How the Green Grinch Gift Almost Stole Christmas (Chapter 2)

 

This is Chapter Two of a series of Choose-your-own-ending stories.  If you have not read Chapter One yet, please start there at Amy’s site https://eric51amy49.blogspot.com/ and once you’ve made your choice, read the appropriate Chapter Two Follow Up (Red, green, or blue?)

After doing such a bang up job on the house, Becca couldn’t muster enough energy to make dinner so she hopped on the phone and ordered pizza with extra paper plates and napkins to speed the evening along.  Hugh wrestled with the kids and remarked how nice it was to come home to a clean house for a change. He said nothing of the fact that the closet door in their bedroom was stuck on a sweatshirt sleeve that was tangled in the track of the mirrored doors.  He ignored the dirty rag under the kitchen sink when he threw away an old receipt from his pocket and chuckled to himself when the youngest proudly showed off a crisp new $20 bill he had earned for “putting Mom’s dirty clothes in my hamper and hiding my toys behind the couch”.

Hugh knew he hadn’t married the most organized or consistent wife, but she caught his eye one day and he truly had never looked back.  There was something magical about the way she viewed the world; always in awe of the little things. That said, social media and cell phones had distracted her from what they had always viewed as important and it was time for things to change.  Becca had been spending so much time on the phone; the house and the kids were being neglected on a far too regular a basis.  Even Hugh felt second fiddle to the glowing device every now and then. His plan was to step it up that night, his role as the HOH, and each gift Becca was going to receive had a lesson squarely wrapped beneath its folds.

“Becca,” Hugh inquired over pepperoni and cheese pizza with extra thick crust, “have you noticed an increase in our data usage on the phones?  I’m not sure if the wifi has been down or if the kids are on a lot more than usual but the data is way up.”

Becca swallowed hard.  She recognized the inquisitive tone from the man she’d known her entire adult life.  When they were dating, he would sometimes ask a similar sounding question in hopes of drawing her attention to something without making it look like he was being accusatory.  As they got more into the lifestyle, Hugh had dropped much of the careful wording of sensitive topics but with the kids at the table, she recognized the return of this old style of communication. 

“I can’t imagine,” Becca lied and suddenly her face went red and hot. She certainly didn’t want the darn phone interfering with her getting to open presents that night but her body language was a dead give-away.  “I may have used a bit more data than usual,” she stuttered, squirming in the seat with a sense of déjà vu tapping her bottom with a memory of the last spanking she received over phone time. “You know,” she tried to explain, “arranging things for the kids schooling, the holiday, setting up dental appointments and you know, other stuff.”

Hugh promised to look into it more and asked Becca to pull the last two phone bills while he got the kids washed up and ready for bed. An hour later, the couple was calculating minutes, data, and dollars.  Hugh’s eyebrows knitted atop his forehead as the results showed Becca on the phone more hours a day, than not.

“How do you think I should handle this?” he asked, showing her the discrepancy.

Becca frowned.  She really wanted to open a present and had been eyeing the green one from her position across the table from Hugh.  At the same time, she was feeling pretty guilty about the phone.  Honestly, it had gotten out of control and she was rather embarrassed about it all.

“I’m so sorry Hugh,” she said, genuinely feeling terrible about the whole thing.  “I promise I will do better and if you want to take my phone from me, here it is.” 

Becca slid the device across the table and watched as the contemplation on her husband’s face went from stern, to a big grin. With perfect aim, he lobbed the phone across the room and watched as it bounced, once on an end pillow, before settling on the center cushion on the couch.

Becca’s mouth formed a large oval but just before any words escaped, Hugh asked if she wanted to open a present now. It took a moment for his question to register and suddenly she forgot the phone and snatched the green one right off the hutch. The first bit of tissue paper flew from the bag before she was back to the table and a moment later, the second sheet was unraveling and eventually revealing a beautiful satin red and black piece of lingerie.  To her fingers, the material felt soft and silky.  The colors were striking and she was immediately drawn to the sexy shape, wondering if it would fit in all the right places.

“I love it!” she exclaimed, holding it up for Hugh to see.

“Really?” he asked, a bit deadpan.  “Are you sure?”

Becca was confused.  “Of course I love it,” she said, batting at her husband and then rubbing the fabric across his five o’clock shadow.  “It’s exactly what I would have picked!”

Hugh stood perfectly still, staring at her, until she started to feel the weight of his silence.

“You DID buy it,” he finally spoke.  “Look!” his voice intensified as he held up a $120 price tag dangling from one of the shoulder straps.

Becca looked lost, a little deer in the headlights to match the ones on the bag.

“You don’t even remember,” Hugh scoffed.  “Five years ago,” he reminded her, “you BEGGED me to let you buy this.  Insisted it was for a special occasion and told me it was a bit overpriced but was important to you… important in making you feel whole and like a woman after the baby was born.”

“Five years ago?!” Becca blurted out.  “You expect me to remember this from FIVE years ago?”  Vague memories of seeing this in a fancy little boutique downtown slowly made their way to the forefront of her mind but she couldn’t imagine this had actually happened that long ago and what was his point, anyway. 

“Okay,” she queried. “So… what?”

Hugh clenched his teeth.  When was this woman going to see her pattern of overspending on things that didn’t line up with their marital plan?  The phone bill was a costly data mistake but also took away from time with their children.  The lingerie was just one of many examples of money wasted for nobody's benefit. And, he knew where the money was coming from.  The emergency fund was practically empty!

“Becca,” Hugh’s voice was stern and unrelenting.  “I found that shoved in the back of our closet, along with many dresses and shirts that still have the tags on them.  I also noticed four or five additional shoe boxes with shoes I’ve never seen you wear either.  Can you explain your reason for keeping all of the local businesses open while bankrupting us?!”

Becca suddenly wished she hadn’t picked the green present and wondered if the other two were a treat or a trick as well.  She had a clear picture in her mind of the section of the closet her husband had ventured into and silently kicked herself for not cleaning it up as planned many moons ago.  She considered playing them off as gifts for others but decided to go a different route. 

“Hugh,” Becca beamed and gave her husband a huge hug around his neck. “You found my lost treasure! I had been looking for this stuff and completely forgot where I had put it all!  Now I can start wearing everything and it’s like you just gave me the best present ever.”

Hugh shook his head.  Well, if nothing else, she was creative.

“Nice try,” he said, taking the lingerie from her hands.  “Tomorrow, Little Miss, you are taking everything in that closet that still has tags BACK to the stores to see what kind of refund you can get.”

Becca was mortified.  She shook her head and quietly said, “Honey. That was five years ago.  They’re not going to take it back and it’ll be humiliating to try.”

“Oh,” Hugh replied, giving her the look that meant serious business, “I guess you should have thought of that before you unnecessarily purchased this very expensive dust collector, the five or six space-taking dresses, and the multitude of unworn shoes that have turned our house into a storage unit!”

Becca knew this was not the time to argue.  Together they went to the closet and pulled out everything that still had a tag on it.  Hugh calculated the total and Becca watched his temples throb as he announced there was $769 in refunds he would be expecting tomorrow when he returned from work.

“Can’t I just start wearing everything now that you’ve found it all again?” Becca cooed, trying out a cute face that Hugh usually loved.  His expression did not change so she tried another tactic.  “Hugh, you don’t have to get me anything for the next year.  You can just wrap these like you did tonight and I’ll be so happy.”

Hugh shook his head and suggested the only way Becca was getting out of this was by taking 769 spanks for each dollar she spent.

“As a matter of fact,” Hugh threatened, “You’re getting a spanking for each dollar you don’t get back!” and that was it, the conversation was to be had no more.

The next day, Becca did her best demand, beg, and plead routine to get the local stores to take back their merchandise.  There were a few items that were far more recent purchases and easy returns but the lingerie proved to be the death of her.  After a tearful story about how it just never fit right, the owner finally agreed to take it back for half of what she paid.

“I got $648 back Hugh” she sent in a text, still embarrassed and angry from the last exchange at the fancy boutique.

“I owe you 121 spanks,” he replied and by sheer reflex, Becca grasped her behind in anticipation.

That evening, Hugh took care of cleaning up the dinner dishes and then got the kids all tucked into bed.  Becca was pretty quiet, the money she had collected tucked in an envelope in the front pocket of her purse.

“Tell you what,” Hugh stated, when she handed over the cash.  “Since you are such a fan of things hanging in our closet, you can pick your poison tonight while I replace all the money you’ve been siphoning out of our emergency fund the past few months.”

Becca froze, stunned that Hugh knew all along.  It was just so easy, having that large sum of cash sitting right there.  It hadn’t seemed like she had dived in that often but as she made her way to the implement box, Becca’s mind filled with a surprising amount of memories of times she just grabbed a twenty or two.

In the closet, Becca found the leather flogger with the tresses knotted to resemble a “cat o’nines”. Not a weapon to be considered as dangerous as the other two, unless in the hands of a skilled spanker.  In the middle lay her oval antique wooden hairbrush.  Each swat by that medieval torture device left her sitting gently or not sitting at all for at least a few days after it’s use.  Lastly, was her sweet Hugh’s thick brown leather belt that he wore daily.  Another foe, but one that brought mixed emotions to both her heart and her behind.

“Becca,” Hugh called out.  “I’m waiting.”

Now which will you, our lovely readers, choose?

The flogger, the brush or the belt? It’s time to make your pick and then jump back over to Amy’s blog https://eric51amy49.blogspot.com/ later this week to read the post that aligns with Chapter Three!

P.S. I am having difficulty responding to comments.  My apologies.  Please leave a comment and as soon as I can have Hoss work out the issue I will respond.  Thanks!