CHAPTER THIRTY ONE #2
“Okay, so, we’ll get that settled when you actually move in.
See what works. Next thing: you can quit your job.
Whenever you want. And you don’t have to get a new one.
Which leads into the next thing: finances.
Right now, we’ve settled on each having our own bank accounts, and then there’s one master account that we all have access to.
Ellen is the one in charge of finances.”
“I was an accountant in my past life,” Ellen said, making several of them chuckle.
“Okay, cool. What are the specifics?”
“Basically, bills and big purchases come out of the master account,” Ellen said, briefly taking over.
“Money would flow both ways from your account if you linked to us. To and from. We’ve got a rough kind of idea of basically, everyone gets five hundred bucks a month as allowance.
With the option for more. That’s pretty much ‘spend on yourself’ money.
It doesn’t go to gas or groceries, that also comes from the central account. ”
“All right, honestly that sounds pretty cool. It’d be more than I’ve been giving myself to spend on entertainment for...too long now. But what about money coming in? How do we keep from going broke?”
“Right now, we’re sitting on about twenty six thousand dollars.
Our bills amount to about a thousand a month, altogether, plus the twenty five hundred a month for each of our allowances.
Which, I know, sounds concerning. But here’s what we do, and it is a work in progress.
Most of us are making money right now in some capacity.
Gabe and Krystal are self-publishing, Holly is shooting photos, I’m designing websites and cover art, Chloe is a streamer, Liz is preparing to launch her own fitness website.
Anything we make up to five hundred dollars, we keep.
Anything over five hundred dollars, we throw in the account. ”
“Is it working?”
“Yes, though mostly because of Gabe,” Ellen replied.
“For now,” Gabe said. “I’m confident that, at the very least, everyone here can make enough money to get them five hundred bucks a month. But, honestly, if I’m the only big earner in the whole group, I can live with that. As...complicated as that situation can be.”
“Yeah, I was gonna say,” Kim murmured. “Honestly, if it’s truly as it’s being presented, then I’m cool with it.
I mean, okay, I want to see the finances.
I want you to open your big book and show me the actual, real data.
Because I’ve got a couple thou to contribute, and it took me a long time to get that.
I also have zero debt. I think it’ll take some time to get used to, but I can totally see living like this. ”
“That’s good about the debt,” Ellen said.
“It’s what I was going to tackle next. That’s a part of our bills.
I’ve managed to successfully combine all of our debt into a single payment of about three hundred bucks a month.
Obviously, we’re going to be throwing more at it, but for now we’re continuing to build our nest egg. ”
“There’s one more caveat to the finances,” Gabe said, glancing at Ellen.
“Right. That. So, Gabe gets a thousand dollars a month instead of five hundred. The reason for this is because, as the head of household, we all tend to...ask him to buy us stuff. And he pays for dates. He pays for it when Krystal is whining for a soda at a gas station-”
“Oh, fuck you! Like you never whine!” Krystal fired back immediately.
“You understand,” Ellen continued without looking at Krystal.
Kim chuckled. “Okay, yeah, that makes sense...man, I can suddenly see why you guys are so nervous about this whole setup. Why you’re cautious.
From the outside, it looks like Gabe is ruling over everyone here with an iron fist. I mean, especially financial control.
That’s a big thing in abusive relationships.
But this is cool. Fair. Like actually fair. All right, so, anything else?”
“Nothing immediate,” Gabe replied. “We’ve already covered my big caveat.”
“Which one?” Sadie asked, sounding curious.
“We discussed how...territorial I am.”
“Ah yes.” She smiled at him. “Territorial. It is quite nice when you...mark your territory.” She paused. “I just realized how that could have come off. I meant with semen.”
Several of them began laughing.
“It is rather nice,” Holly said.
“I just realized, you never bust on any of our faces,” Krystal said. “Why is that? I thought that was such a thing for guys.”
“I think it is for a lot of guys, but mostly because so often you have to pull out. I mean, yeah, it’s a domination thing, but in general, if the choice is between pulling out and coming or staying inside and coming...
creampie is going to win every time. For me, at least. Well...
not every time. But that’s why,” he explained.
“It looked like you had something specific in mind when you said that,” Ellen said.
“What was it?” Liz asked, leaning forward.
He chuckled. “I was just thinking about fucking one of you and then right as I’m about to come, pulling out and coming in someone’s mouth.”
“We should so do that,” Krystal replied immediately. “Fuck Liz and come in my mouth!”
“I mean, I won’t say no to that.”
“Huge surprise,” Chloe muttered.
“You’d better watch it,” Gabe replied, snapping his gaze over to her.
She stared back at him for a moment, a little defiant, then bit her lower lip and looked away.
“Probably another thing you and I should discuss in a bit more detail: the nature of our relationship,” Gabe said, returning his attention to Kim.
“As you can tell, we all have a somewhat different dynamic, but a common theme seems to be that every last fucking woman I have invited into my life is, to some degree, a fucking brat that loves fucking with me.”
“Gabe, you clearly have a type,” Sadie said, and all the others laughed.
He sighed heavily. “Clearly.”
“Well, I’m not going to disagree, because that’s...kind of the relationship I want with you? I want someone who is not afraid when I get more intense, who isn’t afraid to throw it back in my face, who I can fight back against and they won’t take it personally but they also won’t take it too far.”
“Now, when you say ‘fight back against’…” Gabe said.
“I mean physically. In bed. Slow and sweet can be great, but in general, I like it rough and tumble. I’m also loud.”
“Clearly. I’m surprised no one called the cops.”
Kim laughed. “Everyone was at work. I would not have been that loud if I thought anyone could hear me.”
“Gabe likes them loud,” Ellen replied.
“Clearly,” he muttered.
“I’m cool with a bratty dynamic. I just don’t know if you’ll be able to handle me.”
“Uh-oh,” Ellen murmured.
Gabe looked over at her. She stared back, a subtle smirk on her face.
“I guess we’ll find out, huh?” she asked, then gave him a quick kiss on the mouth.
“Yes,” he replied, a small smile on his own face, “we will find out.”
“Good! Is there anything else we need to cover?” Kim asked.
Gabe sighed softly. They took a perverse pleasure in fucking with him, and then immediately continuing along as if they hadn’t.
“Ladies?” he asked, looking around.
No one had anything else.
“I guess not,” he said. “When can you move in?”
“Soon. Like, next week. I’m going to quit my job tomorrow. I’m gonna...ugh! I’m going to be fucking responsible and put in my two weeks. But I want to be in this house by this time next week at the latest. Which should be super easy, considering I don’t actually have that much stuff.”
“We can do whenever you like,” Gabe said. “Once I’ve wrapped up Valentine’s Week. So, two more days.”
“Three,” Ellen said firmly. “Don’t forget yours. Speaking of which, Kim, before you leave, I need to speak with you privately about Gabe’s big day.”
“I am so very down to talk about this,” Kim replied. “But before we do anything else, can we go fuck?”
“Can we watch?” Krystal asked.
“Yes, you can all watch. I don’t care about being watched if it’s any of you,” Kim replied, getting up.
They all eagerly followed as Gabe joined her and began leading her upstairs.