Chapter 3: Domestic Tranquility

A month after the end of May, that is, the end of Paul’s relationship with May, life in the Victorian was splendid.

Having dinner together every night built strong bonds of friendship among them. They began to think of each other as family.

Another factor that brought them together was, surprisingly, their studies. They were all five weeks into the Fall Semester and making good progress in their courses.

Ric, for example, because of his emphasis on theater arts and literature, was highly skilled at writing. Since all of them needed to write papers and essays, Ric helped them improve their writing and correct mistakes.

Paul was settling into an information sciences major. He not only kept all their laptop computers humming along, but also, he created a shared networked server and storage system for the household. Talia managed only a feeble objection before gratefully accepting one of Paul’s older laptops for her schoolwork.

Kerri was often huddled with Ric, going over scripts and stories with him. She would “run lines” of dialogue so he could practice.

Talia’s contribution was to take over and supervise budgets and expenditures for the household. Secondarily, Paul asked her to help him stay on top of some of his investments. Not in any decision-making role, but instead to recognize and evaluate how those parts of his portfolio were performing.

Talia quickly found that a mutual fund that advertised high returns was actually not making Paul much money, because the sales and management fees were excessive.

When she showed him the difference between what his fund and a similar but low fee (“no-load”) fund had returned in previous years, he was shocked. That high-cost fund was only a small portion of his assets, but over that length of time the discrepancy added up to hundreds of unrealized dollars.

“Holy shit, Talia, I could kiss you!”

“OK.”

“OK? What?”

“Go ahead.” Talia closed her eyes.

Paul suddenly “got it.” He leaned in and kissed her, first chastely, then with more heat.

She murmured, warmly. “I enjoyed that. You kiss nicely.”

There was a pause.

“Uh, thank you? Yes, thank you, but it was my pleasure,” he responded, a little nervously.

Talia, also feeling uncertain, began shuffling the papers she had printed to show him.

“I need to fire my broker, it seems,” said Paul. “This other fund you showed me, please give me the details so I can make the switch. Next, I have some other investments I want you to review for me. But, not as a favor. I’m going to start paying for your advice.”

“You don’t have to do that, Paul.”