*
Mel, Hope, Maia, and I had all agreed that we needed a new home. We had two alright incomes, and the small business me and Hope had started; Hope's Branded Cars. While it made a comfortable enough living where we didn't have any immediate worries, it still wasn't really enough for something new. Our lifestyle wasn't glamorous and none of it had to be, and wherever our new home would end up being didn't need it either. We had a decent income, but we didn't have any immediate cash, which meant that our loan would be humongous or not approved.
Also, we kind of wanted to not settle for scraps, not to have something temporary. We wanted something new and in a better neighborhood. If we were moving, we wanted a good-to-decent upgrade. Maybe even build something. We had first joked about the idea, but as time progressed the idea took root. Maybe something up in the foothills south of Courtington, there were a lot of lots out there. The problem was, again, that required money.
So this is where one might think I could go professional as a boxer. I had proposed the idea even. There were two issues. Mel didn't like the thought of our financial dependency being tied with me being punched in the head and likely injured. On the other; my hand got fucked when I beat up David. It would take some months before I could even hit pads. While one was an issue for the short term, I wasn't sure how I'd convince Mel. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to put her in a position of having to accept something like that about someone who she cared about.
For Christmas and New Year's, I went back to my family, to my big sister Jenna's place in Seattle. I got the obligatory interrogation from both my sisters and some from my dad. I hadn't talked too much with them over the phone so far, as my new family took a lot of my time, especially with the things that had happened. I loved and adored being with Mel, Hope, and Maia. I missed them dearly when going to Seattle for the Holidays. But Mel was determined I should spend time with my 'real' family. Maybe I one day should make Mel my 'real' family too.
New Year's came and went. Time went and we saved what and where we could. While David was in jail with a ridiculously high bail awaiting trial where he'd no doubt get time, we still saw shadows in our small home. None of us had even used the bathroom downstairs ever since, and Mel told me she kept seeing David beaten up on the carpet. Not the most pleasant memories to have in a home you don't even want to live in anymore.
*
Of course, even as we couldn't afford to get anything, we did the mandatory property hunting. It was like a way of seeing what our dreams could be. See where our family could settle and live. We looked at some houses in other neighborhoods. The more we saw the more we wanted to move and it became a need. We saw all the variations of homes we could envision ourselves living in. Maybe this, in addition to the trauma of our old home, made the yearning to move even stronger. Not to say, we saw some real shitholes too.
We even started looking at lots. With every home we found that was appealing, we also saw how we could've done it differently, thus leading us down the road of developing our own home. Make it how we wanted it. The idea had settled for real, and if we by some miracle could afford it, we definitely wanted to build our new home.
"It'll be quite expensive though," Trent said. His dad was a contractor so we occasionally had Trent and his dad Daryl with us looking at properties. Daryl was much like Trent, just burlier and with a thick beard. Apparently, our neighbor Pete worked for him as well.
"Everything is," Mel chuckled resigned.
"Sure is," Daryl chuckled back.
We stood at a bigger property, around thirty acres or so located in the foothills in the southern part of Courtington. It was a bit outside the town itself up on a small plateau. There were a few houses here, but it was still a developing neighborhood. The closest neighbor was a giant mansion though, with a big gate, tennis court, and pool, so who knew. Not that we needed such luxuries. We wanted it to be nice, but we also wanted it to suit our little modest life.
"Though, it would be cool to be in such a neighborhood. And maybe we could get an outdoor hot tub? Or a whole pool? The guys up the street have one," Mel suggested, as we walked around the property. She wore thick wool, but that didn't stop me from checking her out. And it was slippery here and there, so Mel hooked her arm into mine as we had left Trent and his dad as they walked where the house would be, doing their measurements or whatever carpenters do.
"Maybe we don't need a mansion, but up here we should have a pool at least. Maybe a sauna! We could drink vodka, bathe in the snow, and warm in the sauna, just like the Finns," Mel dreamed, laughing a bit as she joked around. I looked at her like I always did. Trying to imagine her magnificent teardrop breasts shining with either sweat from the sauna or water from a hot tub.
"I knew you'd like that," Mel said, looking over at me staring at her with no doubt a very dreamy look on my face.
"There's a pond down there," I said, pointing down the small slope towards a natural pond, with some small rivers running down to the nearby creek. "Looks like it is on the property too!"
"That means it may be
really
expensive," Mel chuckled, slightly defeated.
"It's not expensive to dream," I retorted. Mel gave me a loving smile at that.
*
"One-two," I groaned, as I felt Hope's punches even through the pads. My hand was almost healed up, but still, it ached when I inevitably overdid it.
"You okay?" she asked. I winced. My hand was still a bitch sometimes.
"Yeah, it's just that overwhelming power," I teased, shaking the aching away. Hope smirked.
"You don't mind my overwhelming power when I squeeze your head with my thighs," Hope shot back.
"Heh heh," I slowly laughed, thinking how Hope had developed a nice little habit of sitting on my face. And she had also developed her thighs pretty significantly with the hours she spent with me in the gym. She still wasn't the ferocious cougar Mel was, but she still liked us playing around, and that included letting me feel her ever stronger thighs wrapped around my head as I soaked everything she had.
One week into getting back to the gym, I was cracking pads with Hope. She had real athletic ability, picking these things up easily. Even easier than me, I would say. Given time I wouldn't bet against her having a bigger talent than me even! Not that I was a world champ or anything, but Hope just cracked the pads with such viscousness, feet moving perfectly with her motions. I had felt her punches before, and her grappling, so I knew first-hand. And I kinda liked it, not gonna lie.
I wasn't getting ready for fights yet, this was just the fitness I liked. I would wait out my degree, go full-time accountant, and take it from there, which meant less time for fighting, even in the amateurs. Boxing had given me so much, I was not about to get bored with it, so it was sad to leave it behind as a fighter. Life is life, it is what it is sometimes. I had to come to grips with the possibility. I had a decent record, so I was satisfied with retiring.
That was when a certain visitor came walking into our gym. We were, as said, hitting pads when Freya approached us.
