Tower Moment

1908 words

1:27 am. That was the time my phone told me it was, and yet I couldn't put down my iPad. I was in the middle of the best game of BitLife I had ever played. My character, King Kong, who I named trying to be clever, was a serial killer, but also he was a billionaire.

It sounds weird, but since he was a royal, he could have anyone executed that he wanted. And with me in charge, he wanted a lot of people killed.

Reluctantly, I acknowledged that I was getting sleepy and needed to give my body, not to mention my tablet, a rest. After hooking everything up to charge for the night, I snuggled up under my covers and closed my eyes.

Five minutes later, or so it seemed, Britney blared from my phone. Who in the world would be calling in the middle of the night? I wondered. The time read that it was 9:14 am. Had I really slept for eight hours without waking up to go to the bathroom? Weird.

After going through my morning routine, I remembered to check to see who called and woke me up. It wasn't a number that I recognized, probably a bill collector, I reasoned.

I sucked in a deep breath and let my thumb hover over the bank app. Maybe there would be enough money for me to grab a coffee; if not, I would need to work from the library and do so without any caffeine. That would not be good news for the librarian. And I would be pretty bummed too.

Finally, I got brave enough to open the app. When I saw the number in my bank account, I let out a little scream. My neighbors already hated me; let them add a noise complaint to the list of my alleged transgressions.

According to my bank, I had $1 billion.

Chapter 2

"I don't know what's so hard to understand about this; nobody in their right mind would give me a billion bucks. This is clearly the bank's mistake and needs to be fixed," I said to the bank manager. She looked at me and sighed. It was a first-world problem, and she had houses to foreclose on. Or whatever bank managers do. "Why can't you just take the money out of my account?"

"Mr. Miller, we cannot just go into a person's account and take money out. That would be called theft."

"Which is what you are going to accuse me of if I spend a dime of this money."

"I have explained this to you," she said, trying to maintain her patience with me but failing. "Someone named King Kong left you an inheritance which has been deposited into your bank account."

"My mother wouldn't give me toast for breakfast."

"Well, now you can buy the bread factory, if you want. I can set up an appointment with our financial advisors, if that is something you're interested in."

"I'm not because you're going to take this money back," I slammed my first down on her desk. "Who did you say 'gave' me this money?"

"Someone named King King left it to you in their will."

"My BitLife character left me his fortune? Sure."

"Sir, have you been drinking?"

"What? No. I came straight here after I saw your mistake. I'll be going to the bar later and begging for free drinks."

"With this much money in your account?" She asked incredulously.

I rolled my eyes and started to leave the office, not feeling any better about the situation but giving up on trying to reason with her. I turned back to her, "is this a Trading Places situation where I have to spend so much money in a certain amount of time?"

"What? How does that even make sense?"

How did any of this make sense?

Chapter 3

"So, I'm a billionaire," I said to my bestie, Danny Gooden, at lunch. His fork dropped to his plate. "Right?"

"Is it April Fools Day already?"

"No, I'm serious," I pulled out my phone and pulled up my bank account, then shoved it towards him. "See."

"Well, in that case, lunch is on you."

I shook my head in his direction. "I can't keep this money, it's not mine. The bank says that my BitLife character left it to me in his will."

"And I can't even get my husband to pick up his socks."

"Daniel!"

"Cal, you're freaking out over nothing. Maybe the game company is doing some kind of promo or something," he shrugged and forked more salad into his mouth.

"In any case, i am not spending this money, it's not mine."

"I know what this is. You're going through the five stages of grief for not being poor anymore."

After taking a drink of my Coke, I shook my head. "No, I don't fancy going to jail for stealing money."

"The bank said it's yours, use it. What's the worst that could happen?"

"I could change."

"You already are."

Chapter 4

A couple days later, the money was still in my account. On a whim, I decided to fly out to Las Vegas. Danny couldn't join me, his husband had to work, and there was no one to watch their baby. So, that meant I was going to have a wild and crazy weekend on my own.

Me and the billion dollars.

The FBI didn't track me down after I bought a Coke the day I got the money, nor did they hunt me after I booked the presidential suite at the Venetian. That meant, logically, I could have a fun trip before reality crashed in on me again.

After collecting my luggage, I noticed a man holding a sign with the surname Miller on it. I approached him and asked, "Calvin Miller?"

"Yes sir. Let me take those for you," he grabbed my bag and headed out the door. The limo was black and stretch. After the driver put my bag in the trunk, he opened my door for me. "There's champagne for you and the partition is up as you requested."

After a quick peek at the bank app to make sure the money was still there, I opened the hotel app. I needed to check in and make sure I could go straight to my room, the flight was long, and all I wanted to do was to take a shower, maybe get some sleep.

Life had other plans.

After my shower, I realized I was hungry. The concierge recommended a bar close to the hotel, which was a mistake. The food was delicious, but there was a bachelor party, and I found myself looking at one of the men.

He was beautiful. Olive skin, dark brown hair, a twinkle in his chocolate brown eyes. When he smiled, he seemed to light up the entire room. The breath left my body when we made eye contact.

"Come join us," he said as he walked over to me. "You're in Vegas, nobody should be alone."

Before I could object, he pulled me up and dragged me over to the group. As the night went on, his friends began to note how he kept his arm around me. They mentioned how he looked at me. I noted that he made sure I always had a drink in my hand.

Things went black for a while. Then a bright light brought me back to consciousness. The man from the previous night had his arms around me and a big smile on his face, "morning, husband."

Chapter 5

"I know I haven't changed," I said to Danny. It was our traditional Sunday dinner and the first since I woke up married to a stranger. "But I'm not the same, either."

"Well, you're married and a billionaire. That's a pretty big change, I'd say."

"Stop making fun of this, it's incredibly frusdtrating and disorienting," I said as I went to the fridge and helped myself to a bottle of Coke. "Nothing makes sense to me anymore."

Danny looked at me, confused, "all of this because our husbands went to get pizza for dinner? It's been a long week, and I didn't feel like cooking."

"Last week I was worried about how I was going to pay my rent and where my next meal was coming from. Now, I have all the money in the world and a husband. How does that happen? This isn't real life. I must be dreaming."

He stood up and walked over to me, then pinched my arm as I was taking a drink. Some soda spilled on my chin and dribbled onto my shirt. "What was that for?"

"You're not dreaming," he shrugged his shoulders.

Before I could answer, the husbands came back with the food. They set the pizza and salad down. My guy came over and puckered his lips, which I rewarded with a kiss. "Miss me like you missed your mouth with the pop?"

"Daniel pinched me."

"He said he was dreaming, I had no other choice," he shrugged once again.

"No other choice," the husbands agreed in unison.

"Christopher..." I snarled.

"It's Christian."

"How do you not know your husband's name?" Derek, Danny's husband, asked.

"Well excuse me, I didn't know I had to follow societal rules for getting married. Knowing your partner's name before getting hitched is so old fashioned."

I thrust my hands into my husband's pockets and pulled out his wallet. Opening it, I saw his ID. His name was Christopher Moore. "Why would you do that to me?" I asked in faux outrage.

"Because it was funny."

"No, not it was not," I pouted. "It was mean."

Danny laughed, "don't let him get away with shit. He would not allow any of us to."

Before I could answer, my phone rang. It was the bank. "Hello."

"Mr. Miller?" It was the manager I spoke with earlier in the week.

"Can I help you?" panic ran through my body; they wanted the money back. I knew they would. "It's about the money, isn't it?"

"It's yours. Normally, I wouldn't call on a Sunday evening but we wanted to invite you to join us for a platinum member's meeting tomorrow morning."

"Sure, I'll come with my husband."

After leaving Danny and Derek's house, we drove back to the apartment.
Chris went to shower, so I opened the BitLife app on my iPad. To my surprise, King Kong had indeed died, and I had no memory of playing the game until he passed away, so how had it happened?

My husband walked out, wrapped in a towel, "ready for bed?"

"So many questions," I smiled at him. "And so few answers."

"Maybe if we had more square footage, we would have some answers."

"We can't afford a bigger place, do you know how much I would have to pay to get out of my lease?"

"You have three months left on it, so about $2,400. A drop in the bucket," before I could ask any questions, he pulled me into a kiss.

As I lay next to Chris, listening to him snore, I wondered how things had changed so fast for me. How things had developed the way they had and why I was chosen for all the blessings that had come in.

I looked at the clock; it was 1:27 am.