Holly and Her Naughty eReader Read Online Free Page B

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until he was back on his feet.”
    “But…you kissed him.”
    “Yeah, I don’t think he was
planning on things going there, but I have to confess that I was,” said Vivian
proudly. “The minute I heard he was available I pounced on that shit. I called
him up and offered my shoulder to cry on. We started having regular meetups at
the Starbucks on Central. One thing led to another, and when the time was
right, I asked him to move in. He gets a year as my roommate while his family
figures out I’m more than a rebound girlfriend. Then I’m closing this deal.”
    “Is that so?” I said.
    “Hell yeah it is,” said Vivian.
“Max is a real find and I intend to keep him. His first wife was a grade-A
screeching banshee bitch and he was lucky to get away from her. I’ve let too
many good men pass me by because I was focused on my career. This one’s mine.”
    “Well alright then,” I said,
thinking I’d keep my own story about Max Brody and a solo afternoon at the ice
skating rink to myself.
    “You’re judging me,” Vivian
said. “I can tell.”
    “I promise you I’m not,” I said.
“I think it’s all good, and even if I didn’t, I’m not in a position to be
judging anyone.”
    Vivian took a swig from her
water glass. She stared off into space for a second, then she said, “Do you
ever feel like the women of our generation got duped?”
    “How do you mean?”
    “Think about it, Holly. You and
I both graduated near the top of the class. We had the whole world telling us
we could do anything we wanted so long as we played by the rules, and what are
the rules?”
    “I have no idea what the rules
are. Maybe I’d be doing better if I did.”
    “The rules are: go to college,
get good grades, go to grad school, get a good job, don’t date a loser, and
don’t get knocked up,” Vivian said.
    “Good to know,” I said. “I
almost nailed all of them. Unfortunately, I messed up on the don’t date a loser
part.”
    “It wouldn’t have mattered, Holly.
It’s all a lie. You and I and all our peers are living the dreams of our
mothers. They saw themselves as crusaders for women’s rights, as guardians of
the feminine mystique, and drilled into us that the world was ours to have so
long as we didn’t let some selfish, lazy, evil man take it away. They saw their
own marriages and children as shackles that held them down and were certain
that we, their daughters, needed to put our careers first to avoid their
mistakes.”
    I thought about my own mother,
who did in fact marry a selfish, lazy, evil man, and spent the better part of
her adult life recovering from that mistake.
    “But they didn’t think it
through,” Vivian continued. “I did exactly what my mother wanted. I got a
degree in French literature, I went to law school, I clerked for a federal
judge, I make 80 grand a year, and I’m on pace to become full partner by the
time I’m forty.”
    “Wow. Eighty grand?”
    “A third of it goes to the
student loans,” Vivian said. “Debt slavery is part of the lie.”
    “Tell me about it,” I said,
thinking of my own monthly bit of servitude to the bank.
    “But here’s the thing. I
followed the path to a tee and I’ve made it to the end only to find that it’s a
lonely, miserable place. Our mothers were wrong. Without even realizing it, I
traded my mom’s burden for my dad’s. Instead of being trapped in a marriage,
I’m trapped in a career. It sucks, Holly! I hate my job!”
    “I’m sorry to hear that,” I
said. “Couldn’t you work someplace else?”
    “Nothing close to the salary I’m
making now,” Vivian said. “And I need that salary to pay down my debt and then
rebuild my life. That’s my new goal. Complete financial independence by the
time I’m forty-five. I’m gonna be ruthless about it. Max and I will stay in
this house, have our kids here, be debt-free, and build a monstrous savings
account. Before the kids get to high school I’m retiring. Max can keep working
for