The Price of Candy Read Free Page A

nice that for an instant she
regretted telling Jamie to stay home. After they settled together
on the couch, he took out a handful of new hundred dollar bills and
placed it on the coffee table in front of her. The bills were so
fresh and crisp they fell in line like a new deck of cards. He slid
the stack toward her and announced it was her half.
    Huh?
    Her half of what, she was afraid to ask. She
couldn’t resist touching the bills. She evened them up, placed her
hand on top of the stack, and flicked the sides of the beautiful
bills with her thumb. She picked them up and shifted them from hand
to hand, as though weighing gold. Unreal. For chrissake, there must
be a hundred bills in that stack. She did a quick mental
calculation. One hundred, hundred-dollar bills would be a thousand
dollars. No! That’s not right. It’d be ten thousand dollars. “Yes,
it’d be ten grand,” she thought aloud unintentionally.
    There it was. The most cash she’d ever seen
in one pile. An amount some people would kill for, including her.
He’d just set it there, pretty as you please and declared it was
her half. Now that it rested on her table, no way was that money
leaving her house while she was alive. It was there; it was
hers.
    She gathered up the money and hesitated a
second, waiting for his protest. None came. So, she smiled nicely
at him and walked alone to her bedroom. She closed the door, leaned
back against it, and let out a deep breath. Life is good. She held
the money high in the air and shook it. She loved touching it. She
could smell it. She could taste it. She could hear it speaking to
her. She turned on her bedside lamp and examined a couple of the
bills closely. Unbelievably gorgeous. She stuffed the money in a
closet shoebox. She replaced the lid and patted the box gently. Ten
thousand waiting to be spent. With ten grand, she could fly to some
exotic resort and let some attractive men do their best to seduce
this naïve American woman.
    If that was half, it meant he had the other
half. Another ten grand. It made no sense. Toby didn’t look dumb,
he just did dumb. Like handing her a bunch of money. Of course,
he’s looking to get laid, but he didn’t need ten thousand for that.
She smiled remembering that half a candy bar had worked once,
however that was a long time ago. Toby didn’t know it yet, but he’d
get zilch for his money.
    She listened for him. He was still in the
living room mumbling something about what might be on TV. She
quietly took the small Smithy .38 from the nightstand just in case.
She removed the trigger lock and pushed the gun down into the
pocket of her slacks. Would she use it if necessary? For ten
thousand? She laughed out loud.
    In the kitchen, she found a bottle of Jim
Beam and two glasses, and hurried back to the living room. “Drink
up, Toby, celebration time. Sorry I couldn’t get a babysitter so
I’m afraid Jamie will be here again tonight. But at least we can
have a drink.” She laughed. He looked like a disinherited relative
after reading the will.
    Where’d he get it, she wanted to know? Was it
hot? Was a Mexican drug lord going to bust through the wall
wielding a machete? She explained she was sorry, but simply
couldn’t accept any more money unless he explained how he got
it.
    That led to another nail in Toby’s coffin. As
fatal mistakes go, this one was definitely worth getting killed
over. He proceeded to give her all the details: what had happened,
where the money came from, and how he could get more. His story was
good and his plan simple. Amazing, she thought, that Toby Towalski
had put it together all by himself.
    Why had he cut her in? Why was he willing to
split with her? She wondered why but wasn’t about to ask him. She
didn’t want him to rethink any of it. Maybe he’s thinking about a
million-buck jackpot. That must be the answer. So what’s a measly
ten grand for the girlfriend who is going to spread wide the
gateway to paradise? What would it take, she