Chapter 14

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.

Then he said, “Babe, one really strange thing happened. When I landed in Auckland, I had to go through immigration, then get my stuff, and then go through biosecurity. And they take that seriously there, specially with Covid.” Larissa nodded. They’d talked about this, talking through Julian’s trip, for her comfort. “Right, so when the guy was looking at my passport, he suddenly got interested and asked what my business was, and I said I was doing research for a Youtube video. He gave me a long look, but didn’t say anything, just that I had to go to a particular place for biosecurity once I’d got my bags – the trouble line, I knew that. So, Babe, I was a little worried – he was all smiles, but a special line? Cause the worst thing that could go wrong is that they’d throw me in hotel quarantine for fourteen days.” Larissa’s heart dropped out of her chest. They’d assured her that it wouldn’t happen, and she gave him an intense stare. “I mean, I couldn’t think why, but still. So I got my stuff, and went somewhere different to everyone else, and there’s four of them waiting for me. They looked over my stuff, and looked at my paperwork, and I realise, these are pretty senior guys, and it’s late on a Sunday evening. Man ... I mean, mostly my stuff was boring stuff, except for my swag. I cleaned it carefully, but what if they didn’t believe me?”

Then he grinned. “And then the one talking to me, he says, ‘welcome to New Zealand, Layna’s muscle head mate’! And I’m like, what? Anyway, turns out, his niece is a Layna fangirl, really huge, and her mum signed up to Patreon to shut her up, and so she knew I was coming and when and she begged her uncle, since he works at the airport, could she see me, and would that be possible? So the upshot was, at the airport on the way home yesterday, instead of going through with everyone else the normal way, I went to the border force offices, or whatever they’re called, and I met with a bunch of tween fans, squealing girls, and signed stuff for them.” Larissa grinned at him. “Yeah, Babe, it was like I was the Beatles, and they begged me to set them up to see Layna. I said I’d talk to Layna about it, but she really enjoyed going to that school in Sale, so I told the girl’s uncle to give my email address to her headmaster. And then I had a quick meeting with the boss of biosecurity at the airport, and when I told him what we were doing, he said he’d ask his boss and minister would they talk to us, because he thought that they’d have something to say about the whole billionaire swanning into the country thing. So that might happen.”

Other than that? Julian loved New Zealand, the country, the culture, and the people. The kiwis had even loved his swag, not that a common sight over there – sleeping on the ground next to his cheap rental car, and his local mate liked it so much he’d bought one too. 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 excess by his family, by my definition, 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 a bit after 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.”

Bob smiled. “As we love our children, and we hope tonight will help you all get on. The sleep over really helped. Now, I know that you think that’s a lot of money, and really significant, but it’s not a big deal for us.”

“Ok, thanks for that, it gives us some wider context. How’s things going with your family, and is there anything you want from us tonight?”

“After our rather difficult dinner, things have gone well,” Mary said. “Thanks to you both, really. The sleepover was a good idea, and our kids and their partners really had a good time, even Matt, who took a while to relax. And Rachelle did a great of job of playing mum to them in just the right way. So they definitely feel better about that, and hopefully tonight will help more.”

“Matt has come around on the money, at least for now,” Bob said. “He actually met with Charlotte, and she explained her analysis to him, and he’s accepted it, for now. Who knows what friend will get under his skin, but Isabelle’s had a bit to say to him about it, and even Ella, so he knows where they stand, at least. And at some stage, I’ll introduce them to Layna. Though we’ll have to be careful about that, you were right about her, and I’m really glad I took Charlotte along. She actually did kick me under the table once.”

Julian grinned. “We laughed about that later. But really, you weren’t like some of the old guys we’ve dealt with, who totally lose it. Quite funny. Though Layna wasn’t turning it on for you, that was the business Layna. And we liked Charlotte a lot, and we’re looking forward to working with her. Is it OK if I ask her financial type questions that arise? She’s very sharp, and I just don’t know that space.”

“Yes, of course. I’ll monitor how much of her time that takes – she does lots of other stuff for me, but she’s definitely the smartest cookie I’ve run into, and she has deep family connections here, so I know that she’s not going to run off to the big city with stars in her eyes, which some of my other analysts have. Anyway, about tonight, we have nothing we particularly want from you, just enjoy and build friendships.”

“OK, sure,” Larissa said. “But we were talking about Matt. He needs more backbone, right? So we wondered whether Julian should try and get him interested in Taekwondo tonight? And also, he must be an awful manager, have high turnover – should you move him from managing people? He surely can’t be enjoying that.”

Bob looked at her. Had she overstepped the mark there? Maybe she had. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said that, sorry. I do have trouble with boundaries sometimes, and I’m still learning you guys.”

“Oh, that’s OK. I guess I’m not used to someone being so direct. But you might have a good point. And Taekwondo – sure. Sounds like a good idea to me, even if they all did it. I don’t know how you’ll get them interested though – sounds like hard work.”

Larissa grinned. “Well, then, ask us about being the entertainment for strippers at dinner.” She laughed at their expressions. “I told you about that, right? That’s related to the Taekwondo thing.” Then she saw Julian’s face, and said, “We’re just going to demonstrate the positions, sweetie, not more.”

Mary led them inside, and they found the other four in the kitchen. Larissa hugged them all, and Julian followed her, doing the same, though she saw Matt’s face ... he was a little uncomfortable with that, but not too much.

“Sorry we took a while,” Bob said. “It’s just that Larissa got around to looking at her bank balance this week.”

The four of them gave a shout of laughter at that, and Larissa looked at them sheepishly. “Oh, shaddup, I said I wasn’t good at this money thing!”

Isabella came over and hugged her again. “We know, but you’re so good at so many other things, so don’t worry about it. And Mum and Dad got their surprise, so they’re happy.”

Larissa hugged her back; that was lovely. “Thanks. I really was surprised. I was sitting with my family all around when I got around to checking my bank balance.”

“Yep,” Julian said, “some other conversation was going on, and she suddenly goes ‘What the fuck?’ really loudly. Hysterical!”

They had a good laugh at that. Larissa shrugged. “I have had worse surprises, that’s for sure. Anyway, what’s going on here?”

Isabella smiled, and introduced her to their cook – finally – and then Ella told her what was happening – their dinner was nearly ready, and the cook was showing them what was lined up for tomorrow. “Well,” Larissa said, “how about I focus on tonight’s dinner, since you’re the ones handling tomorrow? Julian can help me.”

Smiles for that, so Larissa focused on getting the dinner ready; their cook was super organised, and one part of the kitchen was for dinner, and the rest for preparing for tomorrow. Tonight’s dinner was simple – bread, salad, potatoes, and lamb. Smelt really good, but not quite ready. Lunch tomorrow was a whole range of food that was nearly complete, and BBQ for the boys to do. Larissa and Julian set the table, talking to the rest of them as they did. The cook was nearly finished with the set up for lunch the next day, and then everything went in this massive fridge in the pantry area. Larissa served dinner as best she could while the cook was finishing up, and then they all sat down for dinner. Then Larissa thanked the cook, told her she hoped she had a lovely Christmas day, and asked if she needed to know anything for cleaning up later. Quickly the cook showed her what she needed to know, and then dragged her into the pantry. “I never expected to have tomorrow with my family, and I know it’s your doing. Thank you, and Merry Christmas to you too!”

Chuffed, Larissa sat at the table, and they started to eat. Tonight was such a different experience than their last meal – everyone was happy, conversation was light and easy, and they were teasing each other about their weeks, and laughing at their parents over some of the stories going around from the last two weeks. Yeah, this was more like a family was supposed to be, and Larissa relaxed. She was happy to see that Ella was confidently running the kitchen the next day, and glad that they hadn’t left it all to her mum. Her mum was sitting next to her, and happy to eat with just her fork while she had her other arm around Larissa.

Suddenly, Bob said, “So, Julian, I hear that I’m a scary step-father?”

Whoa. There was a shocked silence, and suddenly, Julian laughed. “Oh yes, I guess I did pretty much say that, and in public too.” He shrugged. “Everything you say will be written and down and used against you.” Then he looked at Bob and grinned again. “So it turns out I was right, then?”

Bob laughed back at him. Larissa took a deep breath, what the hell was this about? But Matt beat her too it, and said, “Dad, what the hell are you talking about?”

Bob just tossed his head at Julian, so Julian explained. “Well, I was at a meeting with the farmers from around the valley here.” He explained this to them, what he was doing there. “So then they were asking me questions, and I’d said some stuff about politicians and coal money under the table, and ethics, and then suddenly one of the farmers got into me about having Bob as a sponsor, when Larissa’s mum is sleeping with him.” There were some surprised gasps around the table when he said that. “Well, I didn’t really know what to say, so I said that standing up in front of all of them was scary, but nowhere near as scary as finding out that your fiancee’s mum has a couple for lovers, and then it turns out he’s this mega-rich dude who’s giving me a hard time about climate change, and that I reckon that if I could change his view on it a little, maybe I had a little chance with some of them, and I might make it out of the night with my balls intact.” Larissa laughed – she could just hear Julian saying that with this pert little smile, giving them cheek like that, and even Bob was laughing too. “Yep,” he said, “they all laughed at that one. And you know, I’ve been in some actually scary situations, but that let me talk a bit more about the underlying ethics, and why we have to be transparent.” Julian wanted to talk more about the ethics thing, but instead, Matt and Mason asked Julian about the scary situations, so he told them about filming in some of the protests, and worrying about guys trying to get their hands on Layna with something else in mind when things got out of control.

“So,” Larissa asked Mary when that discussion petered out, “I heard from a friend here that the gossip is that you’ve been kicked off some boards and committees because of Mum?”

“Oh, yes,” Mary said, “I sure have. Pretty much the ones I expected it to happen. I mean some of the old women have a mean streak a mile deep, and others were sympathetic, but couldn’t do much. Overall, reaction has been a lot better than I thought, though. I think you’re right about the story, it really does matter. And I’ve been surprised at who else has admitted having desires they couldn’t do anything about in high school, even some girl/boy ones where their families made it impossible or something. My mum has been asked several times whether it’s true that Rachelle and I had a thing for each other in high school, and she tells them she’s really sad that she didn’t let it happen then. But who knows what would’ve happened if she did? I wouldn’t have got Bob, and I wouldn’t have my dear children and their loves. I mean, look at them!”

They responded with cheesy grins, and Mason said, “Yeah, just look at us!” He turned to Isabella, and said, “That does it. I’m never trusting your mum’s judgement again.” When they stopped laughing, he said, “I’m talking about Matt and Ella, of course.”

Ella laughed and said, “No lunch for you tomorrow! But Mary, I’m glad you got with Bob, so that I could have Matt.” Mary smiled at her. “What about you, Rachelle? Are you sad?”

Larissa’s mum shrugged. “I think that if I’d had Mary, lots of terrible things wouldn’t have happened to me. But I have Larissa here with me, and that alone makes everything worthwhile. And there’s Thomas. And now I have Mary and Bob, and I can hardly remember anything from before that, it’s so good. I really think that it’s good to have adversity in your life; you learn to really appreciate good things and hold on to them tightly. I see that in Larissa, you know: she holds onto her friends and family fiercely.”

Larissa smiled at her mum. That was certainly true, but: “Well, thanks Mum, and I consciously do that, because I know how horrible the alternative is, I lived it. But I really don’t think you have to have adversity, you can see it all around you, and then you can just choose to appreciate what’s good, and hold it tight. Julian does, for instance, which is part of why we work so well together.”

Isabella laughed. “Mum said that you more than work well together, you’re really good at sex with each other.”

Larissa smiled. “Well, we certainly try very hard to blow each other’s minds off the earth, that’s for sure. But ... I’m not sure why she said that?”

Mary grinned. “Rachelle?”

Larissa’s mum laughed a little guiltily. “Well, I heard some stories from Steph, your sister. You’re quite wild and intense! But of course, there was your tying up party.”

“Oh, Rachelle, you have to tell us about that!” Isabella begged.

“Well, OK, if you insist.” She told them about Larissa, tied up, and teased until she came. “And you come really good like that, as Mary and I can attest.”

“Mum!” Matt said. “You too?”

Mary grinned at him. “Sure. Rachelle and I did it to each other. We got the idea from Larissa, and Larissa was the one who asked me the questions. You really come very hard from it, it’s awesome. Ella, Isabella, you want a go?”