Children of the Boss

Chapter 31: Dean

January 30th

I finished my first semester of college successfully. I actually made the Dean's List, which surprised me because it was hard and I thought I failed a final. The days seemed to go by fast. One day I was celebrating Halloween and it seemed like a week later I was celebrating Christmas.

Every Thanksgiving instead of celebrating a big feast we actually volunteered at a homeless shelter in the city and provided a big feast. Hundreds of people came every year and were always so thankful. Nobody was ever greedy either because they wanted to make sure there was enough for everyone there, but we always had enough and encouraged seconds. 

Carmen turned eighteen on the tenth, but it was close to finals and she wasn't feeling the best so we only had a small party for her. Carmen and Kenneth had a senior show for their final marching band performance we went to, and Gabriel had a banquet for those who participated in the musical. His not-boyfriend won an award for being the most outstanding student of the semester, not just because he had a lead but "he did hella extra credit and is writing his own musical," or so Gabriel said. 

We celebrated Christmas with the whole family, decking the house out in lights after Thanksgiving like we always did. We donated presents and went to children's hospitals to surprise them and make them happy with new toys. New Year's came and Dad and Pop had their party they have every year. Colette and I attended, and since she wasn't my instructor at that point we could be a bit more public.

It was January 30th, and Pop turned fifty-three. We were having a small celebration at the townhouse. Colette had to attend a conference in Chicago so she was gone for the weekend. It was just Dad, Pop, Michael, Emilio, Dad's parents, and us kids. Pop liked things smaller, now in his older age. His parents were still vacationing and everyone else was busy in the new year. Cassidy was visiting her sister in the city, and anyone else's friends stayed home. 

It was nice actually. There was a big snow storm so we were all bundled up in the house, enjoying each others company. We didn't buy anything for Pop because...I mean...what do you buy the richest man in the world? He just wanted to spend time with his favorite people and eat some cheesecake. So we sat in the lounge and did just that, taking turns playing video games or board games. At one point Dad and Pop went to their bedroom to probably have sex and cuddle. They joined us sometime later for dinner and we ate pizza, continuing our games. 

It made me start to question whether I wanted a family.

I couldn't imagine having kids. I really couldn't, but I wanted to have a big family. Maybe I could be the cool uncle. Do cool uncles exist? Or is it just cool aunts? I don't even know if I could have a wife. As I thought about that, I started to think about Colette...

I think I was starting to fall in love with her, even though it was something we shouldn't do with each other because it wasn't going to last. Everyday I wanted it to last more and more. She just seemed right for me, a perfect match for a power couple. Beautiful, smart, educated - the whole package. She showed me things and taught me things, and I appreciated that. I mean, maybe it could work?

I woke up at four in the morning, cold and alone. I went downstairs. The whole house was so damn cold. In the kitchen I found Cassidy grabbing some hot chocolate.

"When did you get back?" I asked.

She was wearing pajamas, fuzzy socks, and a sweater. "Around midnight," she said. "Why is it so cold?"

"I'm assuming there was some kind of outage or something. It happened once at our house in Cornwall. It got so cold that everything froze and our heater broke or something. It feels like our generator is on but it doesn't pump out a lot of heat," I said.