Chapter 2

   Rick gently took Debbie's hand in his and kissed her palm before asking her "Now what do we do?" Although he was pleased that Debbie had defended him against her mother, he was at a loss as what they were to do next.

    Debbie was just as clueless as Rick was. She had not thought that far ahead. There were so many things tied together between Lois and Debbie, including the house ownership, the bank accounts and various loans, that Debbie became overwhelmed by it all. But, as an accountant, she knew that she had to act swiftly if she was to get ahead of her mother's wrath. Debbie knew her mother well, and could guess how she would retaliate against both Debbie and Rick. That would be by trying to grab up all the money available between them. So Debbie advised Rick to go into his banking apps on his mobile phone and change all of his passwords immediately as she was about to do herself. By doing this, Lois would not be able to drain their bank accounts as Debbie knew that her mother would try to do as an act of retaliation.

   Debbie then checked her mother's account balance just to see exactly how much money was there. A few days before, Lois had transferred about $1000 from Debbie's acount to her own. Debbie saw that her mother only had roughly $100 left. She wondered just what in the heck she had spent all of that money on in just 2 days! Lois had no concept of how to manage money. Debbie could not concieve of how her mother could breeze through so much in such a short period of time. Especially since Lois had no bills to pay. Debbie and Rick took care of all of those.

   After completing this task, they settled down to discuss what they both wanted their next move to be. After a few minutes Lois came barging out of her room screaming at the top of her lungs that someone had hacked into the bank accounts! She was not able to transfer money out of Debbie's account into hers for the spa day that she had planned for the next day with her friends.

   Debbie looked at her and said "No one hacked the bank accounts. I changed all of the access to them, as Rick did to his. We will no longer pay for your private entertainment. You are free to get a job if you want money to throw away on such luxuries! And just what did you spend all of the money on that you took out of my acount the other day? You go through our money like water!" 

    Lois felt as if her head would explode! Her face had turned beet red and her blood pressure had gone sky high! She yelled at Debbie "I need that money for a day out with my friends! Are you willing to have me be embarrassed in front of them all because of your trash of a husband? I will not stand for this! And what I spend my money on is none of your business!"

   Lois had always thought of herself as being of a higher status than her friends. She would always spend just a little more than they did when they went out together just to prove her point. Though she had no money of her own, she would skim the household money to use on her private needs. Debbie had finally had enough of scrimping and trying to save money for the family's needs when all the while Lois was throwing money away just to impress her cronies.

   Lois continued " You will transfer $5,000 to my account now!"

   To which Debbie replied with a simple "No. And it's not YOUR money that you are spending, but OURS! I've given you the option to go out and work for any money you want to spend in front of your friends, but you will get no more money from us. That $5,000 is enough to pay the house bills for this whole month, yet you want to throw it away on frivolous nonsense in a single day. Rick will pay the household accounts from now on from our pooled salaries, which you no longer have access to. Any other questions?"

    Lois decided that it was the perfect time to throw a gargantuan fit. She threw herself down on the floor and started to wail and moan for sympathy from her daughter. Debbie was unmoved. She looked at Rick and said "I feel like going out to eat tonight. There is no need for you to cook every night anymore."

   Lois at that time had used up a lot of energy throwing fits and screaming, so she was starving. In a complete about face, she jumped up off of the floor and asked Debbie "Where are we going to eat tonight?"

   To which Debbie replied "I don't know where you are going to eat, but Rick and I will go downtown to a nice homestyle restaurant." 

   Lois looked bewildered and asked "Then what am I supposed to eat? Rick hasn't even started cooking yet. You don't expect me to starve do you? If you won't let me come with you, then at least Rick needs to cook something for me before you leave!"

   Rick looked over at Lois and said "If you have the money, you can order take out. If you don't, there are some noodles in the kitchen YOU can cook. Just how did you survive before I married Debbie? Surely you know how to cook some simple noodles."

With this, Debbie and Rick left the apartment hand in hand. Lois just stood there watching them leave, looking thunderstruck. She thought to herself 'How have things become so out of my control?'