Thirty-five dollars and sixty cents. The price of a turkey, some sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce. Laura knew that she could pay that, but not much more. The credit card was close to the maximum, and there needed to be gas money and money to last until the new year. It was not always warm and sunny in Los Angeles and today was drearier than most.
The approach of Christmas in the next month made her feel depressed. Their account was close to zero, and Laura contemplated what she could afford to buy as a present for her husband.
Their home was a two-room apartment in Los Angeles, where they paid rent in their mid-thirties. The neighborhood was mixed, with most of the buildings subjected to at least a monthly painting to cover the graffiti. Inside the second-floor apartment, the furnishings were early Ikea; some were obtained from thrift stores. The bed was just on the other side of comfortable, and when in action, the neighbors didn’t have to guess what was happening.
Thomas Stableman had worked in his position for five years and was thinking of leaving to go back to university for a law degree. That required money and time, both of which were not in abundance.
But they were deep in love since meeting, and no matter what the circumstance, Laura met Tom at the door with her arms wrapped around him and a kiss that had the neighbors knowing that Tom had just been greeted, and within ten minutes, the bed would provide a report to the neighbors on the night’s activity that was often punctuated with loud moans and sounds of them coupling.
Laura and Tom weren’t ever rich, but once upon a time, they had comfortable incomes.
In this stable time, a ‘wise’ investor suggested that crypto was the wave of the future. “Get in on the ground floor and go to the top,” the investor counseled. They watched as if miraculously; they imagined themselves among the wealthy. The craze they submitted to showed how naïve and greedy a couple with modest savings can be if they aren’t careful.
Looking at their portfolio, they fantasized about the ‘great life’. Their two big extravagances at that time were to pierce Tom’s cock and Laura’s nipples. Making the necessary holes for both Laura and Tom was very painful, and that meant that the piercing was a once-in-a-lifetime event. However, a piercing is incomplete without its accompanying jewelry. Tom’s was an eighteen-karat gold ring, and Laura opted for pierced nipples with diamonds on either side of each nipple, each bigger than the one on her engagement ring. Laura loved the looks and thought that it made lovemaking even a bit more exciting.
Their euphoria went on for a few months, but it only took a week to change. They should have known by the name of the crypto, “Cryptonite”, that it wasn’t going to be that great. The crypto was definitely kryptonite for their savings.
Then their portfolio went from a modest ten percent drop to a ninety-nine percent drop in a week. Cashing out the remaining funds would not allow them to buy an ice cream cone. Last time to invest in crypto offered by a tawdry, well-known figure. At least they had their jobs.
At least until Laura was summarily let go with the economic downturn forcing the closure of the shop where she worked.
Subsequently, Tom’s job in import-export trading took a dive.
“Tom, we could let you go, or you could go to seventy-five percent of your current salary and commissions. Let us know, and we will understand if you decide to leave,” his boss told him.
With Laura unemployed and Tom receiving reduced compensation, both careers were circling the economic toilet bowl.
Recently, the neighbors noticed that the sounds of the bed were limited as the stress of modern life impinged on the two lovers. They still burned for each other, but concerns made their nightly noises fewer; going from nightly to weekly, then to monthly.
In his job, Tom needed to travel, and that year, he needed to go to Thailand. He was searching for artifacts that could be sold to snobby Los Angeles decorators at elevated prices.
The two-month trip was under conditions that were not conducive to a relationship. Very little internet access left both sides with little access to even phone sex. But Tom would be home for Christmas.
What to get Tom for a present? Laura thought deeply about what she could offer Tom as a present if they had almost no money. During one of the sessions, she was thinking while she played with the gold and diamond studs on her gorgeous breasts. An idea came to her.
The next day, she carefully removed the studs and placed them in a small box. The local pawnshop examined the studs and, after deliberation, offered Laura five hundred dollars for them. She said that they had paid much more than that.
“Take it or leave it; you won’t get more for these anywhere else around here,” the owner told her.
Reluctantly accepting the funds, Laura was optimistic that she would be able to find a present that would welcome Tom back.
She had a naughty idea and purchased the ideal gift for her husband.
Tom was due home on Christmas Eve, and Laura was excited at the prospect of not just seeing Tom, but of having their bed creak like before. The time apart had only caused her to crave him like the time before their run of misfortune.
Walking in the door to their apartment, Tom saw that Laura had decorated the tree. Laura sprang to her feet and ran to greet him, wrapping her arms around him and offering a kiss that rattled his being. This was a memorable welcome home.
Tom, in that moment, moved his hands to Laura’s beautiful breasts to caress her and immediately felt something missing.
“Where are your beautiful studs?” he asked.
“My beautiful stud is right here,” Laura responded.
“Don’t get cute,” he reposted.
“That’s for later, now I want my—er your package.”
Falling to her knees, Laura undid Tom’s belt and slid his pants down.
“All mine, Tom,” she purred, vibrating her lips on his shaft still sheathed in his boxers.
Dropping his boxers, her mouth moved to the tip of his hardening manhood, already leaking his pre-cum. Slipping her tongue around the tip, she engulfed his rod and moaned like a starved animal. Sliding her hand up and down Tom’s engorged cock, he was not going to hold out after a two-month hiatus. Laura felt him shudder and knew he was giving her what she wanted.
He spurted his cream filling into her eager mouth. At that point, her initial attack completed, she had a realization.
“Where is your ring?” Laura queried as she gave him an elegantly wrapped box.
Tom opened the box and stared at a gold chain with one clasp at the end.
“It’s for your ring,” she started. “I sold my diamond studs. If you are too far from me, and I want you, I would just need a little tug on that cock ring to bring you where I want you."
"Now, where is your ring?” Laura demanded.
Tom was a little shocked and began laughing.
“Open your present,” Tom told her.
With that, Tom offered her a box similar in shape to the one she had offered him.
Revealing the contents of the box, Laura found a gold chain that had clamps to attach to each end of Laura’s nipple studs.
“Sold it to buy this to attach to your studs, so that I could pull both of your magnificent nipples at once,” he said.
“Oh, how stupid we both are,” Laura laughed, “We have two super gold chains but nowhere to attach them.”
“But the most important chain is the invisible one that keeps us together,” Tom added.
With that, the two lovers kept their neighbors awake all night long with their bed making a horrible racket. Laura later declared that it was the best gift of all and that all she wanted for Christmas anyway was a “Dick in a Box,” or in a mouth, or in an ass.
As a footnote, this has a Hollywood ending with Tom having found a valuable cache of Thai artifacts and his employer offering a share of the veritable treasure trove from his trip. Laura shortly thereafter found a manager position at a real investment firm. Tom went to law school and became a sleazy corporate attorney. With a change in financial standing, the couple moved to a stately house in Pasadena but kept the creaky bed.
