The Winning Ticket

CHAPTER 1

         “Honey help me pick some numbers.” Paige Bynes said to her boyfriend David Cobbler.
         “Umm three, twenty four...”
         “Sixteen, thirty, and forty two, now what about the power ball number?” Paige finished.
         “Twenty two” both David and Paige said at the same time.
         Paige handed the lottery ticket to the cashier. They were at the Red Barn getting drinks, David’s favorite, a forty four ounce Pepsi with three squirts of vanilla, and Paige’s drink of choice a liter of water. The power ball jackpot was at three hundred forty three million dollars.
         “Honey when are you going to give up on the dream of winning the lottery?” David asked her playfully.
         “When I win.” Paige said matter of factly.
         The store clerk laughed as Paige paid her for the drinks and the ticket, then she and David walked out to his car to head back to his place.
         “Thanks for the drink”
         “Not a problem.”
         Paige loved riding in David’s car. It was a two thousand Plymouth Neon, but it ran pretty well, and he had an awesome system in it. In fact Paige just loved spending any time with David, no matter what they were doing. He had dark brownish/black hair with a slight receding hair line that she found funny due to him only being twenty seven, the cutest brown gold eyes that she always felt like she could drown in, a sexy body, and a great personality. They had so much in common, like they were both divorced, him due to his ex wife ending their marriage so that she could be with her online boyfriend, and Paige had been in a very abusive relationship that she had finally gotten smart enough to leave. They were both in college trying to better their lives, though he was almost done, and she had just started. They both had really bad childhoods, for different and similar reasons. Both of them had children, he had three girls, and she had a boy. They thought alike, they pretty much liked the same things, they were both poor and struggling to make ends meat, yet they were different enough to keep the relationship interesting.
         When they first met neither of them were really looking for a relationship, but both had been unable to resist the others company. Paige had quickly started thinking that David was her soul mate and after almost a year of dating she still felt that way.
         “Are you hungry?” David asked Paige, pulling her from her thoughts.
         “Yeah, I am actually. What do you want? I have thirteen dollars.” Paige said after a quick check in her wallet.
         “I think I have like three dollars in my change cup.”
         “What about Subway?” Paige asked
         “No I had Subway yesterday.”
         David pulled into a parking lot and put the car I park.
         “I don’t want to waste gas while we’re trying to decide what to have for lunch” David explained even though Paige had not asked for an explanation.
         “So what do you want?”
         “I don’t know what about you?”
         “I don’t care whatever you want.”
         This is the way it always was between them, they usually spent about ten minutes going back and forth, neither deciding, and both asking the other to decide.
         “We haven’t had Arby’s in a while.” David finally suggested.
         “Arby’s sounds good.”
         David pulled out of the parking lot, and headed towards Arby’s.
         Once they got their meal Paige suggested they go to the park to eat. It was a nice day out. One of those perfect spring days that was warm, but had a cool breeze. The sky was a shade of blue that was perfect, so perfect that Crayola had been unable to reproduce it in their sky blue crayon.


         As Paige and David sat at the picnic table to eat their meal, Paige thought of all she would do if she won the lottery.
         “What are you thinking about over there?” David asked her.
         “How great it’s going to be when we win the lottery tonight.” Paige replied smiling.
         “We, whose we, it’s your ticket.”
         “Yes, but you helped me pick the numbers. That makes the winning numbers both of ours.”
         “They haven’t won yet, and I doubt that they will.”
         “Don’t be so negative, gosh, can’t you let a girl dream.” Paige said playfully sarcastic.
         “As long as you realize it’s just a dream.”
         “Yeah, yeah”
         “You would have a heart attack if you really won.” David said with a smile on his face.
         “You’re probably right.”
         “Well would you at least buy me a house?”
         “Of course. It would be OUR money sweetie.”
         “You know we could get married with out any worries if we won.”
         David’s comment threw Paige off guard. David was always very hesitant to mention marriage when they were together, always said he wouldn’t marry her for at least seven years because he didn’t want to repeat the pain of his last marriage. She wasn’t sure if he was joking or not, sometimes he was incredibly hard to read, so she chose to ignore his comment.          
         “If you’re nice to me I might even buy you a car.” Paige said hoping her voice sounded as playful as she was trying to make it.
         David gave her a weird look, and looked as though he was about to say something then changed his mind and gave her one of his adorable smiles
         “What happened to it being our money, huh?”
         “Whatever man, you know you would get whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted it.”
         “I know”
         They finished their lunch out in comfortable silence, threw their trash away, and headed back to his place. Once there Paige turned on the TV and David sat down at his computer to play his online game. That is mostly how it was when they hung out. While Paige did occasionally get jealous of David’s computer, and all the time he spent on it playing his game, but normally as long as she was around him, Paige was happy. Today was one of the days when she was just happy to be around him. She flipped through channels before deciding on Star Trek, because David liked the show, and Paige had decided she was going to take a nap.
         “I love you baby.” Paige said as she rearranged the pillows so she could be comfortable.
         “I love you too.”
         






         Paige woke up unusually early the next day. It was still dark out, so she knew that it was before six. She got up off the couch were she slept to use the restroom, and then she checked on Michael, who was sound asleep. Normally Michael was the one who woke her up. Paige tried to lie back down but she grew restless, so she got up and turned on her computer. It was the first thing she did every morning though she rarely got on it until she had been up for awhile. Today however did not feel normal to Paige. She was completely wide awake at five twenty in the morning, while her son still slept, and she felt almost nervous. Paige realized that the lottery drawing had been last night, so for lack of better things to do she decided to check the numbers. Paige pulled up the Indiana Lottery web page and saw that some one had definitely won because the jackpot was at three million instead of three hundred forty three million dollars. Paige grabbed her ticket out of her purse thinking she would probably only get one number, if that. The winning numbers were Three Sixteen Twenty-four Thirty Forty-two and Power ball Twenty-two.
Paige looked at the numbers then back at her ticket, and back at the numbers. Paige started to shake slightly
         “I have to be seeing things” she mumbled to herself.
         Paige put her ticket down, stood up and decided to go outside and smoke a cigarette. Then she would come back in and recheck the numbers.
         Outside Paige tried to calm herself down. She tried to smoke as if nothing in her life was about to change. She tried telling herself that she was just dreaming; that she was seeing things; that stuff like this didn’t happen to people like her. She wasn’t that lucky. Paige forced herself to finish the cigarette, and calmly walk inside. She prepared herself for the let down knowing that she couldn’t have just won the lottery. But when she looked at the screen and then at her ticket she realized she wasn’t dreaming that she had really just won three hundred forty three million dollars. Thoughts raced through her head, she had to call David, she had to go tell David, she needed to find a way to get to Indianapolis because her car wouldn’t get there, she had to quit her job because she really hated making pizza’s, she had to tell her family, she had to get a lawyer, she wondered if they gave you the money all at once because she was going to need a lot of bank accounts.
         That thought stopped her. She pulled up the calculator and figured out how much she would be getting. She divided the jackpot by thirty, and then subtracted twenty eight point four percent for federal and state taxes. Paige would be receiving eight million one hundred eighty six thousand two hundred and sixty six dollars for the next thirty years. Paige almost fainted. Then in a burst of energy Paige grabbed Michael, and ran out the door with her keys and the ticket. She had to tell David, and she wanted to do it in person. Paige could hardly remember how to drive, and her whole body shaking didn’t help. David only lived about two minutes away, which was a very good thing, Paige wasn’t sure she could make it to much longer. Once in David’s drive way, Paige put the car in park, turned it off, picked up Michael who was still half asleep, then went inside Davids house. At his bedroom door she paused, she started having second thoughts about waking him up this early, but she decided since she was already here she may as well wake him up.
         Paige opened his bedroom door to discover David sitting at his computer chair, playing his game, and wide awake.
         “Paige, what are you doing here?” David asked “It’s like six o’clock in the morning.”          
         “I know sweetie, but I woke up really early this morning, and I found something out that I really had to tell you. Why are you awake?”
         “I woke up about five with all this energy, and I couldn’t fall back asleep.”
         “Me too.”
         “So what is so important that you had to come over here, with Mikey at six in the morning?”
         “We won.” Paige said with the biggest smile on her face.
         “Won what baby?” David asked
         “The lottery.”
         David just looked at Paige for a minute, just stared at her and she started to wonder if he had heard her, when he gave her a cocky smile and said
         “Where’s the camera huh?”
         Paige was confused. “What are you talking about; I said we just won the lottery.”
         “Yeah right, where’s the cameras like on Candid Camera.”          
         “Baby there is no camera, I swear, here” Paige said pulling out the ticket and handing it to David, “check for yourself, we really won the frickin lottery.”
         David exited out of his game, and then went to the lottery web site.
         “Holy shit baby, you won the lottery.”
         “No we did. It was our numbers.”
         “Wow, so what do we do now?”
         “We have to go to Indy to the lottery headquarters there and claim our prize. From there I don’t know.”          
         “Then I say we take Kevin’s truck, and go get your money.”
         Kevin was one of David’s roommates, whom had a brand new Dodge truck, and David often drove it instead of his car.
         “Well Michael’s daycare don’t open until six thirty, and Michael and I need to change out of our night clothes, and my teeth need a really good brushing. So do you want to just meet me at my house in about thirty minutes, so we can both get showers?”
         “Yeah, I’ll ask Kevin if he can just take my car to work tonight, because I don’t know how long we’ll be. Then I’ll shower and change, and come over.”
         “This doesn’t feel real.” Paige said
         “No it doesn’t. I am kind of wondering when it was going to hit me that my girlfriend is a millionaire, cause it sure hasn’t yet.”
         “Honey…”
         “Don’t tell me it’s both of ours,” David said holding up his hand to stop her, “it is your ticket, you paid for it. It’s your money.”
         “I’ll see you in a little bit” Paige said giving David a quick kiss on the lips.
         Paige then went home and first changed Michael who was now completely awake, then poured him a bowl of cereal, turned on his favorite cartoon, and then took her shower, brushed her teeth, and got dressed. At first she couldn’t decide what to wear, after all what does somebody wear to go pick up a check for millions? Paige finally decided to just go with a comfortable pair of jeans and a nice shirt. She wanted to be comfortable, just in case they were at the offices all day.
         Paige checked her wallet just to make sure the ticket was still in there about twenty times before David came over. They dropped Michael off at his daycare, and then headed towards Indianapolis. It would only be a fifty minute drive, but all the traffic caused it to be an hour and a half drive. On the way there David and Paige talked about what they could do with the money. No matter what David said, Paige would give him anything, and everything he wanted because he had after all helped her pick the numbers. They arrived at the lottery office at eight ten, but the lottery office didn’t open until nine o’clock.
         “What do you want to do for the next fifty minutes?” Paige asked.
         “Do you want to go and get some breakfast, I am kind of hungry.”
         “Yeah, we could do that.”
         David drove them to a waffle house, where he ordered a big breakfast, and she only ordered toast and chocolate milk.          
         “What’s wrong sweetie?” David asked her after she placed her order.
         “I’m just not very hungry, I feel like my stomach is made of lead right now. I am really nervous right now.”
         “Why nervous?”
         “I don’t know…, I just…, I don’t know”
         “Honey are you okay, you look like you’re about ready to cry.”
         “I am…and I don’t know why.”
         “Honey.” David moved to sit next to her and wrapped her in his arms and just hugged her while a few tears slid down her face. “You should be happy right now.”
         “I am happy, but I am so anxious. I mean who ever really expects to win the lottery. I’m twenty two years old, and I have just won a lot of money. It is an awesome thing, but I’m just really worried. I don’t know why. I just feel so… I don’t even know how to explain it. I just feel weird.”          
         The waitress walked up then with their food, looked at them, put the food down and walked away with a quiet “enjoy”
         Paige thought she must look horrible, if the waitress was looking at her like that. So she wiped her eyes, blew her nose, finger combed her hair, and took long deep breathes.                    
         “God what is wrong with me, I just won more money than I could ever imagine, and I’m sitting here crying about it.”          
         “Baby, this is probably perfectly normal. I’m sure you are feeling a whole range of emotions right now. And honestly, no matter how it seems I think winning the lottery would be pretty stressful. Your whole life is about to change, that is a reason to stress if I ever knew one.” David told Paige affectionately.
         “Well why aren’t you so emotional?”
         “Oh I am I just hide it better than you do, plus it’s your money, not mine.”
         “You know we are never going to agree on that.” Paige said with a smile
         “Yeah, I know. Now let’s eat.”
         “David… I know that you are insisting that the money is mine, but if anything should ever happen to us, I want you to know that I would give you half.”
         “Paige it’s yours, if anything happens to us then I don’t want the money.”
         “I know, but once we get the money, and start getting comfortable with having the money, I don’t want you to stick around simply because the money. I would give you whatever you wanted.”
         “How about we don’t worry about that right now, because I don’t see anything happening to us, and the money will never be an issue.” David said tenderly then grabbed Paige’s hand and kissed it. He looked up with a playful smirk and said “Plus if I ever decided that we weren’t working out, I’d leave you. With or without money.”
         “You certainly do have a knack for ruining special moments.”
         “I know. But I’m a guy and we don’t like all those mushy emotions you women insist on feeling at the drop of a hat.”
         Both David and Paige laughed at that comment, and Paige realized she was feeling a lot less nervous, and a lot more relaxed. 
         When Paige and David were done with their breakfast they headed back to the lottery offices, and this time they were open. David parked the truck and they both got out.
         “Honey, wait.” Paige said.
         “What baby?” David asked walking over to where Paige was standing.
         “There is something that I need before we go in.”
         “What?”
         “This” Paige said leaning into David and kissing him with all the emotion she had inside, David returned the kiss with just as much passion. Paige wasn’t sure how long they stood there kissing, but it made her want to be anywhere but where she was. Even after a year of dating the passion she felt when they first met was still alive, and possibly even stronger than it had been.
         “Baby” David mumbled as he pushed her up against the passenger side of the car, deepening the kiss even further. He wrapped his arms around her waist, and softly caressed her back.
         Paige forgot where they were, forgot why they were there, and forgot every thing but David’s touch. To her they were in there own world, in private, just the two of them. Paige slipped her hands under David’s, going with her need to feel David’s skin.
         “HONK”
         Paige and David jumped apart; jarred quickly from the world they had been in, almost surprised to find themselves standing in a parking lot.
         Paige smiled shyly at David “That was exactly what I needed.”
         “Glad I could help.” David said slightly out of breath. “So what do you say we go make you a millionaire?”
         “Okay.”
         Paige grabbed David’s hand and they walked happily into the lottery office, then six hours later walked out millionaires, hand in hand.




         One week later Paige had a lawyer, an accountant, a financial advisor, and, three hundred forty three million dollars. The lottery commission had given her a packet on how to handle her new found wealth. It included advice on how to pick, and why she needed the people she had hired. Paige had decided on the lump sum. She always believed that she would take the annuity payments but she had decided to take the cash instead. When taking the cash option Paige didn’t get the full jackpot amount. The cash value of the jackpot was one hundred ninety four million four hundred thousand dollars.  After taxes she would get a one time electronic transfer of one hundred thirty four million forty nine thousand five hundred and twenty dollars. She had received her transfer two business days after claiming her prize. Now she had all her millions and was ready to spend them. Paige had been browsing stores online, and already knew what her first few purchases would be. She had just dropped off her son Michael at daycare, and was now able to shop distraction free.
         Paige sat down on her computer and went to the Tiffany & Co website. She planned to get her family gifts from there as her way of surprising them. Instead of telling them she won the lottery she would just hand them Tiffany boxes. She had looked through a lot of the pictures online and pretty much knew what she would be getting and for whom. The first thing she put in her shopping bag was four Elsa Peretti Sevillana bangles. She was getting one for herself, her mother, and one for each of her sisters. They were so simple in design, just a thin circle bracelet with a small thick open circle right in the center. They were only sterling silver, but the simplicity of it made it okay for every day wear. The bracelets were two hundred and seventy five dollars a piece, which Paige found to be especially high, but she had fallen in love with it when she first saw it. She continued her shopping by getting another bracelet and necklace from the Elsa Peretti collection for her younger sister Rachel, as well as getting her a diamond and emerald pendant from the Tiffany Bubbles collection with matching earrings. For her older sister Jessica, Paige chose a platinum and diamond bangle from the Etoile collection, with a matching platinum and diamond heart pendant, as well as aquamarine drop earrings, and matching necklace. Her mother was harder, because she was allergic to gold, and not the type who was comfortable in flashy jewelry. So Paige decided on a freshwater pearl multi string necklace, Tiffany’s heart pearl bracelet that was three strings, and had four platinum and diamond open heart attached to the pearls. She also decided on a platinum and diamond Tiffany’s heart open heart pendant. Finally for her father she chose a platinum Tiffany Mark watch. It had a black onyx face plate, and a black alligator band. Paige also picked up many items for herself and when she went to check out she was still surprised to find the total at just over forty thousand dollars with tax. She put in her debit card information, and hesitated slightly before pushing the Complete Purchase button. She was still not completely used to the idea that she was a millionaire.          
         Paige half expected that her card would be denied, but then the payment confirmation page popped up and said that the jewelry would arrive at her doorstep by the Friday coming up. Five days and Paige would hold the magnificently beautiful jewelry in her hand.
         Looking around the Tiffany’s website had gotten Paige pretty tired of being on the computer, so she decided to call up David and see what he was doing. Plus she needed his input on a vacation she was planning for the two of them at the end of the summer. So she picked up her phone and dialed his number.
         “Hello” Davids’s voice came over the phone groggily.
         “Did I wake you up? I’m sorry, go back to bed.” Paige said
         “No, no I needed to wake up, what’s up?”
         “I was just seeing what you were doing for the next hour or so.”
         “Why?”
         “I was going to see if you wanted to grab some lunch with me, but you just woke up, so I’ll just eat later.”
         Paige had a very large aversion to eating alone, and rarely did it, never out in public. Paige couldn’t remember when her aversion had started, or why, but it was now something she was used to. For Paige it had become a norm not to eat if someone wasn’t eating with her.
         “I’ll shower and be over in about twenty minutes.” David half groaned.
         “No don-“Paige started to say when she noticed that he had already hung up. David was so grouchy when he first woke up, but Paige knew that when he got to her place he would apologize. He always did.
         So Paige walked into her room and dressed in one of her cutest outfits, and Old Navy beige floral print v-neck mesh/cotton shirt, and a pair of indigo colored Mossimo jean, paired with beige mules. It was a Christmas present from her parents, and she loved the outfit. Looking at her closet however she decided that after lunch she would go shopping, and clean out her closet of the clothing she had had for years. She had been thinking of going shopping, but just hadn’t really been in the mood. Today, however, she was very much in the mood to spend lots of dough.
         David knocked on Paige’s door at slightly more than twenty minutes. That was another very cute thing she loved about David, he was almost always five minutes later than he tells you he’ll be.
         “Hey sweetie” Paige said and leaned in for a kiss.
         “Hey, I’m sorry for hanging up on you, I was still half asleep.”          
         “I know sweetie, I told you that we didn’t need to go.”          
         “It’s cool; I got really hungry while I was in the shower.”          
         “Well were do you want to go?”          
         “I don’t care, you pick.”
         “I was really hoping you would say that, because I really want a steak, so we are going to Outback.”
         “Is that why you look so cute today?” David asked her half smiling “because you knew that I would get roped into going to an eat-in restaurant.”
         Paige laughed and kissed him. David hated sitting down in a restaurant, and Paige knew that. The last time they sat down anywhere she practically had to beg and plead with him to take her.
         “Not at all, but thanks for noticing that I was trying to look.”
         Paige locked up her house, then she and David got into his car and headed towards Outback.
         David was complaining about his car on the way, and when they passed by a car dealer, Paige got an idea. She would buy David a car, and if he didn’t want one from there, then she would buy herself one.
         “Honey why don’t we put off lunch and go buy a car.” Paige said getting excited.
         “What”
         “C’mon lets make a Uey, and buy a car. C’mon honey.”
         “Where do you want to go?”
         “I don’t know do you still want an SRT?”
         “Do I get a choice of anything?” David asked
          “Of course baby, A Porsche, Jag, Beemer, Toyota… whatever you want.”
         “Then no I don’t still want an SRT.”
         “Well what do you want?”
         David was still driving straight on US 31 which would take them right to Outback.
         “I’ve always wanted a Lexus.”
         “Then why don’t we go to a drive thru, pick up a quick lunch, and head to Indy and buy some cars. I just dropped Michael off at daycare about an hour and a half ago, so we have plenty of time, and I really want to do this now. Please baby.”
         David started to laugh.
         “What’s so funny?” Paige asked with a confused look on her face.
         “Your asking me to PLEASE take you to buy me a car, who wouldn’t be all for that?”
         “So we can!” Paige practically yelled.
         “Of course, but I can’t trade in this car. So only you can get a car today.”
         “I think I could handle the eighty dollars it would cost to tow your car back to your house.”
         They came up on the red light to turn into Outback, but instead of moving into the turn lane, David stayed where he was. He turned his head toward her and softly said “You are too good to me Paige, and I really love you.”
         “I know you do, and I love you too.” Paige leaned over and gave David a quick kiss before informing him that the light had turned green. David started to drive and they talked animatedly on the long drive to Indianapolis about what they each wanted and where they should go, and just how cool it was that Paige had won the lottery.