Single in Suburbia by Wendy Wax

Author:Wendy Wax [Wax, Wendy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance, Contemporary, Fiction
ISBN: 9780553902648
Google: dBEOiDcp-ScC
Amazon: 0553588974
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 2006-06-27T04:00:00+00:00

Amanda attempted to pry Meghan out of bed at noon on Sunday. The extraction did not go well.

“Come on, sleepyhead.” Amanda stood next to the bed and spoke softly. “It’s time to get up. You don’t want to sleep the whole day away.”

“Yes, I do.” The words were muffled by the layer of sheets and blanket under which Meghan burrowed.

Walking to the bank of windows opposite the bed, Amanda opened the drapes. May sunshine spilled in, illuminating the piles of discarded clothing that covered the floor. “Well, I need you to pick up your room and help me with the laundry. Then we’ll straighten the rest of the house. It’s a beautiful day. If we get everything done inside, we can plant the annuals I bought.” Amanda kept her tone purposefully cheerful, but she was starting to feel impatient.

There was a groan from the bed. “Sorry. Can’t do it.”

“Yes, you can.”

“I’m sleeping!”

Amanda crossed to the bed and stared down at the talking lump under the covers.

“And when I’m done sleeping, I’m meeting Sandy and Angie at the mall.”

“No, you’re not.” Amanda reached over to grasp the covers. With a decisive pull, she yanked them off exposing Meghan curled in a knot, her eyes tightly shut.

Meghan didn’t reach for the covers, but she didn’t open her eyes either. “Yes, I am.”

“I need your help, Meghan. Now.”

The sad truth was that the more houses she cleaned, the less time and energy she had for her own. Like the shoemaker’s children who went barefoot, hers were going to have to pitch in around the house.

Amanda sat down on the side of the bed and waited for Meghan to open her eyes, but vision evidently wasn’t a prerequisite to whining.

“I’m not going to waste my day off cleaning and…planting!” Meghan uttered the last as if it were some sort of unnatural act.

“Yes, you are.” Amanda felt her own anger build. She was turning herself inside out to try to make things OK for her children. It wouldn’t kill either of them to help.

Meghan opened her eyes. Still clouded with sleep, they were nonetheless hostile and belligerent. “Why?”

“Because now that I’m working I need your help.” Amanda stared down into Meghan’s face. She’d told them that she was working on a consulting project with Candace and neither of her children had pressed for details. “And because I thought it would be nice to spend the afternoon together.”

Her daughter looked at her like she was a magazine salesman who’d unexpectedly materialized at her front door.

“Well I already have plans.” Meghan sat up and huffed her back against her pillows then pulled the covers up to her chin like a shield.

A flash of the conversation she’d overheard between Candace and her mother slipped into Amanda’s head, but she shook it off.

“Then you’ll have to change them.”

Meghan’s face darkened. Amanda was extremely sorry she’d come in at all, but it was clear she could not back down now.

“Why do I have to do laundry? Why can’t Consuela do it?” Meghan named the maid who hadn’t set foot in their home since the day her father left.

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