Cuss Jar

"Ama!"

Damnit, she caught me. Rebecca paused washing the dishes to turn to her child, smiling as angelically as she could. "Yes, Vanessa?"

"I heard!"

Shit. "You heard what?" Just a few seconds prior to the altercation, Rebecca had dropped a knife into the sudsy water and cut herself trying to find it, which elicited a curse from her lips. This prompted Vanessa to toddle over with a jar and wiggle it. On the side of it, in Jean's sloppy scrawl, was the words Cuss Jar. "You're hearing things."

"Am not! Pay!" She wiggled the jar again, change bouncing around loudly inside of it.

The idea was to get Becky to cut down on her cursing around the kid, but it hadn't gone as well as he'd hoped. The promise was that once she had enough money, she could do whatever she wanted with it. Assuming they taught her how to use money by then. With the rate Becky was going, she'd have a thousand dollars by the end of the day. She grumbled something about beating him with the jar as she slipped a few quarters into it. "You're getting annoying with that thing, kid."

"You know if you would stop cursing all the time, she wouldn't have to do that." Jean grumbled, closing the fridge door behind him. "I'm just saying, it's not attractive anymore."

"Oh, for God sake. Shut the hell up, Jean. You talk too much sometimes." And there was that irritating sound again. "Fuck."

"That's two," He snickered, watching Nessa walk over with the jar. Just for good measure, she wiggled it again until Becky relented and stuck a five dollar bill in it. "Man, she got you hard that time."

"You know, you're not so innocent yourself," Becky huffed, leaning against the counter. "I've heard you say your fair share of curses. Especially when one of us is hurt."

"The difference is I don't say it loud enough that she can hear me." He corrected, pouring a glass of milk for the toddler. "And besides, I'm a saint. I'm sure you've heard of saint Jean."

Becky turned back around, narrowing her eyes as she went back to her task of doing the dishes. "Bite me."

"Careful, I might just do it." He moved over to put the milk back and looked over his shoulder at Vanessa. "What are you saving up for anyway? Did you ever decide?"

"Shin." She answered matter of fact, dropping the plastic jar onto the table. "I go."

"The hell you will. You can't go alone." Realizing what he'd said, he looked up as his wife started laughing hysterically. "Damnit!"

Becky leaned down and kissed his cheek. "Pay up."