Nothing to Offer

"I kept that shirt until it just fell apart," the girl admitted. "And all these flowers? Along this fence? You and me got down and planted them. And these bushes too, by the house."

She spun around the yard, smiling.

"You tell me, huh? What church is going to be more special than this yard, Mr. Harris?" she called out, still spinning like a child.

She stopped abruptly and pointed across the street at her mother's home.

"I want my mom to walk me across the street and under my walkway to right here," Britney said, pointing to the front porch.

She pulled him over to the side.

"And you'll be here, looking so yummy in your tuxedo and Larry will be here..." Britney hopped up the steps and stood on the front porch, smiling breathlessly at Brian. "And he'll say 'you may now kiss the bride' and we'll kiss and then we'll be married, okay?"

"Okay," he smiled.

"Doesn't that sound perfect?" she asked.

"It really does," he agreed.

He caught her, staggering slightly, when she jumped from the porch.

"I love you so much," she whispered and kissed him.

Kathy told Brian to park it in front of the television and watch football when she and Britney feed lunch. If he were watching at home, Britney would be teasing him, either giving him a long leisurely tortuous blow job, or straddling is lap, bouncing up and down on his lap, stopping just short of his ejaculation, only to start the whole process over when the crisis had passed.

Here, he was able to watch uninterrupted. Britney peeked into the living room and burst into merry peals of laughter, knowing what he was thinking.

A moment later, Brian laughed aloud when he heard Kathy's voice admonish, "Britney! Really! Shame on you; let him have his football games!"

"Lunch," Britney called out a moment later.

"So Brian, I've never heard you say anything about... are your parents excited about the wedding?" Kathy asked.

Brian felt tears paring to his eyes.

"I uh, my parents, they're deceased. My mom was diagnosed with ALS. Lou Gehrig's disease? Anyway, she knew my dad would just put his life on hold to help her, knew he would just give up everything for her," Brian said.

"Oh, Brian! ALS? Oh that's horrible!" Kathy said. "I didn't know they..."

"Anyway, she got his three fifty seven magnum down, shot him once in the heart, wrote out her suicide note; she couldn't bear to have him care for her and couldn't bear to leave him with an iota of guilt over her suicide so she killed him," Brian went on.

"Oh my God; are you serious?" Britney asked.

"Anyway, she called nine one one, told them she just killed her husband, hung up, opened the front door for the police and then killed herself. I was at my grandpa's house when it happened so thankfully, I didn't have to see any of it," Brian said.

"I um, so um," Kathy said, pushing the cauliflower around on her plate.

"So why'd you become a dry cleaner?" Britney asked after a few long moments of silence.

"I was a horrible student; it's not that I'm not smart, I just didn't see the point in busting my butt," Brian said. "But I remembered one time my mom getting so mad that she had to drive all the way out to Lafayette to get my dad's suit dry-cleaned. So, when I graduated high school, by the skin of my teeth, I went to work at a dry cleaner's in Lafayette for a few years, then opened my own with my dad's insurance money."

He'd met Barbara when she brought her dad's suits in. He asked her for a date and was thrilled when the attractive brunette said 'yes'.

The Siegel's were polite, barely, when Brian picked their daughter up. This fact seemed to actually excite Barbara, judging from the fact that she got into the back seat when they left Hop Kim's Chinese Restaurant and demanded he pull around behind the restaurant.

It never occurred to Brian to wonder how she knew about the rear parking lot of the business.

When her period was late, Brian did what a man would do and told her father. A hurry up wedding was planned and, even though her period did come along three weeks after the wedding, Brian still forged ahead, choosing to stay married.

"Maybe I was just hoping for a family," Brian said out loud, still deep in thought.

"Huh?" Britney asked as she dredged her roast beef through the gravy.

"So uh, Brian, your grandfather, he uh, He going to be at the wedding?" Kathy asked.

"He uh, no ma'am; about twelve years ago, he had a series of strokes and needed around the clock care," Brian said and playfully dredged a piece of his roast beef through Britney's gravy.

"Hey Butt hole," Britney complained and got herself some more gravy out of the gravy boat on the table.

"Anyway, they sent out this caretaker and Grandpa told the girl he appreciated what she was doing so much he was going to put her in his will. She obviously thought it was automatic and smothered him with a pillow," Brian said and poured a little more gravy onto his own plate.

"Oh my God," Kathy said, horrified.

Brian looked at Kathy and forced a smile to his face.

"So, other than my employees and a few friends? My side of the aisle will be pretty empty," he said.

"Your side won't ever be empty," Britney said.

"Not as long as I have you with me," Brian agreed.

At her home, Barbara's patience was wearing very thin with Josette. The child obviously believed, without her father there to discipline her that she was allowed to do whatever she pleased. Instead of eating her lunch, the child was playing, singing, drumming her feet on the chair legs.

The bills were mounting up, again. Ronnie Edwards, their insurance agent, had been most gracious in reinstating their homeowner's insurance as well as their automobile insurance. Unfortunately, it was not retroactive; Young Insurance would not be paying part of the repairs to garage door or garage wall.

St. Elizabeth Public Utilities wanted payment for the utilities at Glen's office. The last collector that called said that they could shut off the utilities at the house if she didn't pay the bill for the office.

AT&T also threatened to sue for payment; why had Glen put ads in so many phone books?

And Edna Roebuck's three sons had filed a wrongful death suit against Glen Peters and levied a lien against the home. Barbara did not know how she could have missed it, but only Glen Peters' name appeared on the deed and the paperwork for their home.

After Josette hurled some more of her noodles to the floor, Barbara did something she swore she would never do; she slapped her child across the face.

At that moment, Glen Peters was not thinking of his child, or his wife. He was not thinking of his expenses.

He was sitting in his cell, glumly chewing the bologna and American cheese sandwich, with plenty of mayonnaise and mustard, and resenting his father in law.

How could the son of a bitch refuse his calls? Three times since his arrest, Glen Peters had used the telephone to place a call and three times, Barney Siegel had flatly refused to accept the call.

Glen couldn't call Barbara; they'd unilaterally made the decision to not use a land line telephone in their home and he couldn't call her cell phone from jail. But Barney had no reason to refuse to accept his call. Barney had often joked that Glen was his favorite son in law.

"Going eat that apple?" a young Latin male asked Glen.

"Stay the fuck away from my food, bitch," Glen snarled angrily, clutching his apple possessively.

"Shit, Gringo, just asking," the young man said.

"Don't ask, don't wonder, don't even be looking at my food," Glen snarled bitterly.

Now Glen did think of his wife and child, did wonder what wonderful food Barney had bought for his precious daughter and granddaughter, while Glen sat and ate the unsatisfactory fare the DeGarde Lock-up provided.

The apple was mealy but he ate it anyway, just to keep the Latin youth from having it. The potato chips were sour cream and onion flavored, which Glen hated, but he ate those as well, again, just to keep anyone else from getting them.

At that moment, Barney was not worried about what food his son in law was eating; it irked him that his son in law was eating anything at all.

"Who was that?" Joanna asked as Barney had to force himself to simply hang up, rather than slam the telephone down.

"Who else? Your daughter," he snapped. "It's getting to where I'm afraid to answer the damned phone."

"Oh? What is it this time?" Joanna asked.

"What else? She needs money," Barney said.

"Now, I simply do not understand," Joanna mused. "That man had a very successful career; surely they managed to accrue some sort of savings, investments? Where did all the money go?"

"Crap they did not need, but just had to have, I'm sure," Barney said, looking around the living room at all the useless knick-his wife had amassed over the years.

"No, I'm pretty sure Glen Peters does not even own one set of clubs he never uses, much less four complete sets," Joanna said easily.

"And what the hell do you think that Brian Harris was doing..." Barney asked as Joanna walked out of the room.

"Same thing as you; eating lunch," Joanna called out.

**..**

Barbara's attorney, Linda Newenberg, the Rabbi's sister in law did get an injunction, halting the St. Elizabeth's Public Utilities from shutting off the power to the Peters' household. She also managed to keep the owner of the building that Glen Peters had leased from putting a second lien on the Peters household for breach of contract.

There was little Linda could do about the lien the Roebuck children had placed on the Peters' home, though.

Barbara had to resign herself to the fact that she was going to lose her beloved home; the one that she had envisioned and her husband had designed.

Barney Siegel resigned himself, bitterly, that he that he was going to lose the two hundred and eighteen thousand dollars that the house had cost. The actual value was nearly seventy thousand dollars less, but Barbara had constantly changed her mind about carpeting and tile and paint colors and light fixtures, driving the costs up significantly.

Barbara did look into renting an apartment for herself and her daughter, but none were suitable. Not that they weren't nice, they just didn't live up to what Barbara felt she deserved.

Over lunch at Hardington Acres, she beleaguered her parents with her woes.

"Since, no matter where you live, your father and I will be paying your bills, why don't you just move back home?" Joanna asked.

"Why don't you get a job?" Barney asked. "Despite what you think, spending my money is not a job."

"And what I'm supposed to do with Josette? Stick her in a corner?" Barbara demanded.

"Believe it or not, Barbara, single mothers everywhere get up every day, take their children to a day care or school, then go to work," Barney said.

"And I should get a job doing what, Daddy? Waiting tables?" Barbara shrilled.

The waiter that was refilling her glass of sweet iced tea bit his tongue. He liked his job at Hardington Acres Country Club and wanted to keep it.

"Why not?" Joanna asked. "There's not a thing wrong with waiting tables. Someone has to do it."

Again, the waiter bit his tongue. Staff were to be as unobtrusive as possible when around the members.

"It would have been nice if you had actually gone to college instead of marrying that shmuck Brian Harris," Barney grumbled.

Joanna, who still remembered Brian's kindness when cleaning and repairing the baby blanket, pursed her lips.

"I mean, that son of a bitch comes into my house, has his way with my daughter..." Barney continued.

"Oh, come now, Barney, I am sure Barbara was no innocent lamb when she began dating Mr. Harris," Joanna finally intervened.

"Mother!" Barbara objected.

"And if she had stayed with Mr. Harris, who now owns four dry cleaning businesses, her hand would not constantly be out for more and more money," Joanna said, ignoring Barbara's manufactured outrage.

"So she should have..." Barney spluttered, outraged.

"And why not? She was married to him," Joanna said. "She did promise to love, honor and cherish him until death do they part."

She put her fork down, wiped her lips and put her napkin on the table.

"I'm tired of this whole conversation," she announced, standing. "Let's go."

While Joanna and Barney were sitting in stony silence, waiting for Barbara to finish buckling Josette into her child seat in her car, Brian and Britney were at the 19th Hole of Hardington Acres.

Johnny Flowers smiled as Britney devoured the 19th Hole's one pound burger with obvious relish.

"See, Honey, I told you, rabbit food is not food," he said to Loretta.

"And cholesterol is so unnecessary," Loretta smiled back.

She patted Britney on her pudgy hand.

"Honey, if I was her age? Then hell yeah I'd be all over that big ass burger. But I'm not," she said.

She playfully pinched Johnny.

"But Juan Flores, oops, I mean Johnny Flowers, I have to outlive you; how else am I going to spend all your money?" she asked.

"Ooh, I need to start eating salads," Britney teased Brian.

"Baby, you're already doing a pretty good job of spending all my money," Brian smiled and grabbed her hand before she could snag some of his nachos.

"But I'm worth it," Britney declared, pursing her lips for a kiss.

"You most definitely are," Brian agreed and gave her a quick kiss, again grabbing her hand from grabbing his plate.

"Well, boys and girls, this has been fun, but at least one of us has to work," Johnny said and got to his feet.

"Two of us," Brian agreed, also getting to his feet.

"And one of us has a dress fitting; we're going to a wedding, remember?" Loretta said and laughed as Britney gave an excited little squeak.

"Which store you going to?" Britney asked Brian as he drove toward DeGarde.

"Number two; Shelton quit, remember?" Brian said.

"Ass hole," Britney groused.

"What? Why? He wasn't happy, let him quit," Brian said. "So, are you going home, or across the street?"

"Across the street," Britney decided and Brian pulled up in front of her mother's home.

Even though they'd see each other within a few hours, Britney kept up a barrage of text messages. Brian answered them when he wasn't busy with a customer.

At four o'clock, he did wonder briefly what 'Gina' or Abby' might be up to so logged onto his former favorite site.

His dick shot up and pressed painfully against his trousers; 'Gina' was about six months pregnant and 'Abby' wasn't far behind, probably about five and a half months pregnant. Both girls were fucking and sucking 'Mr. Harddick' and each other.

Brian wondered how Britney would look if she were pregnant and had to quickly exit out of the site when a customer came in.

"Hi, y'all do tailoring, right?" the woman asked. "My husband bought these at a garage sale. The waist fits, but the legs are about five inches too long."

Brian took the nine pair of slacks from the woman, noted where she had marked each leg with chalk and gave her a price to hem each pair. She pulled her cell phone out of her purse and punched a button.

"He says go ahead," she smiled when she hung up.

He gave her an approximate date of completion and she nodded in satisfaction.

"Guy's a bowling ball with arms," Brian muttered to himself, noticing the '54 X 36' tag on the first pair.

Another text from Britney reminded him that they needed to go grocery shopping when he got home and he smiled. Britney had the list; it was she that made the list and posted it on the refrigerator door. Britney had a car with adequate cargo space. And Britney had a bank account with a debit card.

But she wanted him to go with her so he would pay for the groceries.

Britney was also still learning what foods Brian liked, what foods he loved and what foods he would eat simply because she cooked it and he wanted to make her happy.

Plus that, if Britney went on her own to get the groceries, she'd have to unload the car. If he unloaded the car, each trip from car trunk to kitchen was rewarded with a kiss.

The first time they'd done grocery shopping and then unloading the car, Brian had tried to carry everything in one trip. Now he saw that it would be better, and much nicer to take three or four trips.

In her home, which wouldn't be her home for very much longer, Barbara looked into the freezer and sighed. There were none of the pizza rolls that Josette loved. There were fish sticks, but if she made those, then she'd have to make macaroni and cheese to go with them and there weren't any boxes in the pantry.

Scrambled eggs were a possibility, until Barbara saw that there were only two eggs in the refrigerator.

There was a hot dog, but there were no buns and Josette was too picky and finicky to just eat a hot dog on a slice of white bread.

Barbara jerked the freezer door open again, just on the off-chance she may have missed something on her first glance. The door struck her on her left breast and Barbara gasped in pain; her breasts had been very tender lately.

There was nothing in there that she had not seen, even when she moved other items around.

Then a horrifying though hit Barbara. Her period was a few weeks late, her appetite had been ravenous of late, and she had horrible headaches.

"Just go get Josette, go grocery shopping, don't even think about it," Barbara counseled herself.

It took a while, but she finally found Josette, playing quietly in her room, tucked out of sight in the far corner.

"I'm invisible," the girl declared. "You can't see me!"

Invisible or not, Josette was dragged down the stairs and into the garage.

In his jail cell, Glen sighed when head heard the cell doors being opened. Obviously, it was dinner time.

"So what is it this time?" he sardonically asked himself. "Bologna and American on white, or American and Bologna on white?"

He did not get the chance to find out. Just as Glen stepped into the hallway, the Latin boy in the cell across from his lunged out, a crudely carved knife in his hand. Fortunately for Glen, the deputy had been on his guard against such action and grabbed the boy before Glen received more than just a scratched abdomen.

But the entire cell block went on lock-down.

In her car, nerves on the verge of breaking due to Josette's whining, Barbara almost turned into the parking lot of Super One Foods, but remembered the humiliation and embarrassment of the three previous times she'd been there. She drove on to Early's Grocery Store.

In the parking lot of Early's Grocery Store, Brian let Britney out at the door, then went and parked the car. Britney selected a buggy, then waited inside for him.

Barbara recognized Brian's car immediately. She watched as he parked the car and walked across the parking lot. She resisted the urge to jam the accelerator, twist the wheel, run him over.

Then she had a thought. Brian loved kids, loved the changing diapers, the bottle feeding and patting them until they vomited, loved the bath time.

If she could fuck him, she could convince him that the kid in her belly was his. She'd done it once before, surely she could do it again.

That time, Barbara had been almost certain that she was pregnant, and just as certain that the baby was not Brian's. But Brian had been so desperate for a baby, for a family, he'd fallen for it readily.

Barbara quickly parked, unmindful that it was a 'Handicapped' parking spot she was taking.

Josette was still claiming to be invisible as Barbra plopped the three year old girl into the buggy.

Inside the store, Brian was looking over the meager selection of navel oranges while Britney was busy looking at the sweet potatoes.

"You can't see me," Josette said.

"No but I can hear you and that's just as bad," Barbara snapped.

Brian looked up from his orange selection and smiled at the little girl that was singing about her invisibility.