The Good Life

*Jack*

I was finally finished packing for my trip to London. I had one suit cases filled with business clothes/shoes and one filled with casual clothes, but I was planning on buying more while in London. My plane didn't leave until tomorrow, Monday, morning. I was trying to spend as much time with Izzy and Alex as possible since I would be away from them for three weeks now. It was the week after New Year’s so it was going to be the beginning of February when I came back home.

We had fun spending the holidays in Baltimore with my mother and the rest of the family. It was just the vacation I needed before going on this long business trip. I really didn't want to go anymore. I hated Tyler for making me have to stay longer than needed; this was all his fault.
I wasn't going to dwell on the negatives right now though. I just wanted to continue laying on the couch spooning under a blanket with Alex. Izzy was laid out on another part of the couch as we watched some dumb SyFy movie about aliens. Alex was rubbing the back of my thighs suggestively and every now and then placing kisses on the back and side of my neck. At first I was ignoring him but I could only ignore him for so long. I rolled around to face him and I pulled his face to mine so we could make out. Thankfully Izzy was paying attention to the movie and her phone and not us. I let him slide his tongue into my mouth, but I tried to keep it from going any further than that. Alex, of course, couldn't keep his hands to himself. He moved his hand up my legs to my butt grasping it firmly and making me moan; I couldn't help it.

"Ew! Can you two stop making out in the same room as me?" Izzy complained. Alex and I pulled away from each other and sat up, laughing a bit.

"Sorry." Alex apologized.

"Oh don't pretend you've never kissed a guy before." I said in an accusing tone.

"I haven't!" She said guiltily. I knew she was lying but I wasn't going to call her out on it. Not in front of Alex at least.

"You better not have." Alex threatened and she gulped turning away from us.

I chuckled and kissed Alex on the cheek. He pulled me over to sit closer to him and he wrapped his arms around me. We were being extra cuddly with each other to make up for the three weeks we wouldn't even be able to touch.

My phone started to ring in the middle of our cuddle session so I had to pull away from Alex. When I looked at the screen it showed Alan's name. I almost didn't want to answer. We hadn't talked in so long because I wasn't exactly on his side with everything that happened. That probably wasn't a good excuse though. I could at least called once to check on him and the kids.

"Hello." I answered. Alex mouthed asking me who it was and I mouthed Alan back to him.

"Hey stranger." Alan said.

"Alan! Hey! How are you? How are the kids?" I tried to sound extra concerned.

"We're doing okay. We've been at the house just trying to get through this rough time." He said.

"I know this has to be difficult for all of you. Have you talked to Austin at all?"

"Yeah just briefly when we worked out a child support deal with each other and we see each other every time he comes to visit the kids." He told me.

"He gives you child support?" I asked kind of shocked. I was just surprised they actually worked out a temporary deal together without getting the court involved.

"Yeah and he still pays the mortgage for the house." He said.

"Aw that's so sweet of him." I gushed.

"I know I can't thank him enough for not cutting us off." He didn't sound too thankful though, he sounded tired and depressed.

"Well have you actually tried to talk to him about...you know...trying to work thi-"

"-Jack no. I just don't know if that would be best for us right now."

"But Alan you two-"

"-Look I didn't call to get relationship advice. I called to ask if I could borrow some money from you." He snapped.

"You just said Austin pays for everything." I said, ignoring his tone for his sake.

"Yeah he pays the bills and stuff, but I still need money for other necessities. I just don't want to keep running to Austin for money. Please Jack." He said. I hated to hear people beg for money, it always tugged at my heart strings. So of course I was going to give him whatever he needed.

"Okay. How much do you need?" I asked and Alex furrowed his eyebrows at me confusedly.

"Just two-thousand to hold us over. Just until I find a job and I swear I'll pay you back every cent."

"Stop you don't have too. Just worry about trying to get yourself back on your feet." I told him. "I leave for my business trip tomorrow but I think I can still uh give you um it from there." I spoke slowly and stumbled over my words so Alex wouldn't figure out what we were talking about. I knew he wouldn't like the idea of me getting involved in this whole situation.

"Thank you so much, Jack! I can't even begin to explain how much this means to us." He sounded like he was on the verge of tears.

"You're welcome, Alan. And I'm going to call you as soon as I get back so we can hang out." I said. He really needed to get out of the house and to get his mind off of things.

"Okay I'll see you then."

"Bye." I said and we hung up.

"How much did he ask you for?" Alex asked as soon as I pressed the button to end the call.

"What do you mean?"

"How much money did he ask you for?" He clarified.

"He just asked for a couple hundred to hold him and the kids over." I said trying to downplay the situation.

"Couple hundred? You said Austin gives him money. Why would he need more money on top of that?" He asked skeptically.

"We're you eavesdropping for the whole conversation?" I asked and he laughed.

"It was hard not to hear with you sitting right next to me."

"Un huh of course. But he said he doesn't want to keep running to Austin for money and he needs more for other necessities. I'm guessing for like gas and stuff. You know small stuff that we don't pay attention to buying." I said.

"I guess. I just don't like you getting involved in their problems. Like what if Austin finds out and doesn’t like you giving Alan the money instead of telling him about it."

"I'm just helping a friend in need, Austin can't be mad about that." I reasoned.

"You never know." He shrugged his shoulders. "I wonder how much Austin gives him every month.”

"It can't be that much cause Alan said he pays their mortgage too. But he didn't say anything about the other bills or food so he might have to use the 'child support' money for that."

"How much would you pay me in child support if we got divorced and I kept Izzy?" He randomly asked and I laughed at how silly his question was.

"I dunno, maybe a few thousands every month." I answered.

"Izzy pack your bags, we're moving out.” He joked and I hit him.

"Jerk! We don’t have to divorce for me to give you that, asshole." I reminded him.

"Oh yeah I forgot I'm married to Mr. Moneybags." He said.

"Speaking of money, I need to go fill up my gas tank." Izzy said. "Papa can I have my new credit card?" She asked. Her other card I gave her expired so it was no longer any good to use.

"Just use the one I gave you." Alex told her. He didn't want me to move from my spot next to him.
"I um I can't." She mumbled.

"Why not?" He asked.

"I kind of..." She whispered the last part so we had no idea what she said.

"I can't hear you. You what?" He asked.

"...I maxed it out."

"Isabella! Are you trying to bankrupt me?!" He yelled.

"No." She whined.

"Give me your phone and go to your room." He said and rubbed at his temples.

"But Daddy!"

"I don't want to hear it. Go!"

She pout and stomped up to her room, leaving her phone on the couch for him.

"I'll pay the credit card bill for you. You didn't have to ground my daughter." I grumbled at him.

"It's more of the principle of the thing. She needs to grow up with some kind of discipline. God knows you won't do it since you're such a pushover." He said.

"I am not a pushover! I tell her no sometimes. And you spoil her just as much as I do."

"Okay I admit I do spoil her on Christmas, but that's like the only time I do."

"Oh whatever Alex." I laughed. If that was the case he would have taken her credit card away the first time she used it for a non-emergency.

"You know it's true. Maybe we should make her get a job." He said seriously.

"No I don't want to make my princess work." I complained. I wasn't forced to work as a teenager and I wasn't going to force her.

"You understand that you're the problem right?" Alex rolled his eyes at me.

"Shut up. Just make her do more chores around the house and unground her. I hate seeing her so upset."

"Too bad. She needs to learn her lesson." He said.

"You're so mean. Didn't you hate when your father told you 'no' all the time or grounded you? Didn't it make you think that you wanted to be a more lenient parent?" I questioned.

"I did when I was in high school but as I got older I realized my dad was just trying to make sure I didn't hang out with the wrong crowd, or get a girl pregnant, or some shit like that so it made me appreciate his parenting style more. Plus I turned out alright."

"My mom wasn't strict on May and I. She almost always gave us whatever we wanted and we turned out fine." My mom began to spoil May and I even more when are dad died to try and ease some of the pain.

"No you're not! You hate the word 'no' almost as much as Izzy does." He chuckled.
"Well you're stubborn!" I rebutted.

"I am not stubborn. But I think we've done a decent job on raising Izzy so far. I mean she makes good grades, she does what's she's told most of the time, and she doesn't seem rebellious. I just don't want her to expect everyone to wait hand and foot on her or for her to get used to getting everything at the snap of her fingers cause that won't help her in the long run."

"I know that. It's just she's an only child so I think sometimes we...or I try to overcompensate for her being by herself. And she makes the saddest face when I even attempt to tell her no. Sometimes it's impossible." I said.

"It's the eyes. You can't look her in the eyes, that's how she gets you." He chuckled.

"Exactly! So I think it's our fault that she has no concept of money and therefore you should ungrounded." I wasn't going to give up on trying to get her ungrounded.

"Nice try, but I yell at her every time she uses that credit card so she knew it was wrong."

"Well we should at least talk to her about it at dinner time to make sure she understands."

"Okay. “He agreed.

"What are we going to eat for dinner?"

"I don't care, whatever you want." He said and started idly play with my fingers. It made me feel butterflies.

"I'm in the mood for Mexican food. Let's go somewhere downtown." I suggested.

"Okay I'll google restaurants and you go get ready." He told me.

"Okay." I kissed him on the cheek and stood up about to walk to our room.

"And make sure you wear something sexy for me." He punctuated with a slap to my butt. I just rolled my eyes and went to find something "sexy" for him.

***

We ended up going to a restaurant called Comida somewhere downtown. It was a little crowded since it was a Sunday night but we didn't have to wait long for a table.

Izzy sat across from Alex and me refusing to speak or look at either of us since Alex grounded her. I don't know why she was mad at me, I didn't do anything to her. She did mumble 'thank you' to me when we stopped at the gas station and I filled her gas tank, but I haven't heard her say a word since then.

The waiter came by to get our drink orders and we went ahead and ordered our food so they could begin making it. When he left I tried to get Izzy to speak to me.

"So honey did you enjoy your small break from school?" I asked her. She looked up to make sure I was talking to her before answering.

"Sure." She shrugged.

"You don't sound too happy about it." I said.

"Well maybe if I didn't get grounded right before my break ended I would have sounded happier." She snap.

"Hey you have no one to blame but yourself!" Alex snapped back at her. She opened her mouth to say something back but she closed it when Alex raised his eyebrow daring her to talk back to him. Instead she looked down at the table with a deep scowl on her face.

Our waiter came and sat our drinks down for us and I waited for him to leave before speaking again.

"Can we please just have a nice family dinner before I leave you two tomorrow! Please!" I pleaded.
They both were quiet for a second before turning to me and nodding.

"Good! So let's talk about this and be done with it. Izzy do you understand why your dad grounded you?" I asked her.

"Because I maxed out my credit card. Yeah I know." She sighed.

"But you understand why that wasn't okay?" I asked.

"Honestly I don't. It's not like we don't have the money to pay it off. You're a millionaire, Papa. Other people with rich parents have done worse than me and I max out one little credit card and it’s the end of the world." She ranted.

I was going to speak on what she said but Alex did before I could. "We're not concerned with what other people are doing with their children. We have no control over their household. We're trying to make sure that you can be self-sufficient and that you'll be able to take care of yourself if anything unexpected happens." Alex told her.

"Okay I get that and I know that I need to be a responsible adult or whatever in the future, but I'm only sixteen now. I have a few more years before that stuff becomes important to me so why can't I enjoy being a teenager that relies on her parents for now. If we were desperate for money I know I would have to work and help the family but we're not. We have a five bedroom two story house and every single car that we have is well over a hundred thousand dollars. I just don't get why we have to be so conservative with money when we can afford to buy any and everything."

"Okay you're clearly not understanding us. You're talking as if we don't by you anything when you're wearing a two-thousand dollar Givenchy purse right now. Jack and I work almost every day so we can earn a paycheck. We earn our own money, and we make the decision on what to do with that money. The only thing the law requires us to supply for you, our daughter, is food, shelter, and three pairs of clothing. Now judging by the size of your closet and the amount of clothes packed into it, the fact that the meal you're about to eat is thirty dollars alone, and the two story house we live in I think Jack and I are clearly doing way more than required for you. But if you don't agree then you are more than welcome to get your own job, make your own money, and then spend that money however you'd like to."

"Okay what your dad just said is a very harsh version of the truth. And I know I've told you that you basically don't have to ever work if you don't want too, but if you don't manage the money I have saved up for you might blow right through it and become bankrupt." I told her. “I’ll admit It's mostly my fault because I buy you everything you ask for and I probably will still continue to buy you anything you ask for because you're my baby, but just try to learn a little more self-control."

"Okay okay I get it. And again I'm sorry I maxed out my credit card. You two actually do more than enough for me and I overreacted a little bit." She said sounding like it hurt for her to admit that we were right.

"It's fine. I just didn't want you somehow thinking that we neglect you." Alex told her.

"Yeah we love you too much for that." I added.

"I love you two too." She told us. "So how long am I grounded for this time?" She asked sorrowfully with her bottom lip out. We looked at Alex because he had to set a time limit since he was the one who grounded her.

Alex sighed and reached into his back pocket to pull her phone out. He handed it to her and a large smile grew on her face. I begin to laugh hard at the irony of this situation.

"What?" He asked.

"I told you that you spoil her just as much as I do."

Notes

I tried to portray how most rich parents would treat an only child that's why Izzy is so spoiled lol