The Living Room Read Online Free Page B

in front of them was the royalty check from the publishing company, a printout of their recurring monthly expenses, and several envelopes containing bills. Jeff picked up the statement for the credit card Amy used for household expenses like groceries.
    “What is this charge at Ricardo’s Restaurant three weeks ago?” he asked. “It’s over a hundred dollars.”
    “Natalie, Jodie Walker, and I went out to eat on Natalie’s birthday. It was the Friday night you were doing the job with Butch at the house on the lake.”
    “And you paid for everyone’s meal?”
    “Yes. Jodie forgot her purse when we picked her up. She promised to repay me for her meal and half of Natalie’s food but never did.”
    “Did you ask her for it?”
    Amy swallowed. “I started to bring it up the other day when I ran into her at the pharmacy, but I didn’t have the heart to ask her when she started telling me about her mother-in-law. She has cancer, and the local oncologist is sending her to a specialist at Duke.”
    “I’m sorry about Jodie’s mother-in-law, but we can’t pretend to have enough money to plop down a hundred dollars for a meal without thinking about it.”
    “I thought about it,” Amy said defensively, “but Natalie is my best friend, and I wanted to do something nice for her. You know how much she loves the tiramisu at Ricardo’s.”
    “You ordered dessert?”
    “Yes,” Amy replied with increasing defiance in her voice. “And I don’t think I should have to justify every penny I spend. What do you want me to do? Go back to work at the law firm? That’s not possible. Mr. Phillips gave my job to Emily Ashburn, who’d been scheming to get it for five years. I could try to find a cashiering job, but they don’t pay anything, and I wouldn’t be here when Ian comes home from school. Also, if I get a job, we’d have to find after-school care for him.”
    “Ian is ten years old,” Jeff said, seemingly unaffected by Amy’s tirade. “He can unlock the door and turn on the TV.”
    “And I would go crazy worrying what he might get into when he gets bored or has a buddy come over to play. He’d climb onto the roof of the house if the urge hit him.”
    “You could look for something part-time while the kids are in school. Maybe you could clean houses. That’s what Denny’s wife is doing. She printed up business cards a few months ago and is already working four mornings a week. She averages over fifteen dollars an hour.”
    Amy’s mouth dropped open. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Did Jeff really want her canvassing the neighborhood trying to drum up business as a domestic worker? And her shock wasn’t because the job was demeaning. Cleaning toilets was honest labor. But Amy never volunteered to go door-to-door for charitable projects and barely knew their neighbors on either side of the house. The thought of approaching total strangers to ask for work and then going to their houses on a regular basis made her hands sweat.
    “The mornings are my best writing times,” she said, grabbing the credit card statement from Jeff’s hand. “Why don’t we count the dinner with Natalie and Jodie as my Christmas present? You don’t have to buy me anything else. You spent over two hundred dollars on the necklace you gave me last year. This way you can save ahundred dollars, and I won’t feel guilty for spending an evening with my friends.”
    Jeff stared at her for a few seconds. “Don’t you like the necklace?”
    “Of course I like it. I wore it on—” Amy stopped. “I wore it Mother’s Day when we went to church. It looked perfect with my light blue dress.”
    “That was five months ago.”
    Amy dropped the credit card statement on the table.
    “Okay, Jeff,” she said. “Where are we going with this discussion? I know our finances have been tight, and I know it’s going to get worse.”
    Jeff didn’t respond but picked up the statement instead.
    “The rest of the charges make