Tiny Tim

Chapter 17

I awoke the next morning feeling lightheaded, which confused me at first, since I had slept like a rock for a solid eight hours! No nightly disturbances requiring me to perform the breathing exercises Danny had taught me, just like the last night I shared my bed with Ava. The next thing I felt, though, were my muscles aching when I tried to move off the bed, which caused the memories of the last evening to flood back into my mind. I smiled upon recounting the events that lead to this muscle pain and explained why I felt so drained.

Ava was still breathing her slow and deep breaths, though she stirred a little when I first attempted to move, and pulled herself closer into me. Although I would never admit it to anyone if asked, my smile grew when she pushed her face into the nape of my neck, placed a light peck on it, and mumbled something unintelligible before falling back into her deep slumber.

I just couldn’t help it. No matter how much I despised her for her past actions, her tight feminine body pressed into mine, those cute little noises, and the soft touches, all felt good. I kept telling myself that enjoying her body didn’t mean I had forgiven her, but at the same time, I also felt like my physical response to her feminine charms was somehow betraying my justified disfavor for her.

Trying to finally reach any kind of conclusion in my inner debate, I took a closer look at her and was surprised about her state. Her face was clearly still streaked with my dried cum, and, looking down at her, so were her thighs and butt. Going by how sticky my own skin felt, I wasn’t in any better state. No matter how tiresome our session was, how could I just fall asleep like that!? I sighed a little when I realized that I would have to wash my sheets for the second day in a row. At least I wouldn’t have to air out the mattress again.

Desperately craving a thorough scrubbing, I carefully extracted myself from Ava’s hold on me, grabbed a pair of fresh shorts, and made my way to get a nice, long, hot shower. When I walked back to my bedroom afterwards, though, I could hear Ava’s giggle as I reached for the door handle, and quickly decided to try and listen to what she was doing. As it turned out, she was on the phone, and it became apparent that she was talking with Claire.

“Sorry Mom, it’s true.” she said in an obviously fake apologetic voice. “I don’t know, yours has more stuff in it, but maybe it was the wine ... No, he put it in the Lasagna...” she giggled “Yes, really ... I’m telling you, last time I ate something so good was when you took us to that restaurant for Logan’s graduation ... That’s what I said, too! He just keeps surprising us ... No, he’s in the shower ... I know because I’m in his bed... “ she giggled some more “Oh, Mom! I didn’t just sleep with him, he fucked me! ... For hours, Mom! I’m, like, seriously sore! I came so much, my stomach feels like I did a thousand crunches. My belly is full o...” She abruptly stopped. When she spoke again, it was in a hurried voice. “ ... uh, Mom, sorry, but I gotta check on something. I’ll call you back later!”

The next thing I heard was her feet hitting the ground, and a lot of shuffling I couldn’t place. So, I decided to check and finally enter my bedroom.

Have you ever seen one of those “Help me Step-Bro, I’m stuck!”-Videos? That was the first thing going through my mind when I saw my sister on her knees, with her head and arms underneath my bed, presenting me with a perfect view of her naked sex. Instead of kneeling behind her and fucking her then and there, however, I just leaned down and gave her ass a good smack, causing her to cry out in surprise.

“WHAT THE ... when did you come back!?” she asked, agitated, while turning so she was now kneeling in front of me.

The view she gifted me before had caused a noticeable bulge to form in my shorts, and now her new position wasn’t in any way less suggestive. The look on her face made any lingering thoughts about simply pulling out my dick and shoving it in her face vanish. She was agitated all right, but not because of me surprising her.

“What’s up?” I asked, trying to figure out what had her on edge.

“I’m just ... well...” Her eyes darted around the room. Not in shame, but instead like she was searching for something.

I noticed the bag with the fake pills sticking out from under the blanket. I walked around the bed to pick it up, and the way Ava’s eyes widened in recognition told me that this was what she had been looking for. Instead of giving them to her, I walked to my nightstand and placed the bag back in the drawer.

“I take it, now that you can think clearly again, you regret what happened last night and want your pills back?” I smirked.

“No ... Yes ... I don’t know.” She looked defeated.

“Keep taking the pills you have in your bathroom.”

“What!? Then ... those aren’t...?” There was hope in her voice. Apparently, she didn’t notice the differences when I showed them to her last night.

“Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t.” I answered in an aloof tone, shrugging my shoulders as I walked to stand behind her. I reached around her, started gently circling her belly button with my fingertips, and whispered in her ear.

“Maybe the pills in your dialpak are fake. In that case, I would have told you to keep taking them so you’d have plausible deniability when your belly starts swelling. After all, the pill only gives you 99% security, so if the parents asked, you could truthfully claim to have never stopped taking your pills.” I proposed, and moved my hand downwards to start slowly massaging her surprisingly hard little knob, causing her to moan and shiver immediately Then I continued talking.

“Or, maybe, the pills in that ZipLock bag are fake, and the ones in your dialpak are real. In that case, I would have lied about switching them out, to provide you with a convincing fantasy of the ultimate submission to your brother. In either case, you should keep taking the pills you have in your bathroom. After all, my little Princess seems to have a serious breeding kink, and I’m sure that little piece of uncertainty makes it just so much better every time your Babybrother’s fertile seed floods your womb.”

Done with my explanation, I kissed her neck again, right underneath her ear, and she had the same sensitive reaction she showed the evening before. The cute little cries I heard, as I relentlessly attacked her most sensitive part with my fingers and forced her to a climax, were elevating. It all reminded me of the power I had over her, and once again made me wonder just why I even enjoyed controlling her so much. When her climax reached its peak, she sank back to her knees exhausted, and placed both hands in her crotch as her shoulders continued to shiver. I guess she wasn’t lying when she told Claire about being sore.

“Anyway” I continued in a casual tone. “If you want to make sure which pills are real, all you have to do is check that drawer. I won’t stop you.”

She looked at me in wonder as I walked around her to enter my closet. I threw her a few hidden glances while I got dressed, and I could almost see the wheels in her head turning.

We had our problems, and it wouldn’t exactly surprise anyone if I wanted revenge, but I surely wouldn’t do it by putting any of them in any real danger or inflicting lasting damage. Getting her pregnant would most certainly constitute lasting damage. My actions during the last two months to help her and the family would, on one hand, give her every reason to believe that she was justified in proclaiming her trust in me last night.

On the other hand, though, the last two months had also proven how little they all knew me anymore. They had no idea how far I had advanced in my job, how capable I had become with a computer, how far my martial arts training had progressed, or how much sexual experience I had gathered. And those were just a few of the surprising revelations they had witnessed since my birthday. So, if she knew so little about me, how could she truly trust me?

When I bent down to pull socks over my feet, I heard my door being shut after she left the room. I smiled, noting that I never heard the drawer in my nightstand being opened.

While Ava was busying herself in her room, I got breakfast started. She seemed to appreciate what I did the day before, so I simply repeated that and put some of the prepared bread rolls into the oven. When she joined me freshly showered, however, she surprised me by moving everything over to the sofa, demanding we eat while finishing Groundhog Day, since we left for the bedroom after having watched merely half the movie in the evening. She seemed to have developed a genuine appreciation for the movie, despite being kind of distracted during the hour we had let it run.

The rest of our Sunday was remarkably unremarkable, aside from the fact that Ava went to surprising lengths in making herself useful. She helped with the laundry, insisted on me guiding her through preparing lunch and dinner while not allowing me to actually touch anything in the kitchen, and, even though it had turned into quite a task, cleaned up the kitchen when she was done. Finally, when it was time for bed, she didn’t even think about going back into her room, but simply walked into mine while pulling me along.

I was a little put off about her behavior, as I couldn’t shake the thought that she acted like a devoted housewife, which was especially disturbing after she painted such vivid pictures of her living with me the night before. However, she assured me it was in preparation for her college days. I didn’t point out that she was planning to attend the local community college while continuing to live in her childhood home, so there was no need for her to suddenly learn how to run a household. Unless, of course, someone had told her about the condo I wanted Danny and John to buy, for her and Maggie to pay fake rent with my cash.

We followed a similar pattern for the following two days. The only remarkable thing about those was the sudden appearance of Jack during Ava’s and Mia’s cheer practice. Although he, unlike me, was welcome to watch the girls practice, he chose to spend the time with me in the hallway and ask me questions about my life, skills, and hobbies. I couldn’t help but feel interrogated, and what irritated me even more was that his father joined in on that when he and Nora accompanied us once more to the self-defense training.

Contrary to my original plans, I allowed Ava to stay the nightbefore Wednesday in my apartment. I simply had no desire to make the two-hour drive after our training session, and she made the most of it. She somehow discovered the bondage gear I had ordered with the buttplug, and wanted to make our last night together memorable. She demanded, really, I tie her wrists to her ankles and fuck her in every hole for as long as I could manage. In her words, she wanted to be “unable to walk until school started up again”, and I saw no reason to decline, leading pretty much to a repeat of the night I had used the Cialis pill.

The next morning, we were still butt naked in bed, when she started acting pensive.

“Alright, spit it out. What’s up with the fidgeting act?” I finally gave in to her blatant attempt to make me ask.

“Well ... when I go home ... you know, when we all get together, we normally...” She wanted to avoid speaking it out loud.

“ ... engage in a massive family orgy. Yes, I know. It wasn’t lost on me that I somehow found myself alone these last few Christmas Eves.”

“Well ... what if they, like, want me to join them? What do you want me to do?”

I blinked at her, unsure how to answer, since I had not expected that development. Was she seriously seeking permission to have sex with other people? What did she think we were to each other!?

“Personally, I’d say fuck ‘em.” I chuckled and got out of bed. “But you? We’re not a couple, Ava. There’s no love between us, so there are no feelings you could hurt by sleeping with someone else.”

I didn’t even realize how quiet it had gotten, until I turned around in search of my clothes and finally noticed the look on her face.

“You ... don’t ... love me?” She didn’t quite look like she was hurt, but certainly sad.

“I think we had that discussion before.” I replied, as diplomatic as I could.

“I just thought ... After how we were this last week...” she said in a weak voice.

“Ava, what do you think this is?” I asked while waving my hand from her to myself and back, getting more serious now, and she gave me an uncertain look. “This is not us becoming girlfriend and boyfriend. I think I made it very clear that I have no interest in being part of your family anymore, and that didn’t change. Did you think you could make up for the years you were shitting all over me, by spending a week as a decent human being and getting me off a few times?”

“No! ... Of course not.” She did, though. I could hear it in her voice and see it in her eyes when she denied it. “But I told you I’ll do anything you want! Just tell me what!” I believed to hear a smidge of disappointment underneath the desperation.

“You know, I’ve thought about this a lot since Danny asked me that same question. And I kinda got the conclusion that there isn’t some kind of great gesture you could pull off, that could somehow magically fix this. All nine of you made it very clear, for a long time, that you had no interest in having me around. That killed any meaningful relationship we once had, and I’m still not sure why I should bother to build something new. The shit with Logan’s tuition definitely just proved that, at least when it comes to Aaron and Claire, I was dead right to not believe the bullshit they told me.”

“Not me, though?” she asked, hopeful.

“I admit ... You, Danny, and John seem to be trying to do better.” I sighed. “When you asked me to help you make dinner, I could tell you never did that before, but wanted to learn. Since I did my own laundry in the house already, I also know that you never did that before either, but you did it here. Most importantly, though, you told me about the installment plans für tuitions, instead of covering for Aaron like you would have in the past. I appreciate that.”

I could literally see her eyes lighting up when I said that. Suddenly, however, she became pensive again.

“What if ... Mom is, like, not happy about Dad taking your money, either?” she said, carefully watching my reaction. “I think she knows about the payment options. And from what she told me on the phone the day before yesterday, I think she’s really mad at Dad because of it.”

“So?” I said, and she looked at me confused. “Okay. Let’s speculate for a bit. Since one of her more valued children left the house, she probably went directly into your room after we left, maybe sat on your bed, thought about you, and did all the other chliché shit mothers do when they miss a child that just moved out. Then she possibly found the financial paperwork you left on your desk.”

“How do you...?” She looked at me in almost shocked surprise, which told me that, what Claire had told her on the phone, was exactly what I had just surmised.

“I spent years trying to understand your behavior. I became quite good at it.” I waved her off. “Anyway, she knew since then. That was six days ago, Ava. In those six days, did she call me? Did she apologize? Did she do anything to get me my money back? No, she spent the last week bickering with her husband, but in the end, she just accepted the money and didn’t do shit about me being fucked over yet again.”

“But she really sounded like she was really mad with Dad. I think...” she tried, though I talked right over her.

“When you learned about what Aaron did, it took all of thirty seconds before you made the decision that I deserved to know, and she’s had six days now. Sure, maybe she didn’t want to show up empty handed, only offering useless platitudes, but did you hear anything about Logan being told to get a job? Did she say anything about applying for student loans? Did she say anything about how her own job hunt was going so far? Is she talking to Logan about transferring here, where it’s cheaper to study, even without the scholarship?” Ava looked down, telling me all I needed to know. “She had a lot of options, made her choice, and she didn’t choose me.”

To my surprise, Ava got out of the bed, walked over to me without bothering to put some clothes on, and hugged me.

“What if, like, I’d rather stay here with you for the Holidays? You don’t have to be alone again.” she asked, quietly.

“I appreciate the sentiment, but I won’t be alone. I’ll be with Mia and her parents, working through the Holidays, remember?.”

“Oh ... right.” she sighed before falling silent for a moment. “Then ... you really don’t have any problem with it if I join them?”

I suddenly realized that I could actually use her for something else. I turned to hug her naked body from behind and wrapped my arms around her shoulders to pull her into me.

“No, I really don’t have a problem with you joining them. If they wear condoms.” I let one hand wander downwards and lay it onto her lower belly. “This is mine, remember? Did you ever come around to check my nightstand?” She shook her head, telling me that she never made sure if her dialpak actually held real birth control pills or not. “Do you want to risk one of them knocking you up?”

“Oh!” I heard her grasp. “But ... We never used condoms before...” She looked up at me, silently asking me to elaborate.

“I’m kinda curious to hear how I compare to them.”

“I could tell you that right now!” she giggled, pointing at the drenched sheets and various toys strewn across the bed and floor. “I never came so much or so hard before. And, no, I’m not saying this to make you happy or stroke your ego.” she smirked, wiggling her butt into my groin, enticing an involuntary twitch from my still spent and aching dick.

“Why, thank you, Princess.” I smiled and kissed that spot on her neck, earning me a soft humm. “But I think you should give them a chance to step up their game after telling them that you can squirt with me.” I chuckled. “You remember the talk we had over breakfast the other day? If they think you’re happy with what they give you, they’ll just do more of the same. So, tell them that they can get rid of the condoms as soon as they actually satisfy you the way I did. And it has to be one-on-one, without Claire’s or Danny’s help, since I didn’t have that either.”

“I can do that.” she finally said after mulling it over for a while, though I could hear and see that she was not really happy. I thought I knew what the reason for her trouble was.

“Fine. I’m gonna be perfectly honest with you. Yes, I have an ulterior motive. I think this would be a great way to get some payback from them. I mean, since it was Logan who worked the hardest to keep me out of the family, and Aaron and John were all too fine with enjoying the benefits that came from it, I think it would only be fair to restrict their own access a little. Hence the condoms. And I wouldn’t be against Claire, Danny and Maggie learning what they missed out on. You said you would be Okay with being used for a little revenge. This certainly won’t hurt them. At least not too much, and only their pride.”

“Oh!” she exclaimed, in a much lighter voice after I was seemingly honest with her, before showing me a mischievous smile accompanied by a girly giggle. “I’ll make sure to tell them every little detail of what you did to me! And especially for how long you did it to me!”

“That’s my good girl!” I whispered, before giving her another quick Kiss on her neck and hearing her sigh in satisfaction. “But no making stuff up!”

Of course, my suggestion about Ava demanding condoms had an additional purpose, but I was not eager to tell her about that. If Aaron and Logan behaved like I expected them to, they would berate her nonstop about letting them lose the condoms without even trying to step up their game. It would show her who she blindly served for so long, and what it got her. Then it was up to her how she wanted to deal with it.

We packed her belongings, drove her home, and stopped on the way to get two packs of condoms she could present to the others when the big orgy started. From there, I drove directly to the office and made my way to Bill.

I had thought about spending the Holidays with Mia’s family since they invited me, and was somewhat concerned about Christmas Morning. If they chose to get me a present as well, even if it was just some useless little thing out of consideration, I would look like an idiot if I had not prepared any presents myself. The question of what kind of present to prepare was quite hard, though, and after two days of intense brainstorming, I finally had an idea I thought would fit. I needed Bill’s help for it, however, which was the first reason why I had to talk with him.

When I asked him about the necklaces we used for high-risk principals, he was all too willing to let me buy two of them, and even accepted my five $100 Bills with an almost stoic face. I chose designs I thought would fit with what other accessories I had seen Mia and Nora wear.

The second reason for my visit to his office was to speak about my IT certifications. This did not play out so well for me. While Bill was sympathetic to my situation, he did not see the need to have his company pay for any training or education that was not necessary for an employee’s job.

While I was disappointed, he had done way too much for me to argue about it. I felt like I already owed him, and was immediately embarrassed that I had asked him in the first place. He noticed my sudden moodswing, and clarified that, should it become necessary, we would talk about it again. With this simple assurance, I felt somewhat relieved, and my big fear of being replaced by someone better qualified was mollified. At least to a degree. I would definitely look up other ways to get those certifications before they became relevant.

After that, he spent a good half hour giving me the bullet points for my assignment.

I never had lived with a client before, much less on watchduty, but I wouldn’t be alone in their house. The Miller’s were holding some kind of party on Christmas Eve, so there would be quite a few of us present. After that, while Bill would respect the Miller’s request of having only me in their house, the real guard would stay on the low while keeping himself to the outside perimeter. After all, officially, I was just Mia’s chauffeur, so I could not be left in charge on my own. Especially since they now knew who the stalker was.

Apparently, James Campbell worked for one of the many charities Nora was involved with, and had fixated on her through that, even though Nora herself swears to never have met the guy. After the briefing, I made my way back home, cleaned the apartment from top to bottom, prepared a little something for Christmas morning, and wrapped the presents for Mia and Nora before going to bed.

I arrived at the Miller Household at Ten A.M. sharp, and was greeted by Nora. Although ‘greeted’ would be the wrong term, since she immediately sent me to an entertainment room in the basement to keep Mia and Jack company.

When we had reinforced the building, the Millers had also signed off on having this room turned into a kind of safe-room. Since it was in the basement, it had solid stone walls. It also had its own bathroom, and the phone- and internet connection also started there. After we had installed a reinforced sliding door that only had a handle on the inside, this was the safest place in the whole building.

“Tim!” Mia greeted me cheerfully, while Jack only released an unmotivated ‘Hmpf’. “I see Mom wanted you out of the way as well?”

“She was a little curt with me, yes.” I chuckled. “So, what are you doing down here?”

“They have these lame ass parties every year. Seriously, who throws a party for their business associates on Christmas Eve!?” Jack rolled his eyes as he answered. “Anyway, we kinda got into the habit of hiding out down here and watching movies, while they make sure everything’s perfect up there.”

“Come on!” Mia grunted, as she pushed her brother to the outer seat of the sofa they were sitting on, scooted next to him, and finally patted the now free seat next to her on the other end. “Join us! Mom said you wanted to watch Christmas movies yourself, before they invited you.”

So, I sat next to her, and we started our movie marathon with ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ with Jim Carrey. I couldn’t help but notice how Mia sat decisively closer to me than to Jack, and was surprisingly eager to watch the movies I listed as my annual go-to choices. We had just finished ‘Scrooged’, when Mia announced that she would have to leave us to get ready for the party. I looked at my watch before blinking at her back as she left. Our team was scheduled to have a final roll call an hour before the party was supposed to start, and that was still an hour away. I just shook my head, as I heard Jack laugh about my confused display and put on ‘Die Hard’.

To my great relief, watching a movie with Jack alone was not even nearly as uncomfortable as I feared it would be. The way he had grilled me about my job, income, and finally even past girlfriends, had me almost thinking he was fishing for blackmail material to get back at me, and I was fully expecting it to continue once Mia was out of hearing range. That changed when John McClain blew half his magazine into one of the baddies from underneath a table, and both of us quoted the iconic line “Thanks for the advice!” in unison. We looked at each other and just started laughing.

It was like one of those old stories about two guys getting into an argument in a bar, settling it with their fists, and then drinking together afterwards as friends. He was my mortal enemy when he was still in high school, but that ended when I knocked him on his ass. Instead of carrying a grudge against me for it, it had somehow put us on equal ground. I shook my head at the realization when I noticed that it was time for my roll call.

I was assigned to Mia, which I had expected, since we were roughly the same age and it would be less conspicuous if I was near her. So, armed with a radio, I changed into my suit and took position at the front of the stairs, waiting for her to show up. When she did, however, my jaw involuntarily dropped.

She stepped out of the room, shortly followed by Nora, both of them wearing matching long, chiffon evening dresses. While Nora’s dress had a dark gray base color, topped with a beaded, light gray sheath around her shoulders, Mia’s dress was the exact same, only with the color scheme inverted. Both of them had their hair in a french twist, their faces enhanced by the most subtle makeup that merely accentuated their entrancing features, and they even wore jewelry that wouldn’t pull any attention away from their faces. They saw me standing in the hallway, stopped, and looked at me with expectant looks.

“Wow.” I finally said after finding my voice again. “You’re beautiful!”

Since I did not address either of them specifically, nor both of them at the same time, each of them took my comment personally. And in quite different ways.

“Why, thank you, young man!” Nora beamed, as she stepped next to me and hooked her arm into mine. “Flattery will get you anywhere!”. Then she looked at her daughter, waiting for her to join us.

Mia was still staring at me. When she had stepped out of the room, she looked at me with an almost smug grin, like she was daring me to give anything other than a compliment after seeing her dolled up. Hearing my compliment, though, her eyes had widened and her mouth had opened a little, before she blushed and averted her eyes. Apparently, calling a woman ‘beautiful’ was a little beyond the scope of what she expected from someone who’s not her boyfriend.

She finally caught herself, gave me a happy smile as she hooked herself into my other arm, and we made our way into the main hall. To my slight irritation, she held onto my arm even after Nora had excused herself to find her husband. And, even though it made my job a lot easier, I was even more irritated when she kept holding on to my arm throughout the entire evening. She even kept me close while she talked with some of her girlfriends from the cheer team, who also had influential parents that attended this party. At least none of them were brave enough to ask about it, or even point it out.

I found myself actually enjoying the evening. This might not have been the kind of party a regular seventeen-year-old would think about when intending to have a good time, but it was the first party I got to attend in general. Also, after everything that had happened between us since I became her chauffeur, and everything Nora had informed me about, it was also a lot easier to accept my enjoyment of Mia’s presence than Ava’s. A few times, I even forgot that I was there to work. That changed rather abruptly, when I was called over the radio.

“Rainbow!” The angry voice of our on-site commander called out his favorite nickname for me, which, as I was assured, had nothing to do with my sexual orientation, but something about not having gone through basic training. “Front Gate. Now!”

“What’s up?” Mia had somehow immediately picked up on my concerned look.

“Don’t know, yet. Got called to the front gate.”

“It’s not...” Now she was concerned as well.

“No. If it was anything safety-related, they wouldn’t call your escort away. And, yes, I heard how that sounded. Don’t you dare call me a Gigolo when I get back.” I grinned to calm her, and she actually slapped my chest after snorting a short and unladylike laugh that somehow turned my grin into a smile.

My good mood was not to last. When I arrived at the gate, the man in charge was waiting for me on the inside of the driveway.

“Listen ‘Kid’” he used the nickname Bill had reserved for me with contempt. “I know the Boss has taken an interest in you, but I don’t need your private crap to interfere with our operation! We’re here to work! I’m gonna give you five to either sort it out or get your ass home. This is exactly why I objected to letting a fucking high school student help on actual jobs.”

He turned and left me completely stunned, still unsure what he was even talking about. That is, until I heard Grandpa Mike’s voice.

“Prick! Who does he think he is!?” he swore under his breath.

“My Boss. At least as long as I’m outside the office.” I explained, not believing that he had decided to show up unannounced, but knowing it could only mean problems. Then I turned around and was shocked again when I saw Claire standing right next to him. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“You need to come home, Honey! Please!.” she pleaded.

“I’m working. YOU need to go home. Now, please.”

I had already turned to go back inside, when Mike spoke again.

“Tim! We’re not leaving without you.” He actually folded his arms in front of his chest as he said it. The whole thing was starting to piss me off, big time!

“You two heard what my Boss just threw in my face about you being here, and you still refuse to leave!?” I asked incredulously. “So, first you empty my bank account, and now you make a scene in front of a client’s house so I can’t earn anything as well? Is this your newest bright idea to get me back home, after your demands didn’t work and trying to force me home backfired spectacularly? I guess I should be thankful you showed up with this asshole instead of the one you married. Aaron would be lying on the ground with a dented face by now and I’d be out of a job.”

It looked like my words caused Mike to lose at least some of his confidence. Either he feared me knocking him down for continuously pressuring me, or he finally realized that this shit would probably backfire as well. Claire tried a different approach by addressing my emptied bank account.

“Honey, I swear to you I had no idea about the payment options! I gave your father hell after I found out! Please, you HAVE to believe me!” The pure desperation in her voice made me almost believe her. “I know it’s my own fault, but I miss you, and I don’t want you to miss out on any more family events. It’s Christmas, Honey, please come home and spend it with us.”

“Sure. You didn’t know and weren’t fine with it. Even if I were inclined to believe that, does it change anything for me? My bank account is still empty, which means that I still need to work through the next two days instead of satisfying your needs to have some extra company. And regarding that sudden need to include me, I still haven’t heard why you would suddenly want that.”

Just as expected, she wrung her hands as her eyes darted around, trying to figure out what to say, but ultimately came up with nothing. That was made quite clear when, instead of giving me an answer, her sobs just intensified and even more tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Tim, what your mother says IS true.” Mike proclaimed angry now, seeing his daughter’s dismay. “You said it yourself, there is no danger of anyone coming after us anymore. What ulterior motive could she have? She just wants you home!”

“What ulterior motive could she have? What about her Golden Boy’s next tuition? You know as well as I do that there’s no way in hell they’ll save up twenty fucking grand in just six months. Where do you think they’ll look for more money then?”

That caused him to groan in frustration, but when he spoke again, I did not hear any attempt to refute my accusation.

“We can work something out about that. But not until you stop acting like a child and listen to us for once! Be a man, do the right thing, and come home with us! Your mother needs you, and I’ll be damned if I’ll let you just cast her aside.”

“Look at you.” I laughed mockingly. “Already getting pissed because I’ve ignored you for three weeks. How about I keep ignoring you for the next three years, like you did with me, and then we’ll see if you’re still eager to ‘be a man and do the right thing’. Just for the record, Mike, I AM working something out. By working at my job! Unless you fuck that up for me next. So, please, just fucking leave already!”

A particularly pathetic sounding wail from Claire pulled my attention to her.

“Please! Baby, I just don’t know what else to do!” she brokenly pleaded again between sobs, tears now streaming freely down her face, while Mike looked at me angrily. “I would give you the money back, but Aaron transferred everything the next day, so I don’t have it anymore. Please, please, I need you home! It’s Christmas!”

She really looked heartbroken. I remembered the day I got back from the hospital and found her crying into Aarons shoulder in their bedroom. Back then I was confused at how little it affected me. This time, however, I knew exactly why her display didn’t reach me.

“After you Lot did shit-all for me, I still protected you in that parking lot. I also took care of the Bookie, got rid of those videos, helped out with your money troubles for Logan’s sake, and helped with your parents’ fuck-up by letting Ava stay with me. And now, when I have to take care of the damage all that caused for me, you show up and tell me what I need to do for you next!?” I said while shaking my head, and turned to Mike. “How about YOU start acting like a man, get her home, and take care of her yourself instead of pushing that shit onto me as well.”

“Do you seriously want to tell me that you have no feelings for your mother anymore? Or any of us? Think hard if that’s really what you want. You only get one family.”

“That’s rich, coming from someone who never had any reason to complain about the family he got. You know, believe it or not, but when I sat in my car with Aaron a week ago, we had an actual conversation. Like a real father-son moment. I really felt like things could get better between us, because he sounded so honest when he finally showed some consideration for me. And what did it fucking get me?! Now please let me demonstrate to you what kind of family values I was taught by your daughter.” I said and, as soon as I closed my mouth, turned to walk back into the house, ignoring Mike’s stunned look...

“You don’t get to choose family, Tim.” I wasn’t sure whether he asked me to keep putting up with Aaron, like it was expected of a family member, or if he wanted to point out how he kept trying with me, despite my stubborn misbehavior.

“You DO get to choose if you want one, though. And I got used to not having a family a long time ago.” I called back over my shoulder, and saw Claire slump to her knees and bury her face in her hands.

Re-entering the house, I found the commander and told him to simply call the police if Mike wasn’t gone in a minute. It earned me another angry look, but it was all I could do short of physically removing him and Claire myself. As much as I would probably enjoy that, it would most definitely be cause for my removal from the team. Instead, I returned to Mia’s side, who refrained from outright calling me a Gigolo, though I did hear her comment to a few of her friends about how my ‘companionship’ came at an ‘hourly rate’.

At the end of the evening, Mia had actually managed to make me forget all about that encounter with Mike and Claire, and I found myself once again enjoying her company. While the Millers retreated into their bedrooms to get out of their party clothes, I helped oversee the caterer packing up and leaving the premises. Then I was shown to a guest room while Michael took the night shift.

Christmas Morning started at Five A.M. for me, since Michael’s replacement would arrive an hour later and I needed to get ready before that. So, half an hour after my alarm rang, I joined Michael freshly showered, groomed, and dressed in the kitchen. When I turned on the oven to place my prepared pastries in it, Michael raised an eyebrow at me.

“You’re just gonna start baking in a client’s kitchen? At 5:30 in the morning?”

“Don’t worry. I talked to Mrs. Miller.” I answered.

I had not talked with Nora about using her kitchen, and under different circumstances I wouldn’t dream of doing something like this, but with the rather special relationship I had with this family, I was sure they wouldn’t mind. Especially after tasting what I was making.

Michael and I had just gone over the day’s schedule with the new guy, and consumed our second cup of coffee while letting the pastries cool down a little, when it was time for him to leave. As soon as I closed the front door behind him and the other guy left to check the surveillance system, I heard movement on the first floor and walked back into the kitchen. By now the whole first floor was smelling like cinnamon and roasted almonds. When Nora stepped into the kitchen, wearing a thin morning gown and a big bright smile, she immediately commented on it.

“Hmm, it smells good.” she said with closed eyes, wiggling her nose. “What is it?”

“Swedish Tea Ring.” I answered, placing one of the still warm things on a plate and presenting it to her, together with a cup of coffee. “I hope I didn’t overstep.”

“Oh, heavens no! Do you have any idea how nice it was to wake up to that christmassy smell?” she said, accepted my offering, and thanked me with a quick peck on my lips before taking her first sip of the coffee. “My! This is ... what brand is this?”

“The one in your cabinet. I added a little salt to the grind. Apparently, it reduces something that causes the bitterness and dulls the flavor, but I can’t pronounce it without getting a degree in chemistry.” I chuckled, and she gave me an acknowledging look before studying the pastry.

“Oh. My. GOD! That’s delicious! You made this?” she commented with big eyes after taking a bite, and I nodded. “What is this exactly?”

“Kind of a mixture between a Danish and a Cinnamon Roll. Glad you like it.” I smiled, and she leaned her back against me, not forgetting to wiggle her butt into my groin, when the kitchen door opened and George entered. Nora was obviously unimpressed by his arrival and didn’t even attempt to step away from me.

“George! You absolutely have to taste this!” she proclaimed, and then removed a piece of her pastry to offer it. He accepted it and nodded in approval.

“Try the coffee too. This boy is just a box of unexpected talents! You know,” Nora started, while raising her arm and placing her hand in my neck, pulling my face closer to hers. “If I wasn’t already married ... Well, no matter. I’ll just have to ask Mia to share you with me from time to time.”

With that, she pulled my face the rest of the way to hers and gave me a long loving kiss right in front of her husband, who did not protest in any way. Instead, he was eyeing the coffee with suspicion. Any thought I might have had of protesting her repeated insinuation about me and Mia was immediately blown out of my head. I did not have the time to enjoy this as long as I would have wished, though, as we all heard another two sets of feet rushing down the stairs.

Checking the living room, we found Mia and Jack attacking the presents under the Christmas tree like I thought only little children would. Although, the stuff they found in those presents was anything but child’s play. Everything was highly expensive, and, at least to me, seemed a little superficial. Like money, makeup, and spa tickets for Mia, or even more money and a trip to Mexico for Jack.

As Nora and George joined their children, I moved back into the kitchen to further cut up the Tea Ring, in case anyone else wanted to try it. When I left the kitchen and moved back into the living room, I was surprised when Mia jumped up, walked over to me while keeping her hands hidden behind her back, and acted a little shy.

“I ... uh ... I got you something. As thanks for ... teaching me all that stuff, you know?” she said, barely able to look me in the eyes, and finally pulled her hands from behind her back to present me with a tube-shaped wrapped box.

I blinked at her for a moment, but then unwrapped it. It was a doormat that said “There is no place like http://127.0.0.1”.

I have to admit, my first impression of it was that she simply googled “Housewarming gift for Nerds” and ordered the first thing that came up. I quickly realized, though, that it did prove she tried to get me something I would probably like, while taking my interests into account and remembering that I had my own place. She indeed put some thought into my present. There was no way I could possibly talk that down.

Thinking about that as I thanked her, a genuine smile spread on my face, which seemed to make her quite happy. Although her father, once again, looked anything but. That only worsened, when I pushed my hand into my knee pocket, pulled out one of the gift-wrapped little boxes, and presented it to her.

Mia got big eyes, just like her mother behind her for some reason. Then she enthusiastically grabbed it from me, tore the paper off, and slowly opened the little jewelry container. I mentally praised past-me for his foresight, as she ran over to her mother to show her the golden necklace with a thick heart-shaped pendant.

“Tim ... this ... this is...” she stuttered while shaking her head. Apparently, just like calling her beautiful, gold necklaces are also something I wasn’t supposed to get for a not-girlfriend.

I simply walked over to her, ignoring George’s death stare, and helped her put the necklace on.

“Look at the backside of the pendant. You see the circular indentation?” She checked, nodded, and looked at me eager to learn what it meant. “Press it twice quickly.”

She paused, then did as told. Within a few seconds, four phones chirped to life. Mine, Jack’s, and both of her parents’. All four of us received an alarm with her name and current GPS-Location. Mia looked a little confused as Nora broke out in laughter while I simply grinned at her. She didn’t seem to get the meaning, so Nora explained it to her.

“Honey, don’t you remember the Bodyguard-reference he made the day he started as your chauffeur? I know you have watched the movie since then, so you should remember that alarm-pendant the Bodyguard gave her to use when she’s in danger. I guess now he’ll always have to come running when you’re in trouble.” she said the last part with a devious smirk directed at me.

Mia’s eyes widened once again, and showed a reaction much stronger than I had intended, as her mouth hung open. I really had not intended for the gift to have such a strong effect. As I had already thought about when I went Christmas shopping with them and Ava, it was simply a matter of principle for me to not make useless and/or meaningless crap-presents the recipient wouldn’t even like. Apparently, I had grossly underestimated how girls like to overthink simple gestures like that.

Not entirely sure how to handle this situation, I moved back into the kitchen, shortly followed by Nora, as I heard Mia and Jack move back upstairs.

“You know, that was a smooth move for someone who claims to not be interested in my little girl.” she chuckled and caught me off guard. “Though, I have to admit, I’m a little jealous. I would have thought our relationship was a little further advanced, and yet, I’m the one who didn’t get a present?”

Now she looked at me with a cute pouting expression. I smiled, pushed my hand into my other knee pocket, and pulled out the wrapped necklace I had gotten for her. She was giggling as I placed it around her neck. Hers was not golden with a heart-shaped pendant, but silver with a moon-shaped pendant.

“I hope I managed to pick something in your taste. It works the same way as Mia’s. You can program a fifth emergency-number into it if you want, though once I don’t have to chauffeur Mia around anymore, I guess you better replace my number with the new guy’s.”

“New guy!? Who said anything about letting you leave, Lover?” she mused with a thoughtful look before giving me another kiss, and then continuing in a sultry tone. “God, if only the kids were out right now, I’d fuck you right here on the counter! But I do believe you deserve something extra for those presents.”

As she said it, she opened my fly, pushed her hand in it, and fished my quickly hardening cock out. She kept her body pressed into mine, the thin material of her morning gown doing very little to obscure her hard nipples, and gave me a scorching kiss as she let her hand stroke up and down my shaft.

As soon as she broke the kiss, she slid down on her knees to wrap her lips around it, and started bobbing her head back and forth. I involuntarily groaned as the pleasure started getting too much and, just in that moment, the kitchen door opened and George walked in. I was half expecting him to kick me out of the house for doing this with Mia and Jack just upstairs, but instead he simply turned, locked the door, and then patiently waited for Nora to complete her task.

Suddenly, Nora removed her mouth from my rod, and started jerking me at a crazy speed.

“We don’t have much time, Lover. Even with the door locked, if the kids show up they would ask what we were doing in here. George!” she said in a surprisingly commanding tone. “Grab three pieces of the tasty treats my Lover prepared for us, and put them on a plate!”

George did as commanded and handed the plate to her after she got back on her feet. She held the plate underneath my Cock, and resumed jerking me off while whispering into my ear.

“You don’t know yet, but I love the taste of cum! And when I made my little Georgy eat your creampie out of my pussy, after you fucked it so thoroughly, I think he developed a taste for it as well. Though, he is still reluctant to admit that.” she chuckled as George shuffled uncomfortably. “So, I need you to come now! Shoot your lovely cream over our pastries! I need that extra icing. I’ll make sure he eats all of it once we’re back in our bedroom!”

Just like when I did it with Ava, I wondered why dominating someone sexually got me so riled up. Don’t get me wrong, given the choice, I would rather make love than force myself on anyone, even if it was what my partner wanted. But it just had that certain effect on me. When Nora noticed that I did react to those words, but not nearly as intensely as she would have liked, she decided to try something else.

“You might wonder why I told him to put three pieces on that plate. Well, I think it is a damn shame that our little Babygirl left without tasting those treats you created. Would you like that, Lover? Would you like to see my little girl unknowingly eat your cream, not even suspecting that I milked it from your fantastic fat cock? Or would you prefer it when the first time she tasted your cum, it came directly from the source?”

Suddenly, images of Mia, wearing her cheerleader uniform while kneeling in front of me with my cock in her mouth, flashed through my mind. That did it. As I saw the impotent protest creep into George’s eyes, it was just that last little push I needed to spray all three pastries with my cum, shocking even myself with the sheer amount I produced despite how fast Nora pushed me towards my release.

“Yes, such a good and healthy boy! Look how much he can shoot out for us, George! Give me all that delicious frosting. Such a lovely treat!” she proclaimed, and started squeezing my shaft from the base to the top, making sure every drop I had would be put to good use. When it seemed like I could not produce any more, she leaned down and sucked me clean.

Finally, she straightened back up and took a big bite out of the piece with the most cum on it while humming in bliss. She smiled at me as she stared into my eyes and chewed. I had a hard time sorting through my emotions at that moment, but one thing was clear: This was fucking hot! The first time Tess had swallowed my cum, I felt like she ultimately accepted everything about me, because if THAT didn’t repulse her, nothing of me could. But seeing Nora outright taking it from me, like she was craving my cum, was one hell of a step up.

She quietly laughed at me standing there dumbfounded with my dick in the open, before she turned and motioned for George to open the door. I quickly got my pants sorted out before the two of them left the room, but my thoughts lingered on Mia. There was no way in hell Nora would actually do that to her daughter ... was there?

In any case, she came a long way since telling me in my apartment that she couldn’t be a dominant partner for her husband. ‘Not having that in her’, my ass!

I did find the empty plate in the kitchen later that day, though I never found out if Nora actually made Mia eat my cum on a pastry. I simply wasn’t entirely sure if I even wanted to know, so I didn’t ask about it either.

After the four Millers had made themselves presentable, I had to accompany them to a church where they attended a morning mess. That was followed by all of us driving over to a venue one of Nora’s charities had organized, to assist at giving out food. By the time we made it back to the house, it was well into the late afternoon, and they opted to simply order some takeout and watch movies together.

I did notice, however, that Mia had stuck to my side the entire day, and did not seem like she was particularly unhappy about it. Thanks to that, I kept noticing how she was absentmindedly playing with the pendant of the necklace I got her, while staring off into space.

This was pretty much the uneventful pattern for the following day as well. Mia and Jack met up with a few friends, and, while I had planned to keep a respectful distance and simply observe the surroundings, they went to surprising lengths to include me. Mia even kept up her behavior from the party on Christmas Eve, and persistently stayed close by my side. But other than that, nothing mentionable happened until it was time for me to go home on Sunday.

Since I would get to go home that morning, I was assigned the night shift leading up to Sunday, and was accordingly tired as I placed all my stuff in the car while Mia watched me.

“So...” she started when I was about ready to drive off. “See you tomorrow?”

“Sorry, what’s tomorrow?” I asked, noting the way her breasts were pushed in my direction since she was fidgeting with her hands behind her back. “I wasn’t told anything yet, but if you need me around, I’ll be here.”

That made her smile again.

“Just a little get-together with some of my and Jack’s friends.” she said, and chuckled as she heard my groan. “Don’t worry, we won’t practice, so they have no reason to think you’re there to ogle anyone but me. I’ll need to go shopping for snacks, but It’s at Six in the afternoon, so you won’t even have to get up early!”

“Alright.” I sighed with a grin. “Then I’ll see you ... at Three?”

She nodded, her smile widening, and I turned to open the car door. Just at that moment, Mia stepped closer to me, leaned in, and gave me a kiss on the cheek. That sure woke me up again.

“Thank you.” she whispered while fumbling with her pendant, so there was no way for me to tell if she was thanking me for accompanying her on Monday or for getting her that gift.

Then she simply turned and walked back into the house, giving me one last look before she closed the door, and her smile widened for some reason when she saw that I was still watching her.

My mind was racing at that point. She was hot, sure, no question about that. And it really did seem like Nora had told me the truth about Mia wanting to do better. But I still did not believe we were compatible. For starters, she was going to leave for college in a few months. And everything I had told Ava about the problems with finding a new girlfriend were also still true.

But what if I rejected her? If what Nora had told me in the kitchen was true, I had unknowingly led Mia on. Rejecting her now would cause problems with the job! I needed that job! Maybe I should just go along with it, until she herself realized that I was definitely not boyfriend material.

I shook my head about my stupid thoughts, got in the car, and drove off a little too fast. How the fuck did I even get to this point!? How did I go from not wanting to touch the bitch with a ten-foot pole, even when she and Ava paraded around the house in bikinis, to getting off on the mental image of her blowing me? And after barely two weeks of spending time with her, no less! I spent the entire drive home trying to figure out how I even felt about Mia.

I could somewhat understand that many men would enjoy seeing a woman they hate on her knees, sucking their cocks. Though, after having been excluded from the family, and seeing how mundane the act had become to them, sex became something special to me. Which, in turn, begged the question when the fuck Mia had become someone I would like to share that with. And, yes, what I had done with Ava during that last week was also anything but meaningless.

Yes, Mia was a fucking bitch when the bullying in school was still going strong. But, in all fairness, ever since I had taken care of the football team, I’ve had barely any contact with her. After all, we never shared any classes together, and I was no longer around when she visited Ava at the house, so she no longer had any opportunities to piss me off. And then, during these last two weeks, she had undoubtedly turned a new leaf.

I actually managed to accept these conclusions by the time I drove through the gate of my apartment complex. Stepping through my door, I was damn glad I had cleaned the apartment the day before I left. It just was a completely different feeling coming into your own home after a few days of work, and not being distracted by any chores that need to be done before you can start to relax.

My relaxation time was not nearly as long as I had hoped, though. I managed to throw my clothes into the washing machine, take a shower, and plop onto the sofa with a snack, when my doorbell rang. As soon as I opened the door, Uncle John rushed past me to the middle of the living room.

“Why are you here?” I asked, not bothering to close the door.

“Well, apparently I’m the one who upset you the least out of all of us. So, Danny thought it would be best if she sent me.” he explained, matter of fact.

“Okay.” I drew that word out a little too long, not sure if he wanted to make a joke. “But I wanted to know why you are here, not why you are here.”

“Oh. Of course. Uh...” he acted a little too pensive for comfort. “Well ... We have kind of a situation at home. We need your help with it.”

I blinked at him, and, as soon as I understood what he had just said, stepped behind him, grabbed him by the shoulders to turn him towards the door, and started gently but steadily pushing him towards it.

“Tim! Please! Hear me out!”

“Nope. I’ve had about six hours of sleep over the last three days. There’s no more helping anyone in me today. I’ll eat my sandwich, then I’ll drop dead ‘till tomorrow. Which is when I have to work again!”

I had pushed him into the hallway in front of my door, and was just about to slam the door in his face, when he stunned me by shouting in a desperate plea.

“WE’RE BUYING THE HOUSES!”

That made me stop. After a moment of consideration, I groaned, opened the door again, and allowed him back inside.

“Fine. I don’t assume you’re willing to spend $140,000 dollars to get me to do you a favor. So, I’m assuming that you buying the houses has something to do with the problem you need help with?”

“Claire and Ava moved in with us.” he nodded.

I raised my eyebrows in wonder, and fully realized this wasn’t just an attempt to continue what Claire and Mike had started two days earlier. I offered him a seat on the couch that he gratefully accepted, and moved into the kitchen to get us each a cup of coffee. I sure as hell needed one. When I got back, he was on the phone with someone who sounded very happy that he survived our initial encounter. I placed his coffee in front of him, sat down myself, and started devouring my sandwich while he finished up his call.

“Okay. That was Danny on the phone, by the way.” he explained.

“Get to the point, John. I didn’t lie about being tired. Even though that worked quite well with your wife, when you all asked me to let Ava live here.” I grinned, and he laughed.

“Well, first of all, I have to ask you a serious question.” He took a deep breath. “Is Ava in danger of getting pregnant?”

That question floored me and sent my mind racing. I quickly understood, however, that my plan must have worked a little too well. I decided to not play any games and be honest with him.

“I take it she told you about me switching out her birth control pills?” He nodded to confirm my question. “Don’t worry. Even if Ava wasn’t my sister, so our children wouldn’t be born with weirdly prominent chins, I’m a seventeen-year-old high school student. I have absolutely, definitely, one-hundred percent NO desire to become a father! I just used it as a plot to play into her kinks.”

He let out a loud sigh of relief before he pulled out his phone again, held it to his ear, and simply said “He didn’t switch them out. She’s safe”. He then dropped the phone on the seat in between us, and finally slumped down on the sofa like I just let all the air out of a blow-up doll.

“So ... what happened?” I asked after watching him for a minute, and he grunted before opening his mouth.

“We all got together in my house, like every year. We had a nice lunch, and were Okay for the most part.”

“Just Okay?” I asked, and he gave me a somewhat plaintive look.

“I know you probably don’t want to hear that, but Claire is ... not doing too well. I’m sure you noticed how she looked when she and Mike showed up.”

“Actually, I didn’t. What do you mean?” I admitted, and he at least made an attempt to hide his disappointment.

“She doesn’t sleep much anymore. Or eats, for that matter. Danny thinks she’s a little depressed. It was even worse when they came back after meeting you.” he said, and searched my face for any reaction. I made sure he would not find any, causing him to let out another sigh before he continued. “Anyway, we were doing mostly Okay. Ava had spent the entire day telling us about her stay with you, and the more Ava told us, the better Claire got. Apparently, you did a really good job with your Sister. Despite hating her, you showed her more care than Aaron had in a long time, but still managed to satisfy her. That gave her a new perspective.”

“Dude, I’m long past hating any of you.” I injected, and he perked up at that. “It’s like I told Ava. I don’t care about you anymore.” He slumped down again. “Okay, most of you. Logan can eat a bag of dicks for all I care. What he did to me disqualified him as a brother indefinitely. And your parents should stop acting like I’m a stubborn child they need to force to behave. Ava and Danny seem to try, and you at least tried once, so I can be friendly with you. Only Aaron is probably going to need a pretty good dentist if I ever see him again.”

He suddenly laughed about that.

“If only you knew.” Then he saw the look I was giving him. “We’ll get to that. I can see where you’re coming from, though. I just hope that, one day, you can see that Claire is trying too. Aaron really screwed her over on this one. That’s also one of the reasons they’ve moved in with us.” He took a breath to steady himself, straightened up, and then fixed me with a stern look. “As I said, we were Okay until dinner was over, and we got together for some fun. Then Ava pulled out the condoms and told us what was what.”

“I take it the male part of the family didn’t like the idea?” I grinned evilly.

“Not funny, Tim! I’d never have thought this shit would happen!” This took me aback. I had never heard him swear before. “We all agreed to use them, although Aaron only agreed begrudgingly. And by that, I mean that he tried to use her submissiveness to let him go bareback at first. It was nasty, Tim. That was the first time I realized how far he was taking this crap, but Ava insisted everyone use them. That showed Danny how effective your plan was, despite being so simple.”

“I’m glad it worked.” I nodded, trying not to show how much that praise got to me.

“When Claire noticed what Aaron was doing, she got right in his face and told him to respect their daughter’s wishes. You know that she was already angry with him because of your money, and after noticing the change in Ava, she wasn’t going to let Aaron undo that. So, he agreed. Then...” he took another deep breath. “ ... after about an hour, Claire stormed into the room, walked directly up to Aaron, and punched him square in the face.”

“WHAT?” I wasn’t sure if I was shocked or happy about the development...

“Yeah. Apparently, Aaron stealthed Ava.”

“What?” This time, I was just confused.

“Oh, it’s when the guy stealthily takes off the condom to have bareback sex with a woman without her knowledge.”

I stared at him for a good ten seconds with a stupid look on my face.

“Honestly? I’m more surprised that there’s a word for that, than about Aaron doing it.” I said, matter of fact. “But I still wouldn’t have thought he’d do that to his Princess!”

“Tim ... did you expect that to happen when you told Ava to make us wear condoms?” he asked quietly.

“Fuck no!” He actually flinched back when I looked at him angrily. “Look, my grand idea was to kinda limit his access to Ava, like they limited mine. But I thought that, If I simply told Ava to not let him touch her, he would just get it from someone else instead. But if she made him use a condom, he would still have access to her, but finishing would be just that little bit less satisfying and keep nagging him. Especially if he knew that she wouldn’t make me wear a condom! I wanted to hurt his pride, and make him experience being excluded himself. Not the shit he pulled!”

John thought about what I said, and finally nodded.

“Yeah, I think I understand what you mean. Although I’m starting to think you’re a closeted sociopath.” he chuckled, but then turned serious again. “Well, Claire and Aaron got into a massive fight over it. In the end she decided to simply not go back into their house and made Ava stay as well, since she didn’t want her to be alone with Aaron and Logan.”

“There a reason you specifically mentioned Claire’s boy toy as well?” That caused him to wince once more.

“Well ... that was the other thing. While Aaron lied about accepting her conditions, Logan did exactly what you thought Aaron would do if Ava denied him. He couldn’t even be bothered with the condoms. He just took off with Maggie and didn’t look at Ava the entire evening. That hurt her even more than what Aaron did. She told Danny that, at that moment, she thought she understood a little how you must have felt ever since you found out about us.”

“Not like it’s a contest, but she had at least one parent stand up for her.” I dismissed Ava’s relayed statement, and immediately felt like an ass about it, though I would not admit that to him. It helped that he only gave me a mournful look and didn’t comment on it as well. “So ... what does all that have to do with you buying the houses, and what do you need my help with?”

“To answer your first question, we’re not specifically buying the ones you printed out. We plan on buying the Condo near campus, but we found another one that’s closer to us. It has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and doesn’t look as bad as the one you picked out. The price is about the same, though, so that won’t be an issue.”

“Okay. But whyyyy?” I asked, trying to make him get to the point again.

“We thought that, for now, we could let Claire and Ava live in it. I know, it’s not what you had planned.” he hurriedly added the last part after seeing my expression change. “But think about the possibilities! You could let her pay rent with your cash as well, which would mean that you could use the money even sooner! Rent for a house is much higher than for a room in a Condo!”

“Sure it is!” I said angrily. “Only I’d have to tell her about HAVING that cash, and when you collect more than ten grand a year in cash payments, your bank will notify the IRS, which will ask where that cash came from. If you point to Maggie, Ava, and Claire paying their rent with it, they’ll look into their finances and notice that they shouldn’t have that kind of money, considering how they’re all unemployed!”

“Not necessarily. You see, after what happened, Mom and Dad decided that they want to be closer to us and support Claire. Officially, I could rent out to them.” he said confidently. “And if Claire and Aaron reconcile and move back in together, the house would be free for you to live in and pay rent yourself.”

“You serious? So, Mike’s gonna be able to pester me every day from now on?” I asked.

I could see this was not something he had thought about, and his enthusiasm was severely diminished. Though, after some consideration, I decided to let him go ahead with his plan. If the grandparents had a place to live closer to all of us, maybe they would finally stay long enough to actually work on our relationships instead of going on another cruise. Also, John knew a lot more about money than I did, and he had access to people who knew even more about it than him. If anything, I believed that he had no interest in being audited by the IRS. Then I noticed something he had said.

“Wait. If Claire and Aaron reconcile? Not when?”

“Yes.” he confirmed sadly, and noticed my skeptical face. “Tim, when Claire and Dad came back after meeting you on Christmas Eve, she was devastated! It took Mom and Danny almost an hour just to get her to stop crying.”

“Okay? What’s that have to do with Aaron?” I asked, and he sighed. Suddenly, he seemed to come to some sort of conclusion, and his tone became rather serious.

“I’m not going to ask you to forgive us. Danny and I talked a lot about it, and ... I admit ... I liked having my wife and daughter to myself. I liked that we had more women than men in our groupings. I know we were the ones who screwed this up, and we screwed it up rather thoroughly, so I accept your position in all of this. Claire knows this as well.”

“Appreciated.” I commented, which he simply ignored.

“But you have to understand that Claire feels like she’s running out of options, and she’s suffering for it. The one single road left was to bide our time, and somehow, someway, show you that we’re sincere when we tell you that we want you back. ‘Baby Steps’ is what Danny called it. So, Claire got it into her head that giving you a proper Christmas with the whole family would be a good start. Instead, you had to work through the Holidays while the rest of the family had fun after taking your money. Not only did that ruin her hope for Christmas, what you told them also made us realize that we can’t simply bide our time anymore. You can’t be sure we’re not just doing it so you’ll help with Logan’s next tuition payment, until that’s actually due and they don’t need you to pay for it again.”

“But why would that make her think about separation from Aaron?”

“Tim, I’m saying that she feels like she lost you, her youngest child, because of Aaron’s latest screw-up.” he explained gravely. “By the time you could be sure that she’s not doing it to keep you from filing for emancipation and retain access to your bank account, you’ll be eighteen and probably skip town, and she’ll never see you again.”

“True.” No sense in denying it, since I had just told Ava how I indeed planned to do just that once I graduate.

“Don’t get me wrong. There is no question that she will keep trying for your forgiveness, but we can all see that she doesn’t have much hope left. Nonetheless, she will always try to be a mother for you, and if there’s even the slightest chance that Aaron could cost her yet another child by continuing to screw up with Ava, she will drop him like a hot potato.”

“That’s ... drastic?”

“Not for her. Not anymore.” he concluded dryly.

It sure sounded nice, but I was utterly unprepared for any of it. I needed time to digest it all.

“Look, I’ve...” I stopped to think about what I even wanted to say. “Okay. Right now, that’s just too much for me to handle while I’m running solely on caffeine and sugar. Go ahead and buy the houses. If you need more money, give me a call. Can you find someone who’d be happy with cash payments to fix them up?”

“I don’t think that would be a problem.” he nodded, obviously trying to suppress a smirk.

“And ... tell Claire...” I sighed, and noticed him looking at me in hope. “She didn’t lose me because of Aaron’s actions. She lost me because of her own actions.” The hope instantly vanished from his face as his shoulders slumped. “If she really wanted to have a relationship with me, maybe Danny should help her to find out how we got to this point in the first place.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, confused, causing me to groan.

“I’m gonna be perfectly honest with you, John. It’s awesome to hear she’s standing up for her daughter, but why the fuck couldn’t she do the same for me? I spent four fucking years learning how to care for myself while listening to you all fuck each other senseless! Ignoring my injuries whenever I got beat up in school may have been Aaron’s idea, but no one forced her to go along with it. That, and everything that came after it, were her own damn decisions.” I had to calm down quite a bit, before I could continue. “You’re right about one thing, though. There’s no way I’d believe anything you say, as long as Logan’s tuition-crap isn’t solved. So, maybe she can use that time to find out what exactly made her think she only had two children instead of three. Then we’ll see if this is even worth trying.”

Adding that last part was a big mistake. The way his eyes suddenly lit up was slightly disturbing. I think his only takeaway from what I had said was that his sister may still have a chance to get me back, as long as she was willing to work with Danny. At least that was the impression I got from that huge-ass smile that crept onto his face. In reality, I had no hope of her finding out anything that could excuse her behavior in any way, or make me believe it wouldn’t just happen again.

I had to admit, however, If Claire was truly suffering so much from me not wanting to be with them, the chances of her screwing me over once more were relatively small. IF it was true. And if I couldn’t get a good reason for why I should risk letting her back into my life, she at least had to explain her earlier behavior to me, so I could avoid going through all that shit again if I ever find a wife. Not that I had high hopes for that.

“Thank you, Tim!” he said as we rose from the sofa, to suddenly crush me in a bear hug I was totally unprepared for.

“Yes, fuck off already, I’m tired!” The irritation in my voice did not phase him in the slightest.

After he left, I cleaned up the table, and finally made my way into my bedroom. Lying in bed, I couldn’t help but think about how nice it would be to have a tight female body pressed into me again.

I was just on the verge of falling asleep, when my phone chirped. Groaning about the disturbance, I picked it up to find a message from Danny. It read “Thank you!!!!!”, followed by a photo of Claire clinging to John, her face wet from tears, but looking like she just won the lottery.

What the fuck did John tell them!?