Hard Lessons Learned

"God, you're up in my guts," Terri whispered hoarsely.

Trent reached out and began to play with her small breasts. She pressed herself forward, pressed her breasts into his groping hands.

"Uh, oh God yes!" Terri suddenly screamed out, wetting Trent's crotch with her orgasm.

"Ugh!" Trent grimaced and pumped his seed into her pussy.

Terri didn't object when Trent suggested they go to see a movie. She didn't object when Trent suggested they go to Yum Yum Ice Cream for lunch before the 12:25 PM showing.

In the darkened theater, Terri rested her head against Trent's broad shoulder. She snuggled gently against him when she felt his lips on the top of her head.

Returning to his apartment, they again made love. Terri refused to think of it as fucking, or having sex.

She then sucked Trent's sticky cock. She sucked the flaccid member clean of their combined juices, protesting lightly when he jammed a finger, then a second finger into her anus.

She sucked him to full hardness, then continued to suck and stroke him until he filled her mouth with his spunk.

Todd returned home and Terri kissed him. Todd was surprised, but accepted his wife's tongue in his mouth. His hand grabbed her crotch, which killed the mood.

"God damn, really?" she shrilled at him. "You think that's romantic? Grabbing my pussy?"

And again, in the morning, Terri impatiently waited for Todd to hurry, leave the apartment. She didn't even kiss him when he left; she was already twisting the shower knob.

After she and Trent made love, Trent again reminded Terri he was going off shore for another fourteen days. Suddenly, Terri's eyes filled with tears.

"But I don't want you going," she sobbed out.

"Hey, hey, I'll be back," Trent chuckled, holding the nude woman against himself. "Oh, and hey, when I get back? Was thinking we'd go look at couple of houses, huh?"

"You're moving?" Terri wailed out, sobbing in earnest now.

"And taking you with me," Trent decided.

"Really?" Terri sniffled.

"Really," Trent said.

Trent did not know when his desire, lust for Terri Tonicetti had changed. He did not know when he had crossed the line from infatuation with the attractive diminutive woman to love for the teenaged bride.

Trent had been saving his money. He did not deny himself creature comforts, the little extravagances here and there. He did not splurge on impulse items; his 2004 F150 pickup truck still ran just fine; he didn't need the new models on the lot of Boudreaux Ford. His goal was to find a home, a place that he could call his own.

And now, Trent William Rawlings wanted his home to include Terri. He stood, looking at the beautiful, nude pregnant woman as she sprawled on his bed.

"I, shit, Trent, I can't. I'm married," Terri said, the tears starting again.

"Uh, there's this thing? Called divorce?" Trent suggested.

"But, but, the baby," Terri said, indicating her belly.

"Hey, I'm not saying cut him out of the baby's life," Trent said, pulling Terri to lay next to him. "I mean, shit, know how it feels not be able see my kids. No, no, he wants to? Let him see his baby. If he wants to."

They went to Clark's Drive-In for hamburgers and malts. Terri watched Trent's eyes as two scantily clad girls whizzed back and forth on roller skates.

"I'm looking, all right?" Trent finally chuckled. "They're wearing really short red shorts, really tight tee shirts; looks like Red over there's not even wearing a bra. Yes I'm looking."

"Men," Terri huffed.

"Women," Trent huffed.

The red head noticed the new arrival and skated up to Trent's window. A glance down did reveal that she was wearing a bra, but the bra was having trouble containing her breasts.

"Know what? I changed my mind. I want a chili dog with mustard," Terri said. Some cheese fries and a chocolate malt."

Returning home, Trent barely had enough time to grab his bag and give Terri a passionate kiss. Terri watched him thundering down the stairs, then sighed and let herself into her one room apartment.

Thursday night, Terri declined to go with Todd to Dante's. Todd and Skip loaded Todd's amplifier and guitar and effects pedal board and drove away.

Less than an hour later, an irate Todd and a very quiet Skip returned. They both ignored Terri as she asked how their gig went.

(Terri found out, through her cousin Yvette that, ten minutes into their set, Rick, the manager of Dante had waved at them to stop. Peeling three ten dollar bills out of the cash register, the man slapped the bills into Todd's hand and informed them that they sucked. Sucked hard and could take their sucking music out of his club.)

The morning that Trent was slated to return, Terri watched Todd get ready for another day of work at A &A Soaps. Then she softly kissed him, and gave him a hug.

After Todd left, Terri packed her few possessions into two garbage bags and waited for Trent's return. When she saw Trent wearily lugging his bag up the stairs, her heart leapt in her chest.

"Hey there, Beautiful," Trent smiled as Terri scampered out of Apartment 307.

"Hi there, Sweetheart," Terri smiled.

"Don't. I'm all sweaty and stinky," Trent objected when Terri went to hug him.

Trent let Terri enter his apartment. She began to make a pot of coffee while he struggled out of his dirty clothes.

Coming out of the shower, Trent discovered that Terri had moved in. His closet door was open and he saw her five maternity blouses hanging. He also saw a few pairs of shoes on the floor of the closet.

"I uh," Trent stammered.

"Get that off," Terri ordered, pulling the towel from around his waist.

After their frenzied coupling, Trent looked up the attorney that Fran had used in their divorce. After his experience with Kenneth Prejean, Trent wouldn't even recommend the incompetent buffoon to Todd Tonicetti.

According to Ethel Gerrard, Donald Pellichet did have an availability that afternoon. She reminded Trent again that their appointment was at three forty five before hanging up.

Entering the lobby of the law office at three thirty five, Trent and Terri saw the quite busty receptionist admiring her own wedding ring and engagement ring. The blonde smiled a self-conscious smile, indicating her left hand.

"I still can't believe it's real," Ethel whispered, as if saying it out loud would jinx the marriage. "You're Trent and Terri Rawlings?"

"Terri Tonicetti," Trent corrected.

"I'll let Mr. Pellichet know you're here," Ethel smiled. "Water? Coffee?"

"No thank you," Trent smiled, helping Terri sit on the low sofa in the lobby.

"Just drank a whole pot," Terri confirmed, settling into the soft leather.

That evening, Todd wondered where his wife was. He sat and waited for about twenty minutes, then boredom pushed him into action.

A check of the laundry room did not reveal Terri. A check of the exercise room also came up empty. Todd returned to their apartment and again sat and waited.

At nine o'clock, Todd fixed himself supper. He then went to sleep.

Waking up in the morning, Todd made himself breakfast and got ready for another day at work. As he opened the closet to get out a pair of jeans, Todd noticed, for the first time, that Terri's clothes were not in the closet. Returning to the bathroom, Todd now saw that her floral shampoo was also missing.

He called her cell phone and was immediately sent to her voice mail. Todd hit 'End' without leaving a message. He then sent her a text, asking her where she was.

'Gone' was her reply.

At A & A Soaps, Todd looked up when a smiling man entered the building. The man looked around at the loud, clanging, buzzing building with keen interest.

Todd finished taping his box shut and was about to grab the next box when he saw Cheryl Goodwin pointing toward him. The smiling man approached.

"Hey, you're Todd Tonicetti? The uh, the guitar player for Lewd, right?" Richard Boudreaux asked. "Bernie and me? We were at this party, oh wow, what? Six, seven months back? Man! Y'all were loud!"

"Uh yeah, yeah that's right," Todd smiled, puffing up with pride.

"And you've been served. Man, this place smells great, huh? God, would love work here, but sure as I'm standing here? My Bernie would spend every penny on soap," Richard laughed, snapping Todd's picture with his digital camera.

"Been served? Been served what?" Todd asked, puzzled.

"They don't tell me what's in them, just tell me give them out," Richard smiled, waved to Todd and walked away.

"Here, like, tell Bernie he can get more at like T. Dayton's salon," Toni smiled, handing Richard a sample bar of their soap. "Oh! And we're like on-line too."

"T. Dayton's? Oh no ma'am!" Richard laughed, a genuinely happy laugh. "I am not telling Bernadette anything like that! She'd spend every penny I make in that place."

He smelled the small bar and nodded in approval. He held the bar up, squinting at it.

"That's like our blackberry," Toni smiled. "That was actually like the very first batch we ever made."

"Thank you," Richard said, slipping the small bar into his shirt pocket. "My wife will love it."

That evening, Todd drove from work to his mother's house. Sitting at her kitchen table, mother and son went over the paperwork.

"Well, was wondering when it would happen," Susan sighed.

"When what would happen?" Todd asked.

Susan shook her head. Her son was more and more like his father every day. At first, Susan had loved Frank Tonicetti's optimism and excitement, had loved the dreamer in him. But as the bills mounted up, as the responsibilities pulled Susan further into adulthood, she grew to resent her husband's foolishness.

"What do you think, Todd?" Susan snapped. "When she would realize that you were never going to grow up. I was wondering when she would wise up and say 'I don't need this shit.' That's what."

"So what do I do?" Todd asked.

"Do? Sign the papers," Susan said. "She's not asking you for anything for herself. She's asking for two hundred a paycheck child support. Fight it and it'll be a hell of a lot more, can tell you that."

"What? Two hundred? I got pay her? She's one left me! She should be the one has to pay," Todd argued.

"Listen, you God damned dumb ass!" Susan snarled, pinching Todd's upper lip and lower lip together to silence him. "Child support! CHILD SUPPORT! She is asking for you to pay for your baby and two hundred on the first and the fifteenth? That's not enough feed a gerbil, much less a baby. Sign the papers, Todd."

Todd did sign the papers, and Susan paid Heidi Moek of First Union Bank fifteen dollars to notarize the document. The mother shook her head in disgust when Todd asked her what to do next.

"Put it in the envelope, Todd. Lick it shut, Todd. Then drop it into the mailbox, Todd," Susan snapped. "Look. See how nice they were? They even put a stamp on the damned thing for you. Wasn't that nice of them, Todd?"

"All right, all right, God damn, need be such a bitch about it?" Todd grumbled.

Todd stood, eyes and mouth opened wide as Susan's slap stung. The mother then grabbed a hank of his unkempt hair and jerked him to face level with her.

"You ever, EVER call me a bitch again? I will slap the living shit out of you," Susan screamed. "You understand?"

While Todd was walking to the mailbox in front of the apartment complex, while his mother was angrily driving away, Terri was on Trent's bed, trying to watch as Trent carefully whisked away the last patch of brown curls from her crotch. He used a warm face cloth to wipe away the shave foam, then masturbated Terri with the rough texture of the cloth.

"Damn it!" Terri squealed when Trent abruptly stopped.

She had been right on the brink of orgasm. The cooling menthol of the foam against her overheated pussy, then Trent scraping her flesh with his razor, pausing ever now and then to rub her wet slit, then the rough texture of the cloth rubbing her sensitive clitoris had her throbbing.

"Ugh!" Terri cried out as Trent slid his hard cock into her bald pussy.

"Ugh!" Trent echoed as Terri's snug pussy enveloped his hard cock in liquid heat.

"Damn it!" Terri cried out in orgasm.

"Ugh!" Trent repeated as his cock twitched, jerked, then pumped a torrent of sperm into her pussy.

When he weakly rolled away, Terri wiggled clumsily. She managed to get to her knees and scampered to the edge of the bed. Then she walked to the mirrored closet door and squinted at her newly shaved pussy. A mild shiver ran through her as she watched a trickle of Trent's silvery-white semen oozing from her splayed pussy, trickle down the inside of her left thigh.

"Looks funny," Terri announced.

"Looks delicious," Trent objected.

"Yeah?" Terri giggled, then scampered into the bathroom. "Damned bladder."

"Feels funny," Terri announced from the bathroom.

"You're not supposed to play with it; you'll get hair on your palms," Trent joked. "Oh. And do it too much? You could go blind."

"Ha-ha," Terri said, but did giggle. "It feels funny."

The sight of Terri's pregnant belly and hairless mound had Trent's cock resurging. Terri allowed herself to be pulled back into the bed for more sex.

They'd put down an offer, and Trent had done an electronic transfer of one percent of the offered price on a very cute house in Baylor Lake. Tammy Hale, their agent with Davis Realty had confided that the house had been on the market for three months and the owners had reduced the price by ten thousand.

"See if they'll reduce it ten more," Trent had said, smiling at Terri's enthusiasm.

Then they'd gone to Backyard Barbecue for a late lunch. Terri had managed, barely, to eat all of her pulled pork sandwich, but Trent ate the majority of her apple fries and the cornbread.

Trent was already off shore when the owners of the Baylor Lake bungalow grudgingly accepted Trent's offer. He was off shore when Terri had to endure the smirks of the staff at the Banks Street free clinic as they noticed her freshly shaved pussy. Her father, Wade did notice Terri's red face but did not ask about it. He just drove his daughter back to the Venice Apartment complex in stony silence.

"Daddy, I'm sorry," Terri apologized, again, for getting pregnant.

And again, Wade merely grunted and nodded his acceptance of her apology. She kissed his cheek and got out of the car.

"Oh, but if it makes you feel any better," Terri said to Wade's retreating car. "I did finally dump that loser Todd."

Trent was again off shore when Terri went into labor. Wade stoically sighed, got out of bed and drove to the Venice Apartments. He did feel a little guilty as he watched Terri, face pale and streaked with tears, waiting for him in front of the apartment complex.

"Terri, I would have gone up to help you," Wade said as he opened her car door.

"Just, ugh, just get me to..." Terri wheezed.

At St. Elizabeth's Trauma Center, Wade went up to the maternity ward, made sure his daughter was admitted, then went to the waiting room. In the waiting room, he called Susan Tonicetti to let her know that they were at St. Elizabeth's Trauma Center; Terri was in labor. Then Wade suddenly wondered where Todd Tonicetti was. Surely Todd should have been the one to drive his wife to the hospital.

"God damn, what a loser," Wade muttered.

"Miss Susan!" Terri exclaimed when her soon to be former mother in law appeared, dressed in scrubs.

"Where, where's your father? He called me, let me know you were here," Susan said, kissing Terri on her sweating forehead.

"I don't know," Terri admitted, then groaned as another contraction gripped her.

"Wade Bercegay, you get in here now," Susan hissed at Wade, storming into the waiting area.

"Why? I'm not a doctor," Wade said, surprised at the woman's venom.

"That is your daughter. That is your grandchild," Susan snarled, jerking him out of his seat.

"And where is your son? Huh?" Wade snapped as Susan dragged him down the hall.

"Hell if I know; probably home sleeping," Susan said.

"Instead of here? With his wife?" Wade asked as Susan and a nurse prepared him for donning the hospital scrubs.

"Oh my God, she didn't tell you," Susan realized. "No, you arrogant, self-righteous prick, they're getting a divorce."

"Jesus; she is just like her mother," Wade spat.

"Know what? Go ahead. Leave. Just leave, you asshole," Susan said. "Don't worry about your daughter, I got this."

It was thirty minutes later, but a sheepish Wade did sidle into the room where his sweating, crying daughter lay.

"Okay, got the head," Dr. Ellen Sweetman encouraged. "Come on, Sweetheart, you've done great, you've done great so far. Just a little more, okay? And...PUSH."

Wade burst into tears as his daughter let out an agonized wail. Susan looked over, smirk hidden by her mask.

"And, it's a boy," Dr. Sweetman announced.

"Russell," Terri weakly groaned. "His name is Russell William Bercegay, hear?"

"Russ, you're naming him Russell?" Wade asked, fresh tears coming to his eyes.

"Daddy, what are you doing here?" Terri asked, focusing on him.

"You're naming him..." Wade asked again.

"Who's Russell?" Susan asked.

"My, I had a brother, Russell. He, he had Downs' Syndrome," Wade said. "Died a couple of days after Terri was born; heart defect."

"All I ever heard was he was so excited he was going to be an uncle, even practiced signing his name 'Uncle Russell,'" Terri said as She held Russell William Bercegay.

"And William?" Susan asked, dark brown eyes focused on Wade's wet honey brown eyes.

"My middle name," Wade admitted.

"And Trent's," Terri thought, but didn't say it.

"I'm too pretty be a grandma," Susan lightly joked to Terri.

"Yes you are," Terri agreed. "So what you want be called?"

"Let me think on it," Susan said, kissed Terri's sweaty forehead again and left the room.

In the cafeteria, Susan sat to eat a breakfast of scrambled eggs, turkey bacon and black pepper biscuits. Wade approached, a tray in his hands.

"May I, it all right if I join you?" Wade asked.

"Mm hmm," Susan nodded.

"Thank you," Wade said.

"For...?" Susan asked, looking up.

"Making me realize what an asshole I was being, I've been being about this whole thing," Wade quietly admitted. "She made a mistake. She made a mistake and got pregnant. But she's been trying to do her best ever since then."

"Should be proud of her," Susan said. "I know I am. And even with her getting a divorce from my son? I hope she doesn't cut me out of my grandbaby's life."

"I'll make sure she doesn't," Wade promised.

Todd's first response was 'So fucking what?' when his mother sent him a text, letting him know he was the father of a six pound nine ounce baby boy, named Russell William Bercegay. His second response was to simply ignore the text message.

Nine days later, when Todd checked his pay stub, he saw that two hundred dollars had been taken out of the total. He angrily asked Toni Delacroix about the shortage.

"Uh, yeah, like got a notice from St. Elizabeth Parish Court," Toni said. "Uh, let's see, oh. It's like child support?"

"Really? REALLY? They're going take that shit out my pay check?" Todd yelled, incensed.

"Where they supposed take it from, Tonicetti?" Cheryl Goodwin interrupted. "Your bank account in the Cayman Islands?"

Todd nearly told the woman to go fuck herself, to suck his dick, to kiss his ass, but fear of the large woman kept his mouth clamped shut. He stomped back to the shipping department and sullenly did his job.

As the hours ticked by, Todd's rage grew. It really was unthinkable; that Terri could garnish his paycheck. That she would get access to his money before he would.

Susan laughed harshly when Todd called to complain about this. She simply stated, if Terri had to depend upon Todd to willingly give her the two hundred dollars, she'd be waiting a long time.