Chapter 4: The Holidays 2013

Since the September 11th Anniversary of the attacks on the country Selena hadn’t had a day off, besides weekends, and fully absorbed herself in her work. Joe had noticed that her demeanor had really mellowed and she had grown to full confidence in her work. Where she had been flying off the handle sometimes over minor things in the past couple years, she was much more accepting of life’s little aggravations. She was happy socially, seeing Joe and Shanna a few times a week for dinner and shopping with Shanna. Lucy and Jeromy were making it to the city, or meeting them back Upstate a couple times a month. They had been to Pennsylvania for two short weekend trips to be with Dallie and Dennis as well as seeing Slim and Shelley both in New York and Upstate. Things had been great with her parents and all was both hunky and dory. In Joe’s mind, Selena was totally back to where she had been some 12 years earlier. If she were holding anything inside, he was not aware of it.

Selena had decided to take Christmas week off after finishing the Sunday Night Letter on the 22nd. She had caught up with her research and work, plus assigned a few tasks for Deneigh and follow-ups for Berkley Quarters. Christmas week was usually a quiet time for the market as everyone waited for the Christmas Shopping sales figures to come in and decide how those numbers might color the market.

Joe and Selena planned an old fashioned Christmas with her parents with Lucille and Jeromy joining them all for Christmas day. Besides a few fun gifts or special keepsakes, they had agreed to make their presents to local charities to feed the hungry and homeless, as well as a charity for the survivors of the victims of the 911 attacks. Joe, Selena, as well as Betty and Scott Hanson, were not wanting for anything worldly. If at any time they wanted something special they usually got it for themselves. While not independently wealthy, they were all quite well off and not wanting for anything. After struggling for so many years, Lucille and Jeromy heard what they we doing and made the same commitments to their own favorite charities as well as the 911 funds. Selena was proud of her friend after they had struggled in such deep debt and hopelessness for so long.

For the first time since the year of their rescue they had a Christmas Tree in their digs in Upstate, Joe’s original home. In past years they either celebrated in New York with The Hanson’s in attendance, or at The Hanson’s home for a brief Christmas Eve-Christmas Day visit. To Joe, the signs Selena was showing about wanting to lay roots and develop traditions of their own were positive. However when he made reference to that fact, her response troubled him a little.

“If we’re ever going to have a relationship with our daughter, we can’t be vagabonds who run home to home like 90’s jet-setters. She has to know that we’re here if she needs us.”

At her response Joe wanted to blow a fuse to tell her that they may NEVER have a relationship with her, and that could be by the girls own decision. She didn’t seem to understand that their daughter was not sitting and waiting for her natural birth parents to show up, because as far as she knew her mother was passed away and had no idea of her father. It wasn’t as if she was looking or wanted to know. IF she was a happy, content, well-adjusted young girl, she just might love the people who raised her as any child might love their parents. Children like that aren’t wanting. They don’t know any other situation. But, Joe kept all of these words to himself so as not to upset his wife. However, he knew that he would have to express these thoughts to her, and that might be when Philly would be close by to buffer her reaction.

Christmas Eve morning Joe awoke to find Selena already up and he heard familiar sounds from the kitchen. He was reminded of his days with his Mom and Dad at their familial home. Waking Christmas Eve and hearing the sounds from the kitchen of baking and preparation for the big meal, the cookies for Santa and the whispering of secrets about Christmas morning.

He went to the kitchen to find Selena mixing cookie batters while racks of finished cookies cooled. There was a ball of dough on the counter with rolling pin ready to make the pie crust for the apple and minced meat pies planned for the big dinner. She caught Joe in the corner of her eye and stopped to smile and kiss him.

“Good morning sleepy head. Did I wear you out last night? That was so special, being in our real home, being alone, no neighbors above or below us, and just letting our love loose.” She said as she hugged up and he patted the cute ass he adored and penetrated the night before.

“We haven’t gone for three in a long time. I just couldn’t get enough of you. You are the sexiest woman on earth.” Joe said with an eye roll.

“I just love you and love to feel you everywhere. I can still feel you back there.” She said with a giggle.

He squeezed both cheeks of her behind and asked, “Go again?”

“No-no! Bad boy! That’s off the menu for a couple days. But you know my mouth NEVER gets tired, ... BUT, I have work to do. YOU get dressed, go the Schulers Bakery and get my order, butterflake rolls, phylo dough, and a cinnamon raisin bread. Then stop at Betars and get the breakfast I’ll call in when you leave. I’ll make a fresh pot of coffee to be ready when you get back. Who knows, maybe you’ll get lucky once you get back.” She said as she patted his package and smiled wickedly.

“Betars huh? Stuffed, deep fried, French Toast?” He asked as she smiled back and nodded.

“I’m going to have to work off that cholesterol later.” He said as he parted and patted her ass once more.

“It might come out in the protein shake you give me.” She said as she raised her eyebrows and turned back to her cookie batter.

Joe slipped on shoes and a fresh pair of jeans from the laundry and headed through the garage and out and drove down the drive. In his mind he was floating on a cloud of the love he felt for his wife, and his life.

The fellow at the bakery was all smiles and welcoming when he came in, enjoying the celebrity of Joe Johnson. After Joe paid for it all the baker reached back and took a wax tissue and picked out one of their famed glazed doughnuts and said, “Merry Christmas, something to eat on your way home!”

Joe took the doughnut and returned the wish and was happy he went out this Christmas Eve morning. At Betars, a little breakfast and lunch diner, they too were full of smiles and well wishes for Joe and sent Christmas wishes to his wife and gave him a calendar and pen added to his bag of take out. All was well in life for him and his wife.

Back home she must have heard the garage door roll up because when he came off the elevator the table was set and coffee poured. Selena took the bag and served the breakfast delight as they talked about Christmas’s past and looked forward to the big day with family and friends.

When Selena finished her breakfast she got up and poured Joe another coffee and then put another rack of cookies in the oven, promising the pie would go in next to fill the house with those smells you can’t duplicate anywhere else.

The oven door closed on the cookies and Selena pulled a chair over to the cupboard and asked, “Could you get that coffee carafe in the back of the cabinet for me?”

“Certainly, I wouldn’t want to say I didn’t help with the baking.” He said with a chuckle as he climbed up onto the chair and peered into the back of the cupboard.

“I don’t see any carafe.”

“Joe, turn around.” She said as he turned to face her, thinking she was going to show him something.

“What?”

“Sit down on the counter.” She said standing right in front of the chair.

Joe looked at her quizzically and she repeated, “Sit down on the counter.”

He sat down and she stepped forward and reached for his zipper.

“You just sit while I stand and make my protein shake. I didn’t want to kneel on the floor or get under the table.” She said as she reached into his pants with one hand and undid the snap on his jeans with the other. She put both hands on either side of the waist and pulled as he lifted his butt to let them slide down.

Selena pulled away the chair and smiled and bent with her forearms on his thighs and took him into her mouth. One thing Joe could never get used to was how much she enjoyed sucking him. He was always a huge fan of eating pussy and enjoyed it immensely, but since meeting Selena it had become an obsession because of how much he loved her and the pleasure it brought to her. She would preen his hair and sides of his head as he pleasured her and one day out of the blue it hit him, their oral pleasure from each other was the same sensation to each other. While he once wondered WHY she loved doing it so much, it hit him like a grand revelation years ago. She loved it as HE loved it; so simple, but somehow not so obvious. Her mouth and hands worked a triumvirate of pleasure, licking sucking, stroking, until he could hold back no longer. Where for years he always had to finish his orgasm with his own hand, Selena got him by herself. She knew him as well as his own hand, and any man knows how fickle that moment can become.

As she “tidied up” after finishing him she looked up and smiled. “That’s the way a woman makes love to her man. I hope I can come before Santa tonight.” She teased and walked to the sink to wash her hands to continue her baking.

She looked over at him, still sitting on the counter, naked from the waist down. “I don’t know what you’re waiting for, but I’m done. After you get you cute man buns off the counter, get a Clorox wipe and wipe it off. I’d love to lick your hiney, but I don’t think anyone else wants to by proxy.”

Selena giggled to herself at her comments and tried to avoid eye contact with Joe until she got a reaction from him. He came up behind her and gave her a loving squeeze on one of her pert ass cheeks, but he pinched the other side making her jump and scream and chase him to the bathroom where he closed the door behind himself.

“You’re safe for now Joe Johnson, but I owe you one and get out there and wipe the counter and pick up your drawers!”

He did as she asked and got dressed again and excused himself to wrap a few gifts he had.

By the middle of the afternoon Joe had finished his wrapping and placing gifts under the tree. He offered to help Selena finish up her baking but she was nearly done and needed some time to finish some wrapping herself.

“The “midnight” mass is at 9:00, right? Are the four of us riding together?” Joe wondered.

“Yes, and my dad is driving, obviously. Four in either of our cars is painful. God, we need to get a full size car to keep here. But, anyway, they are coming here afterwards for a nightcap that my Dad is preparing and will leave here when they pick us up. It’s some Elizabethan concoction called Sack Posset. He found his Dad’s recipe, or a version of the original. It’s sweet and warm with sherry, egg yolks, cream and spices. His grandfather said it was to make you sleep and dream of the Christ child while Santa brought gifts. We can humor him and drink it. I won’t tell him we’re going to make love under the tree after they leave. Hee Hee.” She said as she worked at setting the kitchen back in order before giving Joe a quick kiss before disappearing into the bedroom and closing the door to wrap presents.

Joe looked for something to do besides sit in the panoramic front window and fall asleep. He sat at the bar and let his mind wander for some time-passer. He looked up to the smoked glass panel under the TV and recalled the security camera recording device stashed there. It recorded the three cameras that watched the house. It held 6 days of footage and began to record over the loop, storing the 144 hours until the next 6 days were up. If needed, there were 12 days of surveillance. He remembered the “pool” cam had failed and the system had sent him an email declaring it non-functional. It was late in the year and he knew he just needed to reset it and to this point he hadn’t.

He opened the smoked glass door and saw indeed that two of the green lights flickered, but the third red light flashed. He pulled the storing memory stick and pushed a replacement in and immediately the little read out said “boot”, and then “OK” before the red light turned green and he closed the little door. That cam was usually off when the pool closed, so knowing it worked, he switched it off. He was about to toss the faulty memory stick away when he saw it was 128 GB and the words “lifetime warranty against failure” on it.

He thought, “I’ll take this and just swap it for a new one. 80 bucks is 80 bucks.”

Before turning it in, he wanted to be sure there was nothing on the drive so he took it and placed it in his laptop and put it on advanced play to view the 6 days stored in just a few minutes. It was mostly nothing except there was a moment or two of the pool service, that he slowed to be sure they did their job, and then a few seconds of Scott and Betty in the pool. There were tubs of the granules you use to close the pool, so he suspected it was the last day the pool was open. Just as he was about to erase it the faulty part of the drive came up with pixilation and drop-outs and then a few seconds of motion, that caught his eye. He stopped it to play in regular time.

There was Betty Hanson, his mother-in-law, alone on her chaise by the pool. She was quietly reading in the sun and then she began to scan the area behind her until she spied the camera dome. She got up and pulled her chaise from the sun into the shade underneath the over hang just ahead of the patio roof. Was she trying to get out of the camera range, or move into it? She unties her top and shinnies out of her bikini bottom. She turns to view herself in the reflection of the last glass panel of the patio windows, only 2 of which opened since they replaced the slider.

She’s clearly admiring herself, preening and posing showing off her incredible 50 something body. She could easily pass as a 30 year old. Her breasts still sat high on her chest, clearly all her own, and when she turned to show her ass, it was incredibly smooth and so shapely.

She took a towel and laid it over the chaise and turned the chaise towards the camera. She sat and reclined in the chair, ran her hands over her breasts and then down her belly between her legs and through the folds of her pretty pussy. As she began to rub and finger herself she would occasionally look to the camera like she was putting on a show. She was obviously beginning to huff and puff a little when she suddenly startled. She jumped up and pulled the towel from under her and sat back on the chaise, pulling the towel to cover her from breast line to just below her waist. Then the gate opens and Scott comes in. She smiles to him and beckons him to her side. She picks up her towel to give him a peek and he smiles. She sits up, the top of her towel falling as she turns towards him. Her hands work at the front of him and, while Joe can’t directly see her, she is giving Scott a blowjob. In just a short time he caresses her head and steps away from her, takes off his pants and shirt and dives into the pool. He’s only in the pool for a few seconds before he returns to her and she has put the recliner back on the chaise and he kneels between her legs and screws the daylights out of her. When they’re through Scott stands up and looks like he’s going to jump back in the pool as she pulls the back of the chaise up. She calls to him and he turns and comes back to her, this time with his back to the camera, but apparently she wants to taste herself with his juices mixed, before he goes and jumps in the pool. She turns and looks at the camera and smiles and seems to wink. She gathers herself and stands and goes to the pool. Just as she gets out of the range of camera the picture goes black, and the screen reads error.