Chapter 6: Christmas Eve

Julian and Larissa got on the road down to Bob and Mary’s by late afternoon, Christmas eve. Julian had got home on schedule, with no hiccups, but they hadn’t had time to catch up – the little productive time together they had on Thursday evening had been entirely focused on planning for the next few days. Well, and sex. So once they were in the car, it was time to find out what had been going on.

Julian went first – Larissa was really interested in how he’d gone. He’d met a team at Waikato university the first morning; they’d already been talking and had found a bunch of post-graduate volunteers who were super keen to do research for him, to match his extended team in Melbourne that he’d been building up. One of the locals had quickly stood out, a doctorate student in climate change impact management, and Julian had asked him to take the lead in researching several possible different shows, all of which completely lined up with his existing PhD work, so he was even funded, though the project was going to pick up some travel costs for him. The two of them spent the rest of the day on the road exploring some of the common areas for billionaire retreats and underground bunkers in the Coromandel peninsula, and then the next day, they flew down to Queenstown to look around there. They also met with some of Bob’s contacts, and even explored one existing retreat and one currently being built. They thought Layna might even be able to record in them. Then they’d headed back to Waikato uni for another meeting with the support crew, along with a whole list of things to pursue.

Was anything hard? Apparently not; everyone was excited that Layna might be coming to New Zealand, and would do whatever helped. They might get funding from the government if they took the time to do some great landscape shots: Julian, Chez and Layna were thinking about that one. And the theme: billionaires were raking in the riches whatever the cost to the environment, while building themselves an escape plan, leaving everyone else to sink – that certainly hit a chord in New Zealand, where kiwis were dismayed at the idea that in real crisis, these rich people would swan in and get the best of everything. Though Julian wondered if they were wasting their money anyway – could New Zealand really be self-sufficient enough to be worth escaping to? A whole team at the uni had decided to model that as part of a doctorate project.

Other than that? Julian loved New Zealand, both the country, the culture, and the people. The kiwis had even loved his swag, not a common sight over there – sleeping on the ground next to his cheap rental car. And he had to go back ... maybe they should honeymoon there instead? Done – easy decision for Larissa. They spent some time deciding what amazing parts of New Zealand they’d like to see, knowing that it would be Julian’s work over the next few weeks that would define what they actually did see.

Well, that was what Julian had been up to. What about Larissa?

“Well, I dropped you at the airport, and then found a shopping centre to do some Christmas shopping. Then I went home and did some washing, and I was still doing that when Tim turned up. Took a bit of organising but I managed it, because I threw all my clothes in, and I was just wearing cotton undies and bra when Tim turned up, and it was just me there. So I apologised to him for getting caught out doing my laundry, and let us in. When we got upstairs, I said that he seen me now, so I might as well stay that way while we talked on the deck, and why didn’t he join me like that in his jocks. And of course, he fell for that, a teenage boy wasn’t going to resist. Well, then we talked for a good hour about alcohol, and the whole point of the underwear was to get in under his tough boy defence, and it worked just perfect for that. To the point that I got him to sign a piece of paper that if he gets caught drinking too much by his family, they turn him over to Grace and Amelia for discipline, and as long as hasn’t, he’s welcome at our place with them.”

“Then we kind of got to the end of that, and he’d wanted to know what that thing on the door of the fridge was about, so I dared him to do a swim in the bay with me. So we stripped, wrapped ourselves in towels, dropped them on the tide limit, and went for a hard swim. He’s actually pretty good – mostly kept up. Then we got back, and once we got back inside, Ross and Amelia had turned up, so we got dressed in front of them and had a good chat. Anyway, he said he’s going to mostly stop drinking, and do naked yoga with them, and Amelia and I did a plan for him to get a girlfriend, and Ross is still working with him on emotional intelligence, so things seem OK there.”

“Monday ... well, yoga at our place. Everyone turned up who ever had, checking out the new place, and naked of course. And then we just hung around out on the deck. I’m really happy we’re in our new place. Tuesday ... Taekwondo. Not many people there now, but pretty intense. Johnny-Boy said to say hello and Merry Christmas, and Eliza did too. There’s four of us girls hanging to the end now, and we just talk over the showers – it’s great.”

“Then Wednesday ... I worked early, and finished at four, and hit the road straight away, and got to Sale not long after six. We had a lovely dinner, Thomas, Jane, and Jane’s extended family, at Jane’s family place. Well, and Xander and Steph of course. I’m really glad I went. Both Jane’s sister and sister-in-law got me alone and said how much happier and kick-ass confident Jane is, and how great it is. And how they like showers with her. Then after the little kids went to bed, they were all joking about the blowjob thing, it’s a family legend now. And a few people noticed the catering they did for you in the park, and they have more parties lined up to cater for, which is holiday money for them.”

“Jane’s parents have met Bob and Mary and Mum now, they went down to Sale to visit them and look at Thomas’s business plan. And they must have turned on the charm, because even Jane’s dad, a hard-bitten farmer type, he was like, ‘they’re pretty OK for rich folks’, and no doubt it helped that Bob did the trip around the farm and was interested. Though he didn’t get his hands dirty like Dad did.”

“You still happy to go on holiday with them for a few days? Over new year?” Julian grinned – just fine. “Great, because it’s all set, where and when we meet them. Going to be rough camping!”

“Anyway, it was a great night, and I didn’t want to leave, so I left too late. And straight away I knew that getting home was too far. I didn’t want to depend on Bob and Mary, so I called up my friend from school and crashed on her lounge, but not before we had a good gossip session; you know how she is.” Julian laughed, he knew exactly how she was. “Well, all she wanted to talk about was mum, now that they’ve made her official and started parading her around, the local gossip is in overdrive. Apparently, Mary has been kicked off a couple of church charity boards because of it, but she hadn’t heard anything else. So they’ve also been gossiping about me – am I going to be in the picture? Because yes, they’ve made the connection between the Larissa who rescued Lacey and mum. So I said, no, we’re just getting to know them, family to family, and it was going about how well that would go in all families, but no matter how good it went, we weren’t going to get in on any action they have down here, they’re the proper offspring who play in high society, and she could spread that round.”

“So, tonight might be interesting!”

“And then today, I did a day in the office with the marketing people, and we wrote more stuff for the newsletter. Mark said I was allowed to reference your video, which is great for us. And he’s going to ask you formally to reference my column about it somewhere. Then at lunch time we scaled back to a skeleton crew, and had a Christmas party at headquarters, and I got talking to the other guys, and Ruth, and do we really need to waste our time at bushfires? Surely we can find something to do? What if we go around the evacuation centres looking at pets proactively or something? We’re still there and available, and can drop everything. So Bob at headquarters is going to think about that and talk the CFA controllers.”

“Then I was talking to Mark, and asking him about corporate speaking – it’s going to slow down after Christmas, but he reckons I’ll be doing it for a long time – both Layna and I get good reviews and scores, and companies can tick the box for diversity with us as well, so we’re easy to market. I told him I’m getting too much, and he said that while I deserve it, I am way busier than he expected, and the amount is starting to raise eyebrows internally, so they’ll renegotiate it at the end of six months.”

“You’re OK with that?” Julian asked. “You’re really nice, and maybe this is a time not to be nice?”

“Oh, no, I’m serious: I shouldn’t get rich for saving Lacey. Paying me a good cut when the speaking was lots of work, at first: totally appropriate. But now I can do it in my sleep, why pay me that much? But we did say we’re going to rework the big picture stuff now, with more experience under our belt. So that justifies the rest of the six months. At least I think so. Does that make sense to you?”

“Sure, babe. If I say I’m happy with whatever you decide, do I get more collar time?”

She laughed at him. “Of course. Or it might get you less. You don’t know how much time you’ve earnt tied up. Specially since you tied me up out of your turn!”

Julian looked at her, thinking what to say. Just as he was about to, she said, “Oh, I know. You did it perfect, and we had good sex. But it was sure a risk you took.” Julian nodded at that. “So there’s always jeopardy; you don’t know how much time any of that earnt you. Or how many times I have to make you come either. Or is it that you have to make me come?”

“Anyway, Mark still thinks you should get more for Layna; the old corporate guys love her so much, they’ll pay whatever. Oh – and he loves that Suzy is full time with you guys. Working for minimum income on her dream, and stimulated and run all over the country? He reckons it’s a great thing for her to do, and eventually, she’ll move on to something really plum because so many people will know her.”

“Suzy’s great,” Julian said. “We can’t remember functioning without her. Chez’s off-sider, and she loves it. And she’s in on the cause something scary. We were talking about doing some edgy stuff last week, and she was like, ‘I’ll do it if none of you will, I don’t mind getting arrested’ so she may start appearing in the videos; Chez and Layna and I are thinking about that, but she’s getting at least a three-month cooling off period on that. We might need to take a lawyer on staff now, so much of what we do is raising legal questions one way or another. No idea how that could work.”

Not long after that, they arrived at their mum’s house. As usual, Bob and Mary were waiting for them at the foot of their stairs, with their mum, this time. “How can you always be waiting for us here?” Julian asked them.

“A long driveway, and a working security system,” Bob said. “Lovely to see you.”

After hugs all around, Larissa asked, “We’d like to have a short conversation with just the three of you, please, sometime tonight.”

“Oh?” Bob asked. “What’s it about?”

Larissa figured he knew, by his smile, but she answered anyway. “I got around to looking at our bank account this week.”

“OK, that shouldn’t be too long a discussion, so let’s do it now.” He led them to the table on their deck. “So what did you find in your bank account?”

“Well, I found a transaction, a money transfer to us from a LaNoHoCo, which I assumed was a mistake, but then we looked up and is a company based here in Traralgon. So we figured it’s from you, and I guess you’ve pretty much confirmed it?”

“Yes, that’s our private company that looks after our money.”

“Well, we’d both like to thank you very much. We’re not exactly sure what it was for, and we don’t really have a frame of reference to know how to thank you – other people help us moving home, or something. But ... our minds were blown and we’re still having trouble believing it.”

“Yes, I agree,” Julian added. “Thank you, we don’t really know what to say.”

Bob and Mary both smiled at them. “We wondered how long it would take you to notice,” Bob said. “So that’s your monthly endowment, which you’ll be getting from now on. It’s indexed to our overall wealth, just a fraction of it, so you’ll know how we’re all doing by the size of it. And why? Our other two children both get it. You can think of it as an advance on your inheritance, which it effectively comes out of. We don’t want our children to struggle through life while we have plenty.”

“Wow.” Larissa stared at him, thinking that through. “I guess we sounded a little stupid that night, then. I had no idea, neither of us did.”

“We could tell,” Bob said. “It was obvious to our children that it would happen, and they only realised mid-way through the night that you didn’t know. Actually, they both told us off for that afterwards. Which is the first time for a while that they’ve been right when they disagreed with us, so points to them. So don’t feel bad that you didn’t know, and while we should have told you, we’ve been enjoying the idea of your surprise when you found out.”

Julian laughed. “Well, that certainly worked. We were having a conversation with our family, and Larissa was looking our bills, and suddenly she was ‘what the fuck?’ right in the middle of the conversation. You had both of us totally floored, and it took Larissa and Dad five minutes to figure out what was going on. That’s the most pleasant surprise either of us have ever had in our lives!”

Yeah, that made them happy. Well done, Julian. “Thanks for telling us that,” Mary said. “Obviously, we hope you’ll use it carefully.”

Larissa nodded. “We certainly will be very careful with it. It’s hard for us to know what to do with it – we’re just not used to money. I mean, we’ve been students until recently, living as cheap as we can. And we’ll pretty much be doing that again once I got back to uni.”

Bob nodded. “Yes, I was surprised to see how little you pay yourselves from your sponsorship money, Julian. But it’s good to see that you are true believers, at least. Anyway, both of you will be concerned that somehow the money will be conditional on you keeping us happy.” Julian and Larissa were both nodding. “And obviously, we can change our minds and remove you from the will and the other arrangements, but that’s not something we could do lightly – our love would have to agree.”

Larissa’s mum was nodding her head vigorously. “Larissa, I love you. I don’t know anything about money, but Bob and Mary understand – they’re my loves with my whole heart, but you’re my daughter.” The look in her eyes was clear. “And her man. And I love you both.”