Seth’s Perspective
It had been a hell of a holiday! Our first Christmas with the kids was indescribably awesome, and our unexpected adults-only NYE celebration in Charleston was so great… I felt like I was in college again just hanging out with all my friends. But January 2nd brought an end to the merriment of the holiday and smacked us over the head with a return to reality. Izzy was being (as Freddy would say) a b-word about everything. Every outfit I picked out for her to wear was met with a “No. I don’t wike it!” Everything I offered to make for breakfast, even Mickey Mouse pancakes was greeted with a “No. I don’t wike it!” and folded arms. That sweet little angel could amp up the bitch factor when she wanted to, and that morning she wanted to. Freddy was obsessed with the idea of bringing his bike to school for show and tell and was relentless about it. I swear we told that kid “no” about a thousand times but every chance he got, he asked again with an elongated “puleeeeeeeease?” I finally convinced him to take his remote control car instead, but he was NOT happy about it. Ali on the other hand was a freaking angel. He had been clingy as hell since me and Zach got home and was never more than a foot away, we were convinced that he thought we had left him for good. That broke my heart. Our kids (including Ali) rolled with the punches so well that I often forgot the emotional baggage they all carried at such young ages.
We got up early that extra morning and still left the house late… it was like pulling teeth to wrangle those three after the week or so at home being spoiled rotten. We picked up Teddy and then dropped him and Freddy off at school, we pulled up at the same time Rhonda was dropping off Sammy. The three besties were apart for a little over a week but you would’ve sworn they hadn’t seen each other in years, Freddy seemed over the trauma of not being allowed to bring his bike to school as they happily ran off into the school while I greeted Rhonda and heard all about their Christmas. Then it was off to Mrs. Mavis’s where Gina was dropping off her two kids, she was having the same kind of morning I was. Maggie and Izzy both went from bitch-mode to little angels when Mrs. Mavis asked them about their Christmas… the two princesses talked her ear off. But DJ and Ali were both having separation anxiety. Mrs. Mavis took DJ and was able to calm him down and distract him with some toy in the corner, but Ali was having none of that shit. He held onto my neck with a death grip when I tried to leave, and he just kept begging “no. No. Seth stay. Pleeeeeease” his begging turned into sobs and my heart was breaking for him. It took forever, but Mrs. Mavis finally redirected his attention enough for me to sneak off to work. I felt like shit leaving him there.
I called Gina from the car, “I am the worst fucking parent on earth” I told my friend.
“No worse than me” she retorted. “Oh my god, Seth. I’m at school sitting in my car sobbing. That was fucking brutal” Gina laughed through her tears. “I’m the worst fucking mother ever leaving my baby like that” I knew how she felt.
“No worse than me, I feel like I abandoned Ali all over again, he kept begging me to stay, “Seth stay. Pleeeeeease”” I responded. We both felt like shit for abandoning our little guys but we talked each other through it. By the time I parked the Atlas in my spot behind The Village, Gina and I were laughing again and feeling better about leaving the kids with Mrs. Mavis, we knew they were in good hands no matter how much our crying children made us feel otherwise. After hanging up with Gina, I walked over to Marilee’s for coffee. I talked to her and Ella about for a while, it seemed like everyone had a good holiday. Finally, I headed to the office for the first time in over a week. BA and Rodney grabbed their cups of coffee from the carrier in my hands before I even got through the door. We met in the therapy room and they updated me on everything I missed (even though I checked emails daily and took the occasional call). We only had a few minutes before I went into my first session… I was booked back to back all day to make up for being gone. The first day back was draining and took all I had, but I made it through! After work I pick-up the kids, fed them, and put them to bed. Zach was working late to make up for taking time off, so I was on my own for dinner and bedtime duties with the kids. Once they were asleep, I crawled into bed, passed out and slept like a log. I don’t even think it was 8:00.
I was asleep for about an hour or so when I felt Zach’s soft lips on my cheek. “Hey, you” I whispered in my groggy state. “How was your day?”
“Long and hard” Zach said with a sigh.
“Just like you” I laughed back with my eyes still closed.
“I’m buried up to my ass and stressed out as fuck.” His peck on the cheek morphed into a full on mouth-to-mouth kiss with his tongue searching for mine and his hand grabbing for the sleeping beast in my boxer briefs. One thing about my hot as fuck husband is that he was always horny, and when he was stressed, sex was his favorite method of stress relief.
He massaged me with his hand as we kissed hard and wet. He was doing his damnedest to get a rise out of me (pun intended). “Zach, not tonight. It was a shit day and I’m tired” I said. He stripped naked and got under the covers behind me as I stayed on my side. I could feel his hardness against my ass.
“Tell me about your day” He whispered into my ear, his hot breath tickling my ear drum.
“Well, it started out with Ali clinging to me for dear life at Mrs. Mavis’s. god, Zach. I felt like the worst fucking parent ever! I felt like I was abandoning the lil guy” I said as I told him the whole story of Ali and DJ having separation anxiety after a week of hanging out at home. He thought it was cute… of course he did! He wasn’t the one abandoning his child. Throughout our serious conversation Zach continued to stimulate my manhood and poke his against my tight pucker. “Didn’t you get enough the other night?” I asked with a snicker. “My neck and my ass are still sore from you fucking me upside down” I confessed making Zach laugh.
He kissed my neck tenderly and responded, “Let me kiss it and make it better” then, my predictable husband kissed his way down my back until his lips met my ass. He covered it with kisses as his hands pulled my cheeks apart so he could sooth my still sore hole with his warm, wet tongue. Fuck, he was making it impossible to resist (like he always did) but I kept up my resistance act making him do all the work. His tongue probed my hole waking me with pleasure and I instinctively pushed my ass back to force his tongue deeper. He prepped me perfectly for his finger, first his middle finger moved in and out… holy fuck! He wiggled it around a little bit hitting my prostate, then he slowly pulled it out… the sensation of it leaving made me beg for more.
“Put it back in” I whimpered making Zach chuckle.
“I thought you were tired” he teased.
“Shut up and finger my…” I cut my own words off with a moan as he added a second finger and moved them in and out. When the third digit when In I was in ecstasy! He bent his middle finger and woke my prostate! I pushed back, grinding my ass against his three working digits. He was moving all three digits at different times sending thrills through me… then it just stopped. All three fingers retreated leaving me empty and wanting. But before I could beg for more he spit on his engorged member and pushed it inside me. He wasn’t rough, but he sure as fuck wasn’t gentle as he breached by still recovering hole and kept pushing until his ample balls rested on my crack. He pulled out slowly and slammed back. I maneuvered my body so that I was lying face down with my ass in the air.
“Damn, that’s so fucking hot” Zach growled as he looked down on my waiting ass, then slapped it. He reentered me and started fucking me hard. His balls were slapping against my ass and the headboard was bumping against the wall. “Yeah, that’s it, fuck” Zach mumbled then shot his hot load deep inside me. He used his thick cum as lube as he continued to fuck me after he came. I was stroking myself and groaning in ecstasy… I was so close… right there on the edge when…
*knock* *knock* *knock* “daddy are you okay?” Freddy asked from the other side of the (thankfully) locked door.
Zach pulled out of me and rolled onto his back. My head was reeling. I couldn’t think. I was at a loss for words when my lawyer husband said, “he’s fine, Freddy. He just had something stuck in his throat. Go back to bed.”
“He woke me up, can I sleep with you?” His sweet little voice asked.
“Um… not tonight bud, go back to your bed” Zach said as he jumped out of bed and wiped himself clean with a dirty T shirt from the hamper. He threw it to me when he was done so I could wipe my well-used ass.
“Puleeeeease Daddy Sach and Daddy Zeff” he begged pulling out all the stops. We scrambled to put on some pajamas, then Zach finally answered the door.
“Okay, buddy. Come in” Zach said.
Freddy entered the dressed in his Superman PJ’s, and his skinny little body ran into the room. He jumped up on the bed, sat in the very middle, and propped himself up on the headboard. Then he pinched his nose with his thumb and forefinger, scrunched his face and said, “It stinks in here!” Yup. It did. It smelled like man sex and of course he had no clue.
“Daddy Sach farted” I said without missing a beat. Freddy laugh and let our an ‘ewwwwwwwwe’ then the three of us settled in and fell asleep.
The next day was action packed too; we were seriously thrown back into reality headfirst. Nathan called Zach first thing in the morning to consult with him on Karen’s case, he had set up an appointment to meet with her that morning and had been pouring through her case. While Zach was on the phone with Nathan, Ms. Elkin called me.
“So, we’ve made contact with Ali’s father” she said. My heart dropped into the pit of my stomach; I feared this day would come. “He’s denying paternity and any connection or claim to him” she added. I had to think for a minute… what did that mean? Was he NOT the father or did he just not want Ali. How the fuck could he not want the lovable little man?!
“So, what does that mean?” I asked.
“Well, it means that Ali is a ward of the state. He’ll stay in foster care unless we can find a family to adopt him…” she said as an open-ended statement knowing damn well, we’d probably take the bait.
“So, if we want him then what?” I asked.
Maureen got a little arrogant and responded “If?! Pfft adopt the kid already.” She knew damn well we were attached to that little shit. “As of now he’s considered abandoned, after six months of no one coming forward, any parental rights would be relinquished and he’d be available for adoption” she said summing up the situation.
“Sounds like we need to meet with Dan” I said. Dan was the lawyer at Zach’s firm who represented us for Izzy and Freddy’s adoptions. Maureen told me everything she knew about the situation before we hung up. So, as I understood it, we were still Ali’s foster family and he could stay with us until he was adopted barring anyone swooping in and claiming him.
Zach hung up with his dad and came into the kitchen to help me put breakfast on the table. “Sounds like Dad has a plan for Karen, he found a bunch of shit her lawyer either missed or ignored and thinks he can get a mistrial declared… which means she’ll have a second chance to plead her case” he said updating me. “Who was on the phone?” He asked.
“Maureen” I said not offering anything else in front of the kids. “Can you drop Freddy and Teddy off at school this morning, and maybe meet me for coffee after?” I asked giving him a look that told him we had to talk away from the kids.
“Um… yeah” he said as he thought through things. “I’ll let the office know I’m running late, then we can meet at Marilee’s.”
“Cool” I said with a smile. We finished the morning routine, Freddy and Zach whirred off in the GTI to pick up Teddy and go to school. Me, Izzy, and Ali headed off to Mrs. Mavis’s (FYI, Ali was over his separation anxiety). After that Me and Zach met up at Marilee’s. for coffee
“So, what’s going on?” Zach asked as he took a seat across from me at the tiny table.
“Maureen said they made contact with Ali’s father and he’s denying paternity and any connection or claim to him” I said, “So, it sounds like if no one claims him in six months we’ll have a chance to adopt him, but for now he’s in the foster system and we’re his foster family.”
“We need to meet with Dan” Zach said.
I nodded, “What are the chances of him doing this one pro bono again?” I asked.
“Well, I’m sure he’ll at least cut us a break, but I mean if we keep adopting kids we’re going to run out of favors” Zach chuckled. After that, we talked seriously about Ali, having three kids verses just two, what his future would be like with and without us, what ours would be like with and without him, the impact him staying or him leaving would have on Izzy and Freddy. We were both convinced we could give him a great life, and frankly we couldn’t bear the thought of our world without him. “So” Zach said. “We’re doing this?”
“Yup” I said. “Here we go again.”
“Okay, I’ll talk to Dan when I get to the office, Maybe you should call Maureen and tell her what we’re thinking” He said as he pushed his chair away from the table and stood up. We kissed goodbye and we both went off to work.
My first appointment that day was with Trevor, he was one of the newest villagers and had only been around since Thanksgiving when we met him at a nightclub. He was getting the crap beat out of him by an older guy that he was living with after his family kicked him out. We were able to get him away from the guy, give him a place to live, and help him get a job at BroMax. He did his damnedest to make our helping hand count. He was kicking ass at BroMax and putting money away, he had even made progress mending fences with his family and spent Christmas in South Carolina with his family… it sounded like things had gone well. He told me that the guys at Harrington House felt like family and that Asher had become his best friend. That put a smile on my face. Asher was anti-social, a loner, and not really a “best friend” having kind of guy, but something clicked between the two and I couldn’t be happier for them. They both needed a friend.
Speaking of Asher… I had a meeting with him later that day and he was a frigging mess! Brody’s agency had offered him an amazing opportunity at the Phoenix office and he was going out of his mind trying to decide what to do! Brody had given me a heads-up that the offer was coming so I was prepared for the conversation.
Asher was panicking, “I… I don’t know what to do, Seth. I… I like it here. I Like my job… and I know I can do it. I’m comfortable in my apartment, and I…” He was rambling to I cut him off.
“Bite-sized pieces, Ash” I said. “Let’s break it down in bite-sized pieces. Take a deep breath” I suggested and we took one together. “Let’s start with the job. Is it what you want to do?”
“Well, yeah. It’s kinda what I’m doing now for Brody, but for bigger clients. Brody says they want to groom me to supervise a team. I don’t think I can do that” he was almost shaking as he spoke.
“Well of course you can’t. That’s why they’re going to groom you, Ash. They obviously see potential in you” I said. “The job with Brody was meant to be a start, a steppingstone. Is this job a good next step?”
“I don’t know” Asher said. “I mean I would have to move to Arizona, I don’t know if my car would even make it that far, I don’t know my way around Phoenix, and I don’t know anybody there, and I…”
“Stop, Ash. You’re rambling. You didn’t answer the question. Is this job a good next step?” I asked again.
“It’s a Senior Production Artist job so, it’s a bigger title, a lot more money, and Brody said they have a plan for me to move up in the future, so yeah, it’s a step up I guess” Ash reluctantly admitted.
“Do you think you could you get an opportunity like that at another agency here in town?” I asked making him think through it piece by piece.
He was silent for a minute, “I don’t know.”
“Brody took the remote job with the agency in the first place because his career options were limited here, and it’s been great for him” I told Asher. “It sounds to me like the job is a great next step.”
He was silent again, “but I’m comfortable here, I don’t know anyone there.”
I snickered, “But I know all kinds of people there! I went to high school there, I have family and friends there, We even have another villager who lives there. I can hook you up with a network. What other doubts do you have?” I asked as I continued shooting down his doubts one by one.
“Well, my sessions with you have been a big help and I know we can do them virtually but it won’t be the same” he said.
“My brother Brian is a phycologist in Phoenix, I can ask him if he’d see you pro bono” I said shooting down another doubt.
“Really?” Asher asked, seemingly at a loss for words as I killed his excuses. “But I need to find somewhere to live… and I will probably have to skip next semester.”
“So?” I asked. “You find a place to live and you skip a semester. I bet you could even talk to HR about helping you with tuition.”
“It’s in the offer already” Asher said handing me his phone with the offer. I scrolled the document, damn… it was a damn good offer for a guy under twenty with no degree and just a few months experience, plus I know that the agency had treated both Kevin and Brody both very well and there was no doubt that my Phoenix village would surround him and make sure he got settled in. I mean the offer was great on its own, but inside I was jumping up and down because Phoenix was the one place that I knew I could help him with the transition.
“Okay, give me one reason to say No” I suggested. Again, he was silent, this time several minutes. He just sat there, thinking. I finally forced the issue, “C’mon, Ash. Give me one reason to say no.”
“I’m afraid of change” he said quietly, “in fact I flipping hate change. Things are good here.”
“So, do I need to kick you the fuck out of Harrington House in order for your to take the risk?” I said, it came out kinda mean. Frankly, he was pissing me off. He had an amazing opportunity in his hands, the kind of opportunity I dreamed every guy who came through The Village could get, and was getting in his own damn way.
“Would you really kick me out?” He asked.
I couldn’t scare him like that, it wasn’t fair, “No. but dammit, Ash don’t sabotage yourself with excuses. If it was a bad offer, or not in your wheelhouse, or had no future, I’d get the dilemma, but this is a damn gift! The ONLY reason you’re thinking of turning it down is your fear of change. I say this with as much professionalism and love as I can… Fuck your fear. You’ve earned this opportunity and you can do this” I said trying to convince him. We went through the offer line by line and discussed everything. Oh my god he was so frustrating!!! While I’m talking about his health benefits, he’s worried about the Arizona grocery stores carrying his brand of toilet paper. While I was explaining his 401K match, he was worried about about where he could get his oil changed in Phoenix. While I was trying to help him figure out what he could afford to pay for rent every month, he was freaking out about not owning a vacuum. While I am trying to get him to probe deeper into the offer, he’s asking if Phoenix has an Ikea, and should he buy cleaning supplies here and move them there in case he can’t find a target… it was like he was trying to manufacture problems. ARGH!!!!!!!!! When our session ended, Asher seemed more confident about accepting the offer and I needed a damn drink. But that was typically how my sessions with Asher went. They had given him a few days to answer so we decided he should sleep on it and we would talk again the next day.
After work I ran carpool with the kids and stopped to talk to Brody when I dropped Teddy off home. Asher was working remotely that day so I figured we could talk openly. Brody’s family was still in town so they watched Teddy and Freddy. Izzy and Ali came up to Brody’s office with me. “I’m not sure about Asher doing this, Brody” I said with a sigh as I entered his office. Izzy ran to Uncle Brody and Ali sat on my lap. I took a seat across the desk from Brody and we talked while the kids sat on out laps busying themselves.
“Why?” Brody asked with a grin. He probably knew Asher better than anyone and I’m sure he could visualize our entire conversation. “Lemme guess, he’s worried he won’t be able to find a comic bookstore in Phoenix?” Brody said making me laugh.
“Yeah, shit like that” I laughed. “That’s a pretty damn good offer considering his experience, Brody.”
“Yeah, Kev made sure it was worth his while” Brody said. “He can do this, he’s a rockstar at this shit, and they’ll train him on the stuff he doesn’t know. He’s not gonna net a better start anywhere else. He just needs to get over himself… as always.” Brody was right, the move would be great for him, he had a chance to build a great career and broaden his horizons. We talked a little longer while the two kids on our laps vied for our attention. Brody cared about Ash and was a huge help to me.
Eventually, I packed up the kids and headed home. When we got there, we found Zach, Grandma Kelly, and Grandpa Nathan in the kitchen making dinner. Zach had come home from work early and my in-laws were in town for a couple more days before heading back to Wisconsin.
The seven of us sat down and enjoyed a great family dinner together at home The new year was off to a perfectly chaotic start.
To be continued…
