Living the High Life

Note:  This is the first draft of a novel I'm working on.  Each chapter is marked by dots.

     "I need eight thousand dollars right away," Rick demanded as he talked to Uncle Mark on his iPhone sitting outside at the shiny patio table on a sultry July evening.

     "Why?" he replied as he was getting ready to change out of his blue scrubs in the men's locker room at Harris Downtown.

     "I need to buy another engagement ring for Nikki.  A burglar followed her home from Albertson's earlier this evening.  He held her up at gun point when she came back to the house and took all of her jewelry including the engagement ring."

     "Under these circumstances, I'll lend you eight thousand dollars.  But this is the last time.  I can't keep bailing you out every time you need money."

     Rick wanted to surprise Nikki for her twenty-fourth birthday with another engagement ring that looked exactly like the gaudy, diamond one that got stolen.  He wasn't able to get insurance for the stolen ring and couldn't afford to buy her another one.  Rick and Nikki were in debt because they owed payments on their credit cards and still owed money on their student loans.  They bought fancy furnishings for the one-story home they rented in the Ridgmar subdivision and traveled to places like San Francisco, Beijing, Tuscany, and Aspen, Colorado.  Rick had no choice but to ask Uncle Mark to lend him eight thousand dollars in cash so he could buy her another ring.  Even though it had been a month since Rick proposed to Nikki, it almost seemed like it was yesterday.  He and Nikki were hiking in the Maroon Bells Wildnerness Area near Aspen.  It was a bright sunny morning with no clouds in the sky.  They were over twelve thousand feet in elevation by the time they got to West Maroon Pass.  The view was magnificient at the pass with the snow-capped peaks in the distance and the green vegetation mixed in with the boulders and winding trail down below.  He remarked, "What breathtaking scenery."

     These views made Rick want to get down on one knee and propose to Nikki.  The cool breeze blew her dark hair to the left side of her face and it made her look even more beautiful than ever.  When Rick popped the question, Nikki's face lit up with excitement and she gave him a bear hug.  Rick wished that moment had never ended. 

     After Nikki was robbed, she tearfully reminded Rick, "I still want to have my dream wedding in San Francisco." 

     Rick looked at Nikki in awe as he consoled her.  It had always been Nikki's dream to get married in San Francisco since she grew up there as a little girl and she wasn't going to change her mind despite what had happened.  Nikki moved to Fort Worth with her mother after her parents separated when she was ten.  Nikki's older sister stayed in San Francisco with their father.  This ultimately turned out to be a good thing since he had someone who could look after him when he suffered a stroke two years ago.  Nikki had made numerous trips to San Francisco to check up on him.  Nikki and Rick had known each other for six years.  She previously dated Rick's best friend, Mike during their senior year at Arlington Heights High School.  She and Rick had dated ever since their freshman year at Texas Christian University.  They acted like a married couple because they had lived together in different rental properties for the past three years.

..................

     "God!  I can't believe they want to have the wedding in San Francisco.  Jenny called me this afternoon at work complaining about it," Mark told his wife the news as he was about to take a bite into the spaghetti and meatballs his wife, Betty cooked.

     "Why San Francisco?  Why not here in Fort Worth?" Betty replied sitting across from him at their round, wooden dining table.

     "Apparently, Nikki's always dreamed of getting married in San Francisco since she has nostalgic memories of growing up there."

     "That's true.  However, she's lived in Fort Worth much longer."      

     "Not only that.  Most of Rick's family and friends live here."

     Mark and Betty continued to eat their dinner without saying anything more.  Mark loaned Rick a total of twenty-eight thousand dollars in the last several months.  Mark remembered the first time Rick called him up for money on a Friday evening back in March.  Mark was getting ready to settle down with a glass of Merlot when he heard his blue, razor-thin Sprint phone go off next to him on the kitchen counter.  Luckily, Mark was able to reach his phone before it went into voicemail.  When Mark answered the phone, Rick sounded tearful, "Nikki and I are behind on our rent.  We didn't realize how difficult it would be to pay our rent.  I also need to pay off Nikki's student loans and our credit card debt."  He claimed, "Thankfully, the trip that Nikki took to Tuscany was paid by her aunt."

     Mark ended up lending Rick ten thousand dollars.  Once Mark got off the phone, he informed Betty about Rick's financial situation.  She warned him as she sat next to him on the brown-leather sofa with a glass of Merlot in her right hand, "I don't believe Rick's telling you the truth.  He told you that most of the trip to Tuscany was paid for by Nikki's aunt, but I think that Rick paid for most of it.  He'll do anything to make her happy."

     "Believe me.  Rick would never lie to me.  He's always been an honest person."  Mark had loaned money to people before and they were always good about paying him back and he believed Rick would do the same.

     Nikki hadn't incured debt until she took a trip to Beijing at Spring Break last year when she was a senior at TCU.  As a graduation present a couple months later, she took a trip to Tuscany with her sister and aunt.  Rick was actually the one who paid for most of Nikki's trips in the end.  That wasn't the only thing he lied about to his uncle.  He also bought a gas grill and a flat-screen TV after his uncle gave him the loan.  Mark was stunned when his older sister, Rose told him this over the phone a week later.  After Mark got off the phone with her, he shared this information with his wife, "I guess I should've listened to you."

     "I was warning you Rick was up to no good," Betty told him. 

     Last month, Rick left a message on Uncle Mark's cell phone again saying, "Nikki and I are still behind on our rent.  I'd appreciate it if you could loan me another ten thousand."

     Mark lent him another ten thousand after he gave his nephew advice, but Rick didn't always return his calls.  Mark told him, "All right, but I can't keep bailing you out every time you need money.  You've borrowed twenty thousand dollars from me and four thousand from your Grandma.  You've squandered it on trips and things you don't really need.  My advice to you would be to trim down on excess spending, move into a house with lower rent, and don't travel as much.  This is the last time I'm bailing you out."  Rick ignored his uncle's advice and used a portion of the ten thousand dollars to fly to Aspen.

     Mark worked hard as the director of the medical research laboratory at Harris Downtown and didn't have time to keep bailing his nephew out.  Mark thought that Rick often got what he wanted because of his charisma and good looks.  Rick was only paid a base-line salary as a market analyst for Uncle Arnie's commercial real estate company.  He was lucky enough to get a job when he graduated from TCU last May.  The job was only supposed to be for a year so he could pay off his student loans until he got his real estate license.  Rick still needed to take the real estate board's exam in order to sell commercial real estate, but hadn't gotten around to it yet.  He thought that he studied hard enough after four years of college.  Arnie, knowing the tight job market decided to keep him on as a market analyst for another year.

..................

     "I'm home," Rick told Nikki as he came in through the front door with a paper grocery sack.

     "Dinner will be ready in a sec," she responded from the kitchen.

     Rick went out through the back door without Nikki noticing.  He didn't want her to know that he bought pot again.  Rick was starting to feel like he couldn't go through with the wedding and was hoping it could be delayed until he and Nikki got out of debt.  Rick hoped that smoking pot would help him alleviate the stress he felt.  He stopped by Mike's run-down apartment in Como on his way home from work and bought it.  Rick went over to the far right corner of the backyard, rolled a joint and started smoking.  Its nice aroma helped calm him down as he sat down on the parched grass by the bushes.  Once he got into a dazed state, he heard Nikki call him in for dinner.  He frantically snuffed out the flame, hid the bag of pot behind the bushes, and raced back inside.

     "I know of a great church where we could have our wedding," Nikki told Rick as they sat at their round, cherry wood dining table.  She was looking at a magazine-sized guide of all the different churches in San Francisco that her father sent her. 

     "What would that be?" Rick responded.

     "Take a hint.  It's one of the more famous churches in the heart of downtown.  It's been around for over a century." 

     "I don't remember any churches of that kind."

     "St. Mary's Cathedral!  I swear to God!  Sometimes, I think you're off in another world," she slammed the guide down on the table and walked over to the kitchen to grab the dishes out of the dishwasher.  Rick snuck back outside to smoke the rest of his joint.  I'm serious!  Half the time Rick ignores me.  God, I hope he didn't spend any of the money he got from Uncle Mark on drugs.  That money was supposed to be used towards buying another engagement ring.  I swear to God!  If he bought drugs again, the wedding is postponed.

..................

     "I got a text from Jenny this afternoon.  It's worse than we thought," Mark told Betty as he entered the house after a long work day. 

     "What now?" Betty exclaimed as she cooked a Mexican casserole.

     "Rick and Nikki want to get married in the famous St. Mary's Cathedral."

     "Oh, you've got to be kidding me!"

     "Yeah!  I'm afraid it's true."

     "How in the world is everyone on Rick's side of the family going to pay for it all?  All of the relatives on your side of the family except for Rose and Arnie certainly don't have the money to go to this wedding.  Neither do Rick's friends."

     "That's the thing!  This could be a bust in the end."

..................

     "Are you sure you look okay?  It seems like you haven't slept in days," Nikki was worried as she saw Rick come in through the front door.

     "I'm fine!" he snapped at her.

     In actuality, Rick wasn't okay.  His face looked gaunt and he hadn't slept in days.  He didn't want her to know that he hadn't been sleeping lately.  He was concerned about how they were going to pay for this wedding.  Her family thought of him as the "big provider."  They didn't know where he had gotten all the money.  He didn't want them to know that he conned money from his side of the family.  If Nikki's family ever found out, they would force Nikki to call off the marriage.  She knew where he had gotten all the money from, but she didn't care one way or the other.

     When Nikki went into the utility room to do laundry, Rick escaped out to their tiny backyard.  The hot summer sun shone brightly and there were mosquitoes swarming around.  That didn't bother Rick as he walked over to his usual hangout in the backyard to find his stash of pot.  He sat down on what was left of their green grass and got high.  While he was in his dazed state, he came up with a revelation.  I know what I could do.  Maybe, I'll write a hot check for eight thousand dollars to buy Nikki an engagement ring that looks exactly like the one that got stolen.

..................

     "We've got a problem, Arnie.  It looks as if one of your employees by the name of Rick Snelling wrote me a hot check for eight thousand dollars to buy a large, diamond engagement ring.  I'm afraid this is going to have to be handled by the police," Todd, the owner of Haltom Jewelers on Camp Bowie phoned Arnie at his office.  Todd had been a good client of Arnie's for years.  Arnie owned the building where the jewelery store was located.

     "Don't worry, Todd.  I'll handle it.  He's my nephew," Arnie assured him.  Arnie didn't want to fire Rick because he wanted to protect Rick's mother, Jenny.  Jenny had no clue how much money her son borrowed.  Everybody on Rick's side of the family was worried that if Jenny ever found out, she would be livid and no one wanted to see her have a stroke.  She was already under a lot of stress with her computer programming job at United Insurance as the number of layoffs had her barely hanging on.  As it was, Rick was lucky enough to avoid spending quality time in prison.

..................

     "Mom, how much money did you give Rick?" Mark asked her as he sat on the brown sofa next to her sipping a cup of coffee. 

     "I gave him four thousand to help pay for the final semester of his college education.  You gave him twenty-two thousand," she claimed.

     "You got it all wrong.  Rick tapped me for a total of twenty-eight thousand.  First, it was ten thousand.  Then, another ten thousand.  Then, eight thousand.  And I cut him off after that."

     Mark's mother had been forgetting things over the last few years.  It had gradually gotten worse.  When she told stories, she usually didn't have her facts straight.  She had lived with Mark and Betty since the death of her husband ten years ago.  Although, Betty spent more time with her because Mark's job at the hospital was so demanding. 

..................

     "This wedding's going to cost Jenny and me ten grand," Tom told Mark and Betty while he sat in his baby blue Lazy Boy watching the Texas Rangers play on TV.  Tom and Jenny didn't have the money to pay for Rick's wedding as they had to put all three of their boys, counting Rick, through college.  Tom had to work extra shifts for Cowtown Heating and Air while Jenny was going to be fortunate enough to have health insurance and her pension when she retired from United Insurance in two years at age fifty-five. 

     "How the hell are they going to pay for their honeymoon?"  Jenny exclaimed coming into the room with a glass of Chardonnay in her right hand. 

     "They might as well have it in San Francisco," Mark suggested sitting on the navy blue sofa next to Betty. 

    
To be continued.......