra charge they will finish the basement as a rec room with a wet bar and bathroom."

I looked thoughtful…I liked the idea of a basement with a bathroom but rather than a rec room, I'd prefer a full on library type of room. The study could be a mutual office for both of us and the library could be somewhere that we just relaxed and sipped wine late at night and just enjoyed each other's company. I said as much to Roger and he smiled. "I'd love to sit with you in front of a fire with a nice craft beer as you read one of those horrible romance novels you pretend you don't buy and I'm reading one of the sci-fi novels I don't even try and hide. We'd need a ridiculously comfortable couch and one of those ottomans with the tray in the middle for our drinks."

We snuggled together. "I'm going to miss having him under our roof." I sighed. "Even tonight, the house feels as if he is coming home…but when he's in New York, it just feel…"

"Empty." Roger finished for me. "It is strange, but true. The way the house just feels so damn empty even with the two of us here and…I mean, remember, when the accident happened, we were in the process of applying to adopt a child, but after your recovery and Artie's physical therapy and rehabbing the whole house and all that we went through during that time, we never got back to that place. So we don't need this big a house. Perhaps, it's time to let some new young family make it their home."

I nodded. We had both been only children and we'd had the same fertility problems that our parents had experienced. Low sperm motility for him, polycystic ovaries including one so bad it had had to be removed before I was twenty-five for me. We'd wanted more children, but after the accident I was grateful that we'd only had Artie. If there had been a child in the backseat of my car that day, they would have been killed. I would have never made it back from that. Adopted or not, that child would have been mine. Some people are strong enough that they can lose a child and recover from that loss. I was never that strong. "I guess you're right. But if we do sell the house and move…we're paying Terry or Maribel…because interior decoration is not my strong suit." We shared a laugh and cleaned up our mess. That night, we made love and it felt every bit as passion filled as it ever had.

Over the next few days, we finished celebrating Hanukah and celebrated Christmas, as much as we ever did. I texted both Santana and Brittany to let them know how much I loved Artie's ring and how grateful I was that they were my daughters-in-law. When I saw them at the Boxing Day pot luck, I made sure to give them both big hugs and admire their rings. I gave them the small gifts I'd gotten them for Christmas and the seven donations in observance of Hanukah that I'd made in each of their names to charities, I hoped that they would find worthwhile. It seemed like it was just minutes later we were taking them to the airport to catch their flight back to the city that never sleeps. Fortunately, they were back just over a week later. We got a lot worked out. We were moving forward and it really felt good. Two-thousand and fourteen had been far different than I ever would have dreamed it would or could be. Twenty-fifteen was only going to get better…or worse depending on the perspective.

Haja Johnston PoV

Despite having a perfect job and a damn fine life. I had no desire to return to Mississippi to show off all that I had achieved since graduating high school. But I also had no desire to spend the holidays in my good sized Manhattan apartment all by my damn self. So I called my brother Barnaby and found out that he was currently kicking up rocks in our original country of origin, jolly old England. He understood my plight and encouraged me to make arrangements to spend the holiday with him. I took the seven-hour flight from Newark to Heathrow with no little trepidation. While I spoke to Barnaby often and we exchanged emails at least every other day, the simple truth was that I hadn't seen my brother face to face in almost a decade.

Growing up, if I had been the antithesis of what our Mississippi home town had expected of a male child, Barnaby had been exactly what they wanted. He was athletic. He was attractive. He was smart, but not too bookish. He played every sport effortlessly. While I went to college to get the hell out of dodge, Barn had gone into the military. He had proven that it was the right choice for him just as college had been the right one for me. He'd gone in right after high school and he'd served in the navy for four years before getting out, getting bachelor's degrees in both information technologies and international relations, in under three years. Then he got right back into the Navy and went through officer's training and into the Seal program. Barnaby had been or still was, he and Cal were both a little weird about their statuses as to that, one hell of a Seal and I was more proud of his accomplishments than I was of my own and that was saying something because I was really damn proud of myself. He was no longer in the military, instead he worked for a Blackwater type international private security firm called Hellebore.

The provided many of the same services as Rangeman just on an even bigger, international, scale. However, when I'd checked Rangeman out to make sure that they were good for my clients, Barns had had nothing but great things to say about Ranger Manoso and his multistate firm. He, in fact, had good things to say about almost all of the men who were assigned to guard KAMA's back. He knew several of them by their call signs because they were former Seals themselves. Barnaby encouraged me to get to know one of his former grunts, a guy named Cal who worked for Rangeman. I wasn't sure about doing so…then I met him. Cal was six foot six with twenty-two inch broad shoulders and the muscles to make his broad frame look even more fantastic. He had a very military haircut, but there was enough hair there to show that it was really dark and really thick. His eyes were a gorgeous shade of green that made me finally understand JK Rowling's descriptions of her most famous title character's eyes. I didn't find his flaming skull tattoo off putting in the least. I loved the fact that he had nicknamed it Johnny Blaze. He and I talked often over the course of the two months he was part of KAMA's security detail. After he returned to Trenton, we still talked and saw each other whenever we could. The man was amazing in bed. Though from what I heard from Darcy…that may have been as much a hiring requirement at Rangeman as being ridiculously attractive seemed to be.

He was working over the holiday, providing protection for Rangeman's residential clients, so that Ranger would be able to have time off over the season. Traditionally Ranger had worked so that his employees could have the time off, but his mother had apparently put her foot down and demanded that all her children spend Christmas at her home that year. Cal was apologetic, however, I wasn't sure I was ready for our relationship to become 'spend the holidays together' serious yet. I did find and buy him a really nice Forseti steel hunting knife. The first time he disrobed with me he was wearing three knives in addition to his side arms. He told me that he actually preferred knives to guns but had broken one when dealing with a 'skip'. So I thought it would be a good gift. He agreed with me that it was a perfect gift for him. His gift to me was just as thoughtful and borderline expensive. He gave me a Pebble smartwatch with a black band that I fell totally in love with once I got it synced with my phone.

After the wonderful KAMA employee Christmas party, Cal and I spent a lovely weekend together. He and Barns ended up having the chance to chat over face time. For some strange reason, I found it really hot that my brother and the man who I was really finding myself caring for were getting along. Barnaby had hated every man I'd ever dated. None of them were good enough for me as far as my brother was concerned. Granted, he had the nauseatingly annoying track record of being right about that…but there was something of a principle involved. Unfortunately, the fact that the two of them got along also meant that Cal was in on Barns' super big secret and neither of them would tell me what it was. I laughed when I realized how petty I was being and made it up to Cal in the best possible of ways. Of course, on Monday, we had to part company. However, he was kind enough to take me to Newark International to catch my flight.

Despite the fact that I had an early flight from the US, with the time changes, Barns was done for the day when he picked me up and drove me to his two bedroom Dalston flat. "I'm sure you're tired and hungry, so why don't we order up some curry." He said after taking my bag to his guest room. "Unless you'd rather have something else." He asked with a wicked smirk on his face.

I laughed and threw a sofa pillow at him in appreciation of his sarcasm. I loved curry. I lived for curry. Barns and our mother felt certain that it was ironic since I'd not allowed her to touch the stuff when I was in utero. The food was soon ordered and we talked and caught up on the different aspects of the family gossip. The simple truth was that between the two of us we usually were able to get both sides of the story between our sister Catriona and our mum Fiona monthly arguments. Like all mum's children, Catriona had gotten a college education, including a doctorate in international relations and fluency in fifteen languages and moved to New York where she got a job with the UN. She was currently living in Brussels, still working for the United Nations. She was in her late twenties, spoke fifteen languages, held doctorates in both International Relations and International Law. She was also unmarried and tended to date men for no longer than six months thus ending the relationship before things could get too serious. Barns and I were fairly certain that she was aromantic, but none of us wanted to be the one to tell out mother.

All of Mum and Cat's contentions stemmed from Catriona's decisions when it came to her private life. Mum bragged on Cat's professional life more than anyone back home could really stand. That wasn't to say that Mum wasn't proud of all of her children, but eighty-five percent of Barnaby's accomplishments couldn't be discussed with anyone outside the military and as far as the citizens of Crowder were concerned, my being gay meant that any accomplishments I had were somehow lessened by my sexuality. It was a sick sad world but that was how they felt. That was fine. They were all jealous of Mum anyway because over the years as we'd made more and more money, Barns, Cat and I had renovated Mum's sixteen hundred square foot house from top to bottom and added a nice large master suite for her comfort. She now had one of the nicest houses in town and we made sure that she always had good dependable care. She didn't want to move from the place where she'd raised us, so we made sure that she was as comfortable as we could.

Barns and I ate and talked and talked and talked until too fucking early o'clock in the morning. It was perfect. The bed in the guest room was a wicked cool Murphy bed since the guest room also served as an office. It was long enough and more comfortable than I would have ever believed it could be. I'd arrived two Mondays before Christmas. So we had time to do touristy things that Barns had avoided when it was just him alone. We also had time to do some Christmas shopping. For Mum, I found a beautiful Burberry Ashby check purse and matching Merino wool and cashmere poncho and scarf set. Barnaby then decided that he'd get her a pair of diamond earrings and a pretty custom made bracelet that held four different gemstones repeated over and over in the same pattern around the classic 'tennis' formation. He had elected to go completely old school and use a chart of birthstones from the fifteenth through early twentieth centuries that he'd found online rather than going with the modern ones. He'd printed out the list of stones as they'd originally been assigned on some beautiful rose parchment paper and had that framed to put in with the gifts. According to his list the stones were a moonstone for Mum's August birthday, a bloodstone for Barnaby's December birth, an aquamarine for my own October birth and a cat's eye for our changeable Gemini, Catriona's June birthdate. It was strangely very beautiful. So much so that, upon seeing the finished bracelet, he and I went in together to have the same jeweler make her a matching necklace and earring. Then we thought about it and decided to have him make each of Mum's children simple banded rings that had the stones inlayed into sterling silver. It would be a nice way to keep each other close no matter how far apart we actually were. And the rings weren't really a problem since none of us were in any kind of a hurry to get married.

We got Mum's gifts sent off with enough time to ensure that they would reach her by the Tuesday before Christmas then started looking around for something for each other and Catriona. Suddenly, Barns looked at his watch and hustled me out of the store and to the tube. As soon as we stepped foot through his door, he grabbed the bags I was carrying and shoved me toward the bathroom. "You do have something good for a higher end club, right?" he asked quickly. Not that I had a chance to answer as he pushed me into the bathroom and closed the door behind himself.

Within an hour we were both showered, shaved, and heading back out the door. Barnaby dragged me back to the rube and before I knew it, he was giving the door man of a ritzy, sexy little East End club called 'The Admiral's Arms' two tickets and showing him a couple of passes. We were ushered in to the club and shown to seats very close to the front. Probably most people would have been asking a million and three questions trying to figure out what the hell was going on, but both Barns and I were far more of the 'go with the flow' kind of people. It was very rare that I was disappointed when I did go with the flow and that night was no exception to the rule. There in that club with its unassuming, kind of run down exterior and its plush, almost opulent interior, was a gorgeous nine foot long Yamaha grand piano. Seated at the piano was the most easily, most immediately, recognizable white man on the planet…at least to me…Sir Elton Hercules John. Elton John was playing at a tiny, intimate, little venue and we were just in time to see him.

I was totally, internally, fangirling all over the place. Watching and hearing Elton John play live was a lifelong dream and my brother was giving it to me as the best Christmas present in the history of the entire world. Sir Elton played some of my favorites of his classics and some amazing renditions of many traditional Christmas songs…it was one of the greatest moments of my entire life. At least that was what I thought, until Barnaby gave me a back stage pass. We headed to the back and I got to meet the Rocket Man face to face. "Sir Elton thank you so much for the tickets and passes. This is my brother Haja, who I told you about. He has been a fan since he was a kid."

I shook hands with Elton John. I shook hands with Elton John. I SHOOK HANDS WITH ELTON JOHN. I willed myself to calm down. I'd met and shaken hands with a good number of world famous musicians over my career, only two of them had made me squeal in my head like a little girl. Both of them I'd met in the time since I'd started working with KAMA, Prince and Elton John. "Sir Elton, you have no idea how much I am stomping on my inner fan girl to keep her contained. It is such a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

His laughter was almost lyrical it was so musical. "Mr. Johnston, when your brother asked me to help him give his younger brother a once in a lifetime Christmas gift…I really couldn't say no. the man saved my life."

"I am very proud of how many times I've had someone tell me that. He really is a particularly good brother." I returned.

Sir Elton gave me a long, measuring look. "I've been trying to puzzle out why your name seems so familiar, Mr. Johnston."

I smiled. I had wondered how closely he watched his management. "I am the artist manager for KAMA. I worked with Julian to get your permission for KAMA to record a cover of your beautiful song 'Believe'." I replied honestly. Julian Wright and I had hammered out the details over the course of the month of November, Sir Elton had signed off on it during the first week of December and the song was scheduled to be one of the first recorded for KAMA's sophomore album."

"Oh yes. I remember now. You know your clients are quite extraordinary. Ms. Jones has a voice you only hear once or twice in a generation. And her lovers…their instrumentality is very rare for young people their age. I was quite surprised that such young people would be interested in a song recorded probably before they were born." Sir Elton chuckled.

I understood his curiosity. "Well, the simple truth is that all three of them were raised in households filled with music. Sam's parents love country and top forties music. Puck's father listened to heavy metal and his mother is a huge Springsteen, Prince and Michael Jackson fan. Mercedes' family introduced her to a huge variety of genres from a very young age. It is probably why there doesn't seem to be a single type of music she can't handle and do so beautifully. 'Believe' was Sam's suggestion. If I remember correctly, it's one of his mother's favorite songs."

"Yes, the songs our mothers sing to us do leave a very lasting impression." Sir Elton said with a grin. "Well, I'll be honest, I am quite looking forward to hearing what your clients are going to do with the song. Their version of 'Rescue Me' was transcendent."

"Oh wow…you have no idea how much that will mean to them." I told him honestly. He smiled and took a selfie with me. Unfortunately, we didn't get to talk for very much longer, he had other fans to meet. He did tell me to have Darcy contact his social media manager so KAMA and he could become friends online. I knew that that news would make a whole lot of people's days.

I managed to hold it together until we got back outside. But as soon as the fresh air hit me, my inner fangirl popped out and did a happy dance all over the place. I had never had a night like that in my life. The whole way home I was still geeking out. "He played 'Candle in the Wind' Barns…that is my favorite song about a dead movie icon of all time." I said happily. We stopped at a simple ocakbasi restaurant that was open late and had kebabs. By the time we made it back to Barns' apartment I was full and happy and had finally calmed down.

We didn't make it to bed until like three in the morning, so when someone started banging on the door at seven-thirty the next morning, it was really rather painful. I don't think either of us were awake, though Barns was armed to the teeth. Okay, so he had one knife, but it was a big ass knife. He looked through the view hole and chuckled. "I'm only opening the door so we can go back to sleep." He said as he unlocked the complex locking system.

When he opened the door, the first thing I saw was the head full of curly, almost black, brown sista locs and knew immediately that our little sister was in the house. "Kitty Cat, I thought you were stuck in Brussels dealing with that ISIL shit storm?"

She of course rolled her eyes at the use of a 'long forgotten' childhood nickname. "It is Christmas Eve, my big brothers are together in an EU member nation, of course I came. If you didn't want me to come, you really shouldn't have posted all those awesome brotherly love pictures to my Facebook page. Kind of felt like you were rubbing it in that you were together and I was by myself. Granted, I have to leave Saturday morning…but I'll get to spend the holiday itself with you guys."

"Wow…it's been years since we've been in the same place at the same time on a major holiday." Barns laughed.

"Yup…so get dressed and take me somewhere I can buy you two idgeits something for Christmas, because I kind of forgot that part of the whole 'holiday together' thing." Cat shot back.

We both flipped her off and went back to sleep for another couple of hours. The smell of a traditional English fry up woke me up ten. I was feeling both more human and completely starving, so I got out of the bed and threw on a shirt and walked out to find Cat making sausage, American style 'streaky' bacon, fried bread, beans, toasted mushrooms, and even fried tomatoes. Barns joined us and we sat down to eat. It was just wow…"Cat, I didn't know you could cook." I teased.

"Shut up Haja, you have literally no room to talk. You know good and well that your ass eats take out every night." She tossed back.

I shrugged unconcernedly. "I can cook. I just choose not to." I said smugly. We all laughed at my bullshit.

As soon as we finished eating breakfast Barns and I made quick work of cleaning the kitchen back up and we took turns showering and getting dressed. While Barnaby got dressed, I showed Cat the pictures from the night before. She was totally jealous. She told Barns that she wanted to meet Madonna for her birthday. He just laughed, but something told me that if he could make it happen he totally would. We headed to Bond Street and were entirely wrong for making fun of the people we saw on the tube. But in our defense, we did just text it back and forth…we weren't speaking out loud…though that may have actually made it worse. Once we were walking London's historic, luxury shopping district, Cat seemed to zero in on the Louis Vuitton shop like she had sonar and radar and GPS and everything else locked in on the place. She left the store with a mirror bag charm and key holder, a key pouch and a Neverfull GM handbag. She never touched her own wallet the entire time we were in the store.

Then again, I dragged her ass to Bvlgari and didn't touch mine. I left there with the entire Aqva Pour Homme line, a brand new wallet, and an Octo Finissimo watch. Yup…then it was Barnaby's turn. He dragged us to Buccellati and me and Cat had to go in together to get him the watch of his dreams. But we were good with it. I mean, we'd catered to Catriona's wants. She had catered to mine and he had made a lifelong dream of mine come true…so I considered it a small price to pay to make him as happy as he was when we left that store. Once we finished shopping we had lunch at Alyn Williams at The Westbury then headed back to Barns flat. On the way he had some kind of miraculous idea, spent, literally, twelve minutes texting back and forth with someone and suddenly we were all rushing back to go through the clothes we'd each brought with us. Catriona had brought along a black and white, Versace, embellished color blocked, sheath dress and a great pair of amazingly gorgeous Jimmy Choo Romy Feather point-toe pumps that were black, white and red all over. So Barnaby looked through my shit and before I knew it he was decking me out in my white Armani Collezioni dress shirt and flat front slacks from the same line. He tossed me his blazer that matched the slacks, I hadn't brought mine with me thinking that it wouldn't be needed. His was too big in the shoulders but, other than that, it fit well enough. He had two different ties that would highlight Cat's shoes and we each threw one of them on. He'd pulled on a black Diesel blazer and slacks with a barely gray dress shirt so together we looked like a very traditional family…though we were really anything but. His shoes were a very traditional black, men's dress shoe, or so I though. When I looked very closely, I realized that they were actually so dark a red as to be confused with black. I wasn't that subtle, I'd pulled out my Ferragamo, red velvet slip on loafers.

This time Barnaby actually took us to the garage and he drove us to a home in a more residential area of the city. Before I knew it, he had us bundled out of the car and into the building, which apparently housed a photographer. Barns introduced us to his friend Helen. She was very cute…but not pretty or beautiful. She was actually kind of adorable. One of those women who would always have to work harder to prove themselves because just looking at her bred condescension and babying. But she proved to be strong and able and stubborn. She spent twenty minutes chatting at us and relaxing us into basically being our true, goofy selves. Then she grabbed the camera. Ultimately, we looked like grown up versions of our Mum's little kids on a Sunday afternoon before we could get out of our church clothes. It was so much fun. Then she took a few more studied, 'professional' poses. "Alright then, I'm done with ya." She said happily. "Barnaby, you'd better be happy that you introduced me to the Beckhams. You do realize that it is the day before Christmas Eve?" she groused good naturedly. "I'll have them ready later, at least the digital version…and the calendar you want to have printed for your mother. You'll just need to send it to a printer and have it sent on to your mum."

"Thank you Helen. I wouldn't have asked, except this was a shock and who knows when all three of us will be in the same place at the same time again this decade." He laughed and gave her a hug. "It's your own fault for being one of the premier family photographers in the area."

"You owe me for this one, BB." She challenged.

"My boss is allowing me to have his table at Le Gavroche tonight. Why don't you change and join us." Barns offered with a smile.

I was a little surprised when Helen rolled her eyes. "You are only offering because you know that I am due at my mother's in Bristol tonight. One day you'll actually ask me to dinner when I can actually go."

Barnaby just laughed. "Yeah, but not when I'm going anywhere that costs as much as Le Gavroche." He shot back. "You eat like you have two hollow legs. I have no idea how you stay so tiny."

"Shite, I have got to go if I want to get there before Mum locks the house up for the night." Helen said frantically realizing the time. "Catriona, Haja…it was lovely to make your acquaintance. I don't quite know how you survived childhood with Barnaby as a brother…but good on you mates." She shook our heads and shooed us out the door quickly and efficiently.

Cat looked at Barnaby with a minor glare. "When were you going to tell us about dinner?"

He just chuckled. "I just got a response from Angus about thirty minutes ago. Didn't want to get your hopes up too much if I couldn't manage the trick."

I laughed at the flummoxed look on Cat's face. She hated having her emotions tempered by logic. "Well then, lead on MacDuff."

"You know that that isn't the actual quote. The actual quote was 'Lay on MacDuff'. Lay there actually meant 'to make a vigorous attack'." I said with a wicked grin.

Barns and Cat exchanged a long look. "You speak more languages than God and yet somehow he is still the bigger nerd." He said with a grin he knew would take the sting from his words and yet it also served to establish his 'sibling superiority'.

Of course that meant war. The entire rest of the ride to the extremely posh restaurant was filled with torturous teasing as we played a familiar game of taunting one-upmanship. When we arrived at the restaurant, we were seated really quickly. Barnaby's boss had called ahead so they would know that we would be there. Dinner was amazing. The menu was, of course, in French. But that was perfectly fine, while I didn't speak fifteen languages like Catriona or even six like Barnaby, French was one of the two other languages I'd learned over my life. We went all out, hors-d'oeuvres, salads, entrees and dessert. By the time we finished, we were so full it was almost painful. However, thanks to the wine that had accompanied each course, we were feeling no pain. At least Cat and I weren't, Barns was the designated driver, so he'd had less than half a cup of wine with each course and quite a bit of water. Cat and I had killed the rest of two bottles. It was a really good night.

As soon as we were safely back inside Barns' flat, we changed into pajamas and got comfortable. Then we spent the next few hours teasing each other by trying to remember the most embarrassing stories from our childhood about each other. Then we fell asleep on the living room floor like a bunch of morons. The next morning, I cobbled together some scrambled eggs and toast for the three of us, which may or may not have been the only things I could successfully cook, and we ate our breakfast then Skyped with Mum. She was super excited to see us all together. She'd received and opened her Christmas gifts and was in seventh heaven. Catriona had sent her a selection of Brussels chocolates and a few boxes of a native Belgium cookie called Speculoos. She'd also sent her seven Belgian lace handkerchiefs and cook book that gave her recipes for any number of Belgian delicacies and a bunch of nonperishable specialty Belgian ingredients to get her started. She loved the Burberry things, she was already wearing the bracelet very, very proudly…but it was easy to tell that she though that Cat's gifts were super thoughtful. However, the come from behind winner was the set of pictures that Barnaby emailed her signed with all of our names and the fact that she would be getting real photographs and a calendar collect of them. She was so happy that it made the whole trip even more worth it.

We chilled around the flat just talking and reminiscing until Cat and I had no choice but to get some rest. We were both flying out the next day. We did help Barns get his place cleaned back up and we, okay mainly Barns and Cat, made the contents of his refrigerator into a very delightful, if completely untraditional dinner before we repacked our things. Barns told us that he'd send us out rings when they were ready, which necessitated us taking out our phones to show Cat the two identical broad bands and the one feminine version that matched and Barns and I explained the stones that would be inset into the band all the way around it circumference. We also took some time and looked through the entire digital portrait portfolio Barns' friend Helen had taken of us. We quickly made the arrangements to have them all printed and put into a scrap book with an individual shot of each of us and one large shot of all three of us framed and delivered to Mum's home in Mississippi in addition to the calendar. Cat and I got Barns to send each of us the digital portfolio as well, we could easily have them printed ourselves in our respective cities. The next morning, we were all up, fed and watered and out the door by ten local time. My flight left for Newark at a quarter to twelve. Cat's took off for Brussel-Nationaal just a few minutes later. It had been a great vacation and an almost perfect holiday.

Of course, as soon as I got back to New York, it was time to hit the ground running. There were several studio sessions. I couldn't help but feel that Sir Elton Hercules John was going to be amazingly proud of what the artists I managed had created with his words and underlying music. They had revitalized, rearranged and made the song their own. It was beautiful…I immediately started thinking of a video concept that would be perfect for the stunning musical event that they created with that cover. I was greatly looking forward to making my clients even better known, and all together richer in the coming year. Not only because it benefited me, but mainly because they were damn good people and musicians and they deserved it. Oh yes…two thousand and fifteen was going to be a very good year.

If you are an American, please VOTE on or before November 8th.

If you are not an American, please don't laugh at us too much.

No matter where you call home, drop me a review and let me know what you think of this chapter.

TTFN,
Anni