HOBO Chapters 12 & 13

CHAPTER TWELVE

I woke up early the next morning and was able to ease out of bed without waking Michelle up. I went to the kitchen, started a pot of coffee. I then cooked scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage and was just finishing up when Michelle walked into the kitchen rubbing her eyes.

“What are you doing ?”, she asked, yawning.

“Making us breakfast. Please sit down on the stool.”, she smiled at me and walked around the bar and took a seat.

I fixed her a plate and set it down in front of her , then poured her a cup of coffee. I then fixed my plate and sat down next to her. As soon as I was in my seat, she reached over and grabbed my head pulling it towards her. She kissed me as passionately as she had last night making my stomach flip once again.

“So you’re great in bed, have a good job, look like you do and cook too?”, Michelle giggled.

“Well, I’m not a very good cook but I get by.”, I replied.

“Who cares……. You make me cum like I don’t know what.”, she laughed.

We laughed and ate breakfast then Michelle called her dad to let him know she was ok. He answered quickly and they had a short conversation and I did hear her mention that she slept at my house last night which kind of surprised me. I didn’t say a word about it knowing that Michelle said she hated liars.

That evening somehow, the idea of Michelle being a chef came up again. I decided to see just how serious she was about the idea.

“Michelle, do you really want to be a chef in a kitchen ?”, I asked.

“Honestly, I want to be a chef in my own small restaurant.”, she replied.

“Ok then, move in with me. You don’t have to work and you can go to culinary school full time.”, I suggested.

“Are you fucking serious ?”, Michelle asked.

“I wouldn’t ask if I were not serious……. I make great money. Move in with me, give up the apartment and go to school. Do your work on the side if you want to.”, I suggested.

“Just like that….turn my world upside down ?”, she replied.

“Baby, I’m not asking you to do anything….. I’m only saying if that’s what you want then grab it.”, I urged.

“I don’t know, Tim. That’s so generous of you but I’m not sure I could feel comfortable living here doing nothing.”, she sighed.

“I understand Michelle, but if you change your mind….. I’m here for you.”, I replied.

It took me almost a month to convince Michelle to move in with me and a lunch date with her father. After the lunch was over with Michelle and her father, I felt at ease with him. I guess it has to be hard for a father to look across the table at a man who he knows is fucking his baby girl.

We moved Michelle’s things into my house in a single weekend. The furniture she kept we wrapped in plastic and put it in my garage. Since she had been training with me every day in the gym, she had grown out of most of her clothes. She basically needed a whole new wardrobe.

Michelle got very lucky and was accepted at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Institute right away. She worked as hard in the classroom as she did in the gym completing the course in eighteen months. I can’t begin to describe how hard those eighteen months were on the two of us. The firm had almost doubled its cliental with probably forty percent landing on my floor. I had hired three new girls to help with all the research and filing that was done on a daily basis. Michelle’s day would begin at nine in the morning to almost seven o’clock in the evening before she would get home. She would shower then sit at the kitchen bar and do research on foods, spices and recipes she had found. Many times, I would find Michelle sound asleep with her head down on the counter fast asleep. But, I knew this is what she wanted and I helped in any way I could.

When Michelle graduated, the executive chef at the school called a friend of his that owned a restaurant in New Orleans. He mentioned Michelle and how hard she had worked and asked him if he might offer her an apprenticeship in his restaurant. He agreed and before we had time to breathe, Michelle was in New Orleans cooking six days a week at Batreaux’s Bistro, a world renown restaurant. She was scheduled to do a three month apprenticeship then come back home. I had rented a small apartment for her a block from the restaurant which made it very easy for her.

While Michelle was in New Orleans, a long time client of Richard Butler passed away of dementia. Sidney Wilton had amassed a fortune in real estate during his ninety years on earth. From my meeting with Richard, I learned that Sidney had three natural born children and one adopted child, a daughter. Apparently, for the last ten years of his life he lived at his home with his adopted daughter. The last four years were rough, she waited on him hand and foot twenty four hours a day.

Richard Butler knew his natural born children well. Mr. Wilton had spoiled them rotten and the only time they would visit him is when they wanted money. Richard stated they treated him horribly as well as the adopted daughter who took care of him. However, what the natural born children did not know was that Sydney Wilton had Richard Butler draw up a new will about three years ago.

The following morning, the complete file on Sydney Wilton was delivered to my office in eight large cardboard boxes. Richard Butler had power of attorney and was the executor of the estate. After a week of sorting out all of the properties that Mr. Wilton owned and his personal finances, I was overwhelmed.

As of the last appraisal, his properties alone appraised at seventy one million dollars. His personal home was assessed at three million one hundred thousand dollars. His vacation home in Florida was assessed at slightly over two million dollars. He owned several vintage automobiles that would have to be appraised and sold.

His personal checking account had over two million dollars in it and he had a secondary account of nine hundred thousand dollars for household expenses. In addition, his holdings in the stock market were valued at about sixty million dollars. Not counting anything I was not aware of the estate was valued at close to one hundred forty million dollars.

Richard set up a meeting with the four children on a Friday morning so he could execute the will. When I got to the conference room, Robin Woods was already there. Along with Richard Butler and Bill Thompson who was our will and trust attorney and Linda, one of our stenographers.

My relationship with Robin was strained to say the least. We rarely spoke and she blamed Michelle for getting involved with me. She claimed she wanted to reconcile with me, but Michelle ruined everything. The only thing that she overlooked was the fact I had no intention of ever being in a relationship with her again.

Everyone arrived from the Wilton family and it became apparent very quickly who was real and genuine. The three natural born children, Sydney Wilton Jr., Marvin Wilton and Vanessa Wilton were all adorned in expensive clothes and high end jewelry.

The adopted daughter, Mary Stein was the child of Mr. Wilton’s long time housekeeper, Margaret Stein. Ms. Stein had a massive stroke many years ago and died almost instantly. Her daughter, Mary, was left alone with no guardian. Since there were no immediate relatives, Sydney Wilton went through the process of formally adopting Mary Stein.

Mary looked completely out of place in a room full of vultures salivating at picking Sydney Wilton’s vast fortune to the bone. The smug look they had on their face made me want to punch the fuck out of the three of them. Finally, Mr. Butler took charge of the room and started the meeting.

“As you may or may not know, your father executed a new will in two thousand fifteen. So, any will dated prior to December the fourth, two thousand fifteen is invalid.”, he started.

The look on the faces of his natural born children was priceless. No doubt, they immediately thought the worst, as well they should have.

“To my natural born children, Sydney Wilton Jr, Marvin Wilton and Vanessa Wilton, I leave the sum of twelve million dollars each. This sum will be paid from my market holdings in cash. I will also pay all taxes concerning this inheritance for each one of my children.”, Richard started.

“Hey what kind of crap is this ?”, Vanessa Wilton stated, raising her voice.

“You will let me read this will in its entirely without comment. I have been your father’s attorney for over thirty five years and a close personal friend. You will not disrespect him in anyway or I will have you removed from this building.”, Richard said, sternly.

“Now back to the will. To my adopted daughter, Mary Ann Stein, I leave you with this. I watched you grow from a frightened child to a young, generous caring woman. Not once in your life did you approach me for anything of monetary value. No clothes, no car and no home. In the last few years of my life when my health failed, you never left my side. You asked me for nothing, but you gave me everything in return. My own children wouldn’t visit me unless they needed me to sign a check for them.”, Richard continued.

“Therefore, I leave my personal home, my vacation home, all properties listed under SMI Properties Inc., all monies in my personal accounts and the remaining portfolio of my market investments to my adopted daughter, Mary Stein. I can’t tell you much I love you but in some way, I hope this will does.”, Richard continued.

Mary Stein was sobbing softly her head down in her hands. On the other hand, the three natural born children were absolutely outraged. Apparently, Vanessa was the ring leader of the three and she spoke up quickly.

“So how much exactly is she getting.”, Vanessa asked, pointing at Mary who was still crying softly.

“Well, Tim our CPA, did a preliminary asset review so I let him answer that question.”, Richard replied.

“Since each of you will receive twelve million dollars and the funds for the taxes on that gift, I estimate the balance of the estate being around ninety million dollars.”, I stated.

“So, we get twelve million each and she gets ninety million, no way in hell.”, Vanessa screamed.

This was going to become a shit show quick and I could see Richard Butler becoming angry at the Wilton children. After all, twelve million dollars is nothing to sneeze at. Before Richard could reply, Mary Stein spoke up.

“Mr. Richard, I don’t care about the money. They can have everything all I need is a small house to live in. I’m willing to go out and support myself. My father took me in when I had no one. If anything, I owe him.”, she softly said, tears running down her cheeks.”

“Great, we will buy her a house and then the three of us will divide the rest by three.”, Vanessa smiled, leaning back in the chair.

“My God child, you simply amaze me.”, Richard replied, wiping the tears from his eyes.

“So how fast can we get this done.”, Marvin Wilton asked.

“Son, this is already done.”, Richard replied, then leaning toward Mary Stein.

“Mary, you can’t just verbally waive your inheritance and give it away. By law, you now control all of your late father’s money. Everything. I would have to go to court and have you removed as primary heir, then have a complete financial audit done of all the investments.”, Richard started.

“Mary, your father wanted you to have this inheritance. This was his final wish and he made me swear to him that I get this done. So, before this gets out of hand everyone needs to go home and get some rest. Mary, I want you to set up an appointment with Tim in a week or so and let him advise you on how to proceed. If in the end, you wish to give it away, I will honor your wishes and make the arrangements.”, he said.

Everyone started to get up to leave pushing the chairs under the conference table. I started walking around the table to Mary Stein to give her one of my business cards so she could set up the appointment. Before I could get around the table, Marvin Wilton approached her grabbing her by the arm.

“You better sign those papers Mary. That money belongs to us, not you.”, he growled.

I arrived about one second later grabbing his arm that was holding Mary’s. He turned and looked at me immediately realizing he was severely outmatched.

“Let her go.”, I said, calmly.

“Get your hands off of me.”, he shouted.

“If you don’t let her go, I will break your arm.”, I warned, calmly.

Marvin quickly let her go and in turn, I released him. He mumbled something to Richard Butler then the three of them stormed out. I asked Mary if she was ok and she nodded she was. I handed her the card and told her to call me anytime. She promised she would and left the room as well. Robin was till there as well as the stenographer.

“Richard, I’m sorry about what just happened but she’s a nice lady.”, I said softly.

“Hell, you should have knocked him out. I would have gladly bailed you out.”, Richard laughed.

We all filed out and went back to our respective floors. Robin got in the elevator with me and the doors closed. It was a very awkward feeling to say the least until Robin got out on her floor. I didn’t hate Robin, far from it. She was a young, vibrant beautiful woman who I possibly was in love with several years ago. But lately, I just didn’t know how to communicate with her.

Michelle called me that night and basically admitted that she was drained physically and emotionally. She had been still working out in a gym nearby, but she admitted she was getting hit on almost every night by different guys. She admitted how much she missed me and couldn’t wait to be in my arms again.

On the bright side, she learned from Brad Batreaux how to cook cajun style. She admitted that if she ever opened a restaurant it would feature quite a bit of New Orleans cuisine. Then she admitted that Brad had asked her to stay on for another sixty days. There were still somethings she needed to learn. I did not take the news well, but I couldn’t let Michelle feel my disappointment. I replied that since she was already there was is two more months when it came to her career. When she hung up, she seemed relieved that I took it so well.

The weekends were always the hardest, it just wasn’t a home without Michelle there. I was sitting on the sofa that afternoon when I called Stan Woods to inform him that Michelle may be staying in New Orleans for another two months. He seemed as disappointed as I was but after all this was what she wanted to do. He admitted she would call him several times a week and talk. She would always tell him how much she appreciated my support and love.

Later that night, I was almost asleep in bed when my cell phone rang. I looked over at the night stand to see it was Michelle calling. I picked up the phone and answered it.

“What are you doing, baby ?”, she asked.

“I’m in bed ?”, I answered softly.

“With who ?”, she giggled.

“You know better than that, baby.”, I replied.

“I know, look hang up and I’m going to Facetime you back.”, she giggled, hanging up.

I think I missed Michelle’s giggles the most of all. She was so adorable when she laughed, I wanted to just eat her alive. True to her word, my phone rang again less than a minute later. I answered the phone to see the beautiful face of the woman I had grown to love and respect so much.

“Hey baby.”, she laughed.

“Hey sweetheart…. It’s so good to see you.”, I answered.

“I got off early tonight, so I wanted to talk to you.”, she said.

She was laying on the small bed in the apartment with the covers pulled up to her shoulders. I would give anything to be in that bed with her but being supportive was what she needed now. Before I could say anything, she tossed the covers to her right giving me a clear view of her entire body. She had a white t-shirt on with a pair of white lace panties on.

“See anything you like.”, she giggled.

“Oh hell yea…..”, I quickly replied.

She reached down and pulled her panties to the side revealing a glistening wet pussy. She pushed one finger inside of herself then pulled it out putting it into her mouth, then sucking on it. She pulled the finger out of her mouth then reached down between her legs and gently started rubbing herself.

“You like this, baby ?”, she said, softly.

“Oh my god, yes.”, I replied.

“Show me your dick, pull it out.”, she begged.

I tossed the covers aside quickly and reached into my boxers pulling my hard dick out quickly. I wrapped my right hand around it and began to stroke myself up and down adjusting the phone so Michelle could see me jerking off.

“Oh yea baby, stroke that fucking dick.”, she urged.

Michelle positioned her phone so that I could see her fingers plunging in and out of her soaked pussy. Just seeing Michelle masterbate in front of me sent me quickly over the edge.

“Fuck baby, I’m cumming.”, I screamed, as cum shot straight in the air landing on my stomach.

“Oh babyyyyy.”, Michelle screamed, her body shaking on the bed.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Several weeks later, I met with Mary Stein in my office alone. Mary admitted to me that she was in over her head with the position that she found herself in. She had no idea on how to manage the vast wealth that she had been left. She once again mentioned that she would be willing to give it all away in exchange for a simple life. After what I had witnessed from the Wilton family, I was not going down without a fight.

“Mary, let Butler, Land and Reyes manage everything for you. I will hire a real estate broker to manage the buildings, I will take care of your investments and taxes. You never have to work again for the rest of your life, enjoy it Mary.” I urged.

We spent the next four hours putting together a package that Mary felt comfortable with. I would put somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty million dollars in T-Bonds. She would receive a little over one hundred thousand dollars a month direct deposited in her checking account. She would have over a million dollars liquidity each year to live on.

I would hire a real estate broker to manage the properties she now acquired and we would move the profits into a new real estate corporation that we would form. I took the death certificate and the will along with the power of attorney Mary had signed over to me. We went next door to the bank we used at the firm and transferred one million nine hundred seventy- five thousand dollars into a new checking account made out to Mary Anne Stein. They issued her a debit card and credit card immediately. It was amazing how people who had big money never waited for anything.

Two weeks later, we had a final meeting with Mary Stein and the Wilton family. Each child received a bank draft in the amount of twelve million dollars. Mary Stein had decided to move out of the house that Mr. Wilton had died in. She generously gave that home and the vacation home in Florida to the three children. She also gave the furnishings, the seven antique automobiles and the yacht to the children as well.

Richard Butler put Mary in touch with his sister so she could find another home that she liked. It took me a little over a month to finalize everything for Mary. Butler, Land and Reyes was now her exclusive agent and attorney of record for her financial matters. It was on a Thursday evening, several days later when I could not stop looking at the clock. Michelle was flying in around six o’clock and she would finally be home. I took off the next day, Friday so I could spend three uninterrupted days with her at home.

I was sitting next to the concourse at five minutes after five waiting impatiently for Michelle to arrive. At around six fifteen, they announced Michelle’s flight had landed and I moved to the arrival gate. It took several minutes but I finally saw her running up the ramp pulling her luggage behind her. She jumped into my arms and pressed her mouth against mine in an urgent passionate kiss. It didn’t matter who was there or what they thought, I had waited for this moment for over five months. I finally set her down my arms still around her hugging her tightly. I’m not sure how long I held her, but it wasn’t long enough. I let her go and bent over and grabbed the handle to her rolling case and we walked hand in hand of out the airport.

She was so excited to tell me what she had learned in New Orleans and how much Brad had taught her. She went on for close to thirty minutes telling me about all the Cajun cuisine she wanted to feature in her restaurant.

We pulled into the driveway a few minutes after seven o’clock. Michelle walked straight to the large sofa in the living area and fell back on the sofa.

“God, it feels so good to be back home.”, she sighed.

She pulled her cell phone from her rear pocket and called Stan Woods to let him know she had arrived safely and was with me. They talked for several minutes and she promised to see him the next day. Michelle said she wanted to fill the large tub in the master bathroom with bubble bath and soak for about an hour. I went down the hall and started the water for her then grabbed her towels placing them on the vanity.

I went back to the kitchen poured a large glass of iced tea and sat on the sofa watching television for a while. About thirty minutes later, I went back into the master bedroom just as Michelle came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her. I grabbed a shirt and a pair of boxers then took a shower myself. When I came out of the bathroom, Michelle was already in the bed under the covers. I walked over and pulled the covers up sliding into the bed next to her.

She immediately climbed on top of me leaning in and kissing me. Michelle’s firm breasts were pressing against my chest as she forced her tongue into my mouth. She lifted slightly and grabbed my erect cock and pushed the head into her wet opening. Seconds later she was bottomed out on me slowly moving back and forth.

“Fuck, I have wanted to feel your dick inside me for months now.”, she said softly.

“God, you’re so wet and tight baby.”, I replied.

She leaned over and stopped a few inches from my face her eyes full of passion. She extended her tongue and licked my lips, something she knew I loved her to do. It had been too long for Michelle and just the slight movement back and forth on my cock sent her into a violent orgasm.

“Motherfucker, I’m cumming….fuck….”, she screamed, her body convulsing over mine.

It took close to twenty seconds before Michelle opened her eyes and recovered from the orgasm that had just taken her by surprised. She leaned down and kissed me softly her tongue inside of my mouth. She kissed me for a couple of minutes then lifted herself off my erect cock. She slowly moved down the bed until she was between my legs softly stroking my cock up and down. She leaned in and took the head of my cock into her warm wet mouth. She used her tongue on the sensitive underside of my cock as she softly used her fingertips on my balls.

“Oh fuck baby, that’s so good.”, I moaned.

She began to move her mouth slowly up and down on my erect shaft, her tongue licking me softly. She moved up my shaft until of the head of my dick was in her mouth. Once again, her tongue glided along the underside of my cock sending me over the edge.

“I’m gonna cum baby.”, I warned.

“Uh-huh.”, she mumbled, her mouth still on me.

“Baby, I’m gonna….fuck.”, I yelled.

The first explosion surprised Michelle as the cum flowed from her lips. My cock kept jumping inside her warm mouth spewing wads of thick white cum in her mouth. She pulled her mouth from me and ropes of cum fell from her lips back on my cock. She extended her tongue and licked the head of my dick smearing the cum up and down my hard shaft. She then took me into her mouth again sucking what was left of my orgasm off my cock. She kept me in her mouth until I was soft and spent. She moved up and laid her head on my chest still stroking my soft dick.

“I hope you can get this fucker up again.”, she giggled, squeezing my cock firmly.

“Just give me a few minutes beautiful.”, I said, kissing her lips getting up and jumping in the shower.

As I was coming out of the shower, Michelle went in. I grabbed all the dirty clothes and towels and went to the laundry room throwing them in the hamper. I went into the kitchen and poured a glass of iced tea when Michelle came in. She asked for a glass as well which I poured immediately. I walked around the kitchen counter to the stool she was sitting on and handed her the glass. I sat down next to her so grateful that she was back home again. She swiveled slightly on the stool, so she was facing me.

“How’s that dick doing ?”, she giggled.

“How’s your pussy doing ?”, I quickly shot back.

“I dunno, why don’t you check it out.”, she said, softly.

I reached out as she opened her legs slipping my hand inside the waistband of her panties. I eased my hand in quickly finding her warm, wet opening. She closed her eyes and sighed as my finger penetrated the folds of her pussy. She was wet as usual as my finger found her clit quickly softly rubbing it in a circular motion. She leaned forward putting her arms around my neck.

“God damn baby, you make me feel so fucking good.”, she whispered in my ear.

I began to softly kiss her neck and her shoulder as I increase the speed of my finger on her clit. She tightened her embrace around my neck as she took my earlobe between her lips running the tip of her tongue inside my ear. I started rubbing her as fast as I could my hand deep in her panties. She lasted several seconds before she climaxed on my finger, her body tense and rigid for several seconds.

I am not sure how many orgasms Michelle had that weekend, but she confirmed Sunday evening her pussy was sore and she needed a break. I went back to work on Monday and Michelle went to the grocery store to buy food so she could start cooking for me in the evenings, getting my opinion on the dishes she wanted to serve.

My first dish that evening was a Hamburger Steak with Garlic mashed potatoes with bacon bits and hot boil corn. Michelle served me at the bar like I was her first customer. The plate consisted of a pound and a quarter hamburger steak with mushroom and onions, three heaping spoons of garlic mashed potatoes with a large spoon of corn in a slightly red sauce.

After three bites of the steak and one spoon of each of the side dishes, I was convinced Michelle was born to be a chef. Michelle informed me that the hamburger steak was an 80/20 mix of ground meat with a mixture of ground pork. All of the seasoning was put in the ground pork as to not over power the ground beef mix. You could tell there was something added to the hamburger but until Michelle told me I could not figure it out. The mashed potatoes were whipped until soft and creamy. You could taste a faint hint of garlic and finely cut white onions in the potatoes. The corn was out of this world being very spicy. Michelle had made pot of water and added crab boil liquid to it. She then boiled the corn in the crab boil mixture for several minutes.

Michelle quickly named her first dish Viande Por Williams since I was the very first to taste it. Over the next month, Michelle introduced Stan and Beverly Woods and I to a multitude of different dishes. Stan would stop by my house at least three times a week where the three of us would eat another dish Michelle had prepared. Stan always took a plate over to Beverly when he went home.

Michelle had rounded out quit a menu consisting of the hamburger steak dish, red beans and rice with either smoked or hot sausage, white beans with pork chops, chicken and sausage gumbo, Couche-Couche which was a cross between pudding and corn grits that was awesome, Stuffed Mirliton, Cajun Chicken Pasta, Cajun Black Eyes Peas, Dirty Rice Casserole, Sheet Pan Cajun Pork Chops and Southern Shrimp and Grits.

As the year was ending, the only thing on my mind was to figure out how I could find a way to open a restaurant for Michelle. There was no doubt she would be successful. Everyone who ate any of her dishes simply raved about the food.

I knew I was looking at close to a hundred thousand dollar Christmas Bonus in about two weeks. I had done quite well in the last two years for someone just twenty eight years old. My saving account stood at four hundred and four thousand dollars, my checking account had just over three hundred thousand dollars in it. I still had the fifteen thousand dollars at the top of my closet in cash and my 401K sat at about one hundred and ninety five thousand dollars. My net worth was right at a million dollars and I had not reached the age of thirty yet.

At the end of the year, I would always work on Mary Stein’s taxes and investments myself. We had hired another CPA, Chris Martin and two more assistants for the workload we had acquired. But I had personally coaxed Mary Stein into trusting Butler, Land and Reyes with her financial life. The day before, I had met with Corporate Realty agent, Marty Goodson, who handled all of Mary’s properties. Everything was going well with the properties and she was showing good returns on each property every year, less two that were vacant.

The taxes and upkeep we were paying on the buildings was used as a loss to offset profits made in other areas. Mary Stein had done well these past few years. She had bought a beautiful home in an exclusive part of Dallas. She traveled extensively all around the globe visiting different cities she always wanted to see. Mary would never run out of money, in fact she paid huge tax bills every year of the revenue the properties would earn.

Marty Goodson had showed me the portfolios on the two building that were in question. Both were in the Dallas city limits and both vacant for the last four years. One property was rather small and could possibly be used as a small store or something. The other property was on a corner, quite large with huge glass windows on the street sides. Next to it was a rather large parking lot that could probably handle seventy five vehicles at once. The outside of the property was in great shape but from what I saw of the photos, the inside needed a lot of work.

I met with Mary Stein four days before our annual Christmas party which I did every year. Once again, she had been highly profitable and facing another six figure tax burden.

“You know Tim, sometimes I get so sick of money.”, she advised.

“I understand Mary, money is what I do for a living.”, I replied.

“Speaking of which, I have these two properties here I think we should do something with.”, I offered, handing her the folders.

She looked at both but honestly, she really did not know what she was looking at. She glanced both over then handed them back to me.

“Tim, do whatever you think is right with these. It’s not like I need the money.”, she laughed.

“I have two ideas for both actually. We could lease out the smaller building to a non-profit for a dollar a year. It would give you a nice write off at the end of the year and you would help a good cause. On the larger building, I would like to work out a deal with you and rent the building for my wife.”, I offered.

“What would your wife use the building for ?”, Mary asked.

“She wants to open a restaurant here locally. She went to culinary school and just recently did a six month apprenticeship at a restaurant in New Orleans.”, I answered.

“Oh that’s wonderful….. hell Tim, for what you did for me, you can have the damn building.”, Mary offered.

“I can’t do that Mary, but maybe we could work out a rental deal.”, I offered.

“Tim, you’re going to have to spend a lot of money renovating the building. Take the damn building, I don’t need it. But the deal is, one table is to be reserved for me for life.”, she said smiling.

“I don’t think I can pass up a deal like that.”, I replied.

Two days later, I owned a fifteen thousand square foot building in the heart of Dallas. I put a picture of the building and the deed in a box and wrapped it as a Christmas present and dropped it off at Michelle’s parent’s house for the Christmas Eve party.

The annual Christmas party at the firm went off well and once again, we had broken the previous year’s revenue. My Christmas bonus was one hundred and four thousand dollars, my biggest thus far. It would come in handy now not knowing what it would cost to make Michelle’s dream come true.

I had spoken to Richard Butler and he had given me a card from a local contractor who had in fact built several food establishments in the city for different people. It was a good place to start and try to get a clear picture of what Michelle’s dream was going to cost. The gift of the building by Mary Stein was huge though.

Michelle and I attended the annual Christmas Eve party at her parent’s house as usual. In fact, Michelle cooked a good deal of the food there that night changing up the menu from the last few years. She had bought a new short red dress that looked amazing and once again was turning heads at the party.

Of course, Robin was there with Jeff, but it appears I notice some tension between the two of them. I noticed Robin looking at me several times during the night. I had noticed lately whenever I saw Robin at work or personally, she always looked unhappy. Jeff seemed like a nice guy, but I had no clue as to how their relationship was.

At about ten o’clock, I slipped the Christmas present to Stan Woods and he snuck it outside when I distracted Michelle in conversation. He got to the table where the disc jockey had set up and grabbed the microphone. This was a traditional where Stan thanked everyone for coming and wished everyone Happy Holidays.

“A little out of tradition this year, it seems that Santa has left one present under my tree early. Let’s see this is for….. Michelle Woods.”, he stated acting surprised.

I nudged Michelle forward in the direction of the table that her father was standing next to. She arrived and Stan handed her the package as he shrugged his shoulders. Michelle looked really confused but began to gently tear away at the wrapping paper. She pulled the top off the box and removed the eight by ten black and white photo of the building. She looked at Stan then back at the picture completely confused. She set the picture back in the box and picked up the white envelope with her name typed on the front.

She handed her father the box and opened the envelope and took the deed out for the building reading it carefully. The deed read MSI Properties Incorporated to Michelle Stacey Woods all property and improvement at 1617 Main State Street inclusive for the sum of four hundred fifty- five thousand dollars and zero cents. When she read the deed, she was still confused and handed it to her father. He scanned it quickly already knowing what was up.

“I think Santa just brought you a restaurant for Christmas.”, Stan advised.

“What……. You didn’t ?” Michelle screamed.

“Nope, I didn’t. He did.” …… Stan replied, pointing at me.

Michelle looked in my direction with the most amazed look on her face. She took off running across the yard and jumped into my arms kissing my entire face. I set her down as she looked up at me, her eyes sparkling in the night lights.

“How…. Where did you find the money….. this can’t be true.?, she babbled.

She listened earnestly as I explained to her what happened and how the building and the parking lot now belonged to her. She looked like a little girl who was about to pee on herself as she jumped around. I told her I had arranged a contractor to meet with her after the first of the year and put a plan together to make her dream a reality. She kissed me over and over then ran back to her parents to tell them everything. I was sitting at one of the tables drinking orange juice when Robin walked up to me.

“You bought my sister a building for Christmas ?”, she asked.

“It’s her dream Robin, she wants a restaurant.”, I replied.

“How did you manage a four hundred thousand dollar building ?”, Robin laughed.

“It’s complicated but let’s say I got a really good deal.”, I answered.

---