I Waxed My Legs for This? Read Online Free PDF Page A

time to go to any games anymore, either. You don’t hang out with buddies at the bar. You don’t go lie on the beach and watch the clouds. You don’t take a walk in the middle of the rain, just because it’s fun.”
    “I don’t find getting soaked fun. I can get anywhere I want in my car and stay dry.”
    “You’re hopeless,” Carrie lamented.
    “And you just don’t understand the demands my job makes on me,” he said.
    People counted on him.
    Clients counted on him.
    He couldn’t just throw things over and go play in the rain. He didn’t have time to play.
    At least not in recent months.
    Neither of them had mentioned that Jack’s lack of fun coincided with his breakup with Sandy. Somehow, his ex always found her way into their conversations, though neither of them ever mentioned her.
    “Then change jobs,” Carrie said with a careless shrug.
    “What?”
    “If your job is so demanding you can’t afford to have fun, change it. Can you really tell me that you enjoy what you’re doing? Do you get up in the morning and say, Wow, I can’t wait to get to work today !”
    “Carrie, no one likes their job that much,” Jack said.
    Years ago he’d had that kind of innocence, but too many dry contracts and equally dry meetings had robbed him of the idea of really making a difference.
    What he made was money for Ericson and Roberts. And the more money he made for them, the more cases they threw at him so he could make more money for them.
    It was a merry-go-round, one he couldn’t seem to slow down.
    “I do,” she said in a small voice. “Selling, and occasionally designing dresses might not be as glamorous as being an attorney, but I love what I do.”
    She shook her head again. “Never mind. Forget I said anything. Let’s just concentrate on getting you out of town for a week without you bringing the office along with you.”
    “Fine,” he said, resigning himself to Carrie’s plan.
    “Fine,” she said, a smile on her face.
    Jack watched her attack her food and felt as if he’d somehow lost a fight he hadn’t even known he was waging.
     

~~~
     
    She’d won round one.
    Carrie burst through Encore’s door, dying to tell someone what she’d done.
    For once she was thankful the shop was devoid of customers, as she ran to the back office and found her boss, Eloise Summit, hard at work.
    “Eloise, I did it.” Carrie flopped into the chair opposite Eloise’s and grinned. “Oh, I so did it this time.”
    The tiny brunette looked up from the papers on her desk. “He fell for it?”
    “Of course he fell for it. We’re leaving tomorrow for a week, and Jack still doesn’t have a clue how it happened.”
    “Carrie, someday he’s going to figure out how blatantly you manipulate him.”
    “Never. I’ve been at it since we were kids. He’s never known what hit him.”
    She tipped a little farther back in her chair.
    She felt good. More than that, she felt great.
    She’d convinced Jack to take a break—a break he desperately needed. The tiny little lie she’d told was worth it.
    “Someday you might push him too far,” Eloise said.
    Carrie chuckled at the idea. “Never. Jack’s so busy rescuing me from myself that he never figures out how tricky I am. And he never will unless you or I tell him. And of course, we’re not going to tell him, right?”
    Eloise sighed and pushed the pile of papers she’d been working on back. “Right.”
    “Geesh. I get one of you to take a break and the other one starts to break down. So, what’s got you so stressed?”
    “I hate paperwork.” Eloise took the pen that was tucked behind her ear and tossed it on top of the pile of paper.
    “Leave it then. I’ll take care of it when I come back.”
    Carrie didn’t exactly love paperwork, but it didn’t bother her nearly as much as it bothered Eloise, so she took care of most of the small shop’s bookwork.
    “Actually it’s done.” Eloise picked up a sheet of paper and handed it to Carrie. “You better