Cari was backing my new company. And with only the money that I had saved I had done my shopping. I started with the easy ones first, the ones I always got gifts for. I got Jace a new jacket. For some reason he was a New York Knicks fan and had been pining over their latest apparel and after consulting with Mia it was exactly what she would have suggested anyway. Mia got a new cook book. I knew she’d been eyeing it for months. Something about vegetarian baby food or something like that. I was very much what the fuck when I bought it but Mia was very into it particularly now that baby number two was baking.
Naya got a rocking horse. It was wooden and painted and was perfect for her to destroy. She was still little but man could she move around now. Dorian got the same thing he got every year from me a goofy tie and socks. Which he would wear to his next family get together then stick it in the same drawer all the rest of them were. This year I got super hero themed ones thanks to shopping with Sage. He picked up a pair for himself he thought they were so cool. Dae’lin wasn’t really that easy but I picked her up a self help book. She was always reading them. This one was entitled “Not Impossible: The Art and Joy of Doing What Couldn’t Be Done.” I thought it was poetic. Because here I was doing the impossible – living my life outside the Venatori but still being the best Venatori I could be – helping others.
And then the real fun began. The little ones were easy – Drake got a plethora of matchbox cars, ones I knew he didn’t have. Sage and I scavenged the thrift and pawn shops looking for older classics, and we bought a ton at FAO Schwartz. He would love them. Morana got a gift certificate to some of the trendiest shops in the Night Life building. And a promise from Dee to take her shopping for cool clothes. Dee absoutely loved the idea of a girl in the family and Morana was reaping those rewards. Or was it more like annoyances.
The boys on the other hand were harder. Fae was a little more difficult and I decided on a weighted blanket covered in trees and forest life. Of all my kids he was still having a hard time adjusting. He never slept alone. I was hoping that the blanket would help him sleep in his own bed alone instead of trying to pile into ours, or Matt’s. Matt was accommodating, but Matt was becoming a new boy. He was thriving in a human school. He had a social life. He had girl friends and guy friends, and I think he even had a boyfriend, though none of us have yet to meet him, except for Fae but he won’t say a thing.
Matt was the hardest to buy for. Like me he didn’t want things, he wanted to be loved and taken care of and he had everything he wanted. His father bought him clothes to fit in at his new school. And Matt had a part-time job working at the Starbucks down in the Night Life building, which was something I hadn’t know. Sage had. But no one told me.
Matt was 16, but unlike most 16 year olds you can’t drive in New York until you are 17 (or 18 I forget). So a car was out for now. Not that Matt wanted a car, but he needed more than his feat so I got him a bike. It was a nice fiberglass frame and probably more bike than he needed, but it was easy to carry as he’d have to do that on a regular basis living on the top floor of the Night Life building.
While Matt was hard, my lovers were even hard. After talking with Dev he had suggested some brand new video game that they’d been eyeing, but that wasn’t my thing. It was another of those shoot em up type games. So instead of that I bought both my boys a year membership to a paint ball club upstate and a new set of guns. I hadn’t known a thing when I went into the store there. And the guy looked at me repeatedly, I was pretty sure he expected rainbows to shoot out of my ass or something. I hadn’t even been flirting – well not my usual quality flirting. But either way when I asked to try the firing range and power of the gun he gave me more of ‘don’t hurt yourself’ look as he carried the gun to the indoor range. Guns of any kind weren’t a problem for me so when I hit the target three times in a row in dead center I got a different kind of look from him. Though he didn’t quite say much after that.
It turned out this club also had a spa, so Dee got a membership and a few spa sessions thrown in. It was a regular old vacation place. I expected we’d spend some time up here getting away from it as a family. And that made me smile… A family vacation, but first I had to get through my very first family Christmas.
I mean I went to Jace’s house for Christmas, I’d been to Dorian’s family for Christmas but it was never my family. This was different. It was like our Thanksgiving dinner, except I’d actually be there this time. Not just physically, mentally and emotionally there.
In the month time that had passed since Virgil had tried to tear me down, I’d gone back to talking with Margo every Monday at 9:30. So every Monday Jin found me and pushed me towards the elevator. And she made me go. There was no room for an I don’t want to, or a I don’t have time. Jin made me go. And while I hadn’t really forgiven Margo for her past transgressions and the lie, I was working through it.
Fae had appointments too with Margo. Every other week on Tuesday after school he’d stop by and they’d chat. He had his issues too. We all did.
For a while now things were good. But I knew it wasn’t going to be long before shit blew up in our faces again. I was in love. I was happy with my life again. The universe was about to shit in my pool again.
The Mind of Nox 