Been Here All Along (26 page)

“Ugh, the bad timing thing.”

“It's the worst. But Gabe and Lea will fall in love, mark my words,” she says, tapping her finger on the table to punctuate her statement.

“These words, they are marked.”

We're quiet while we eat for a few minutes.

“So what's new in the world of astrophysics?” she asks.

“We've been married for five years and you still have no real concept of what I do with my days.”

“No, I really don't.”

 

Chapter 1

Jane Connelly needed a job, and she needed it fast.

Her mother was knocking on her bedroom door, calling through it, to tell her about the “great” unpaid internship she'd found for Jane at the university where she was an adjunct.

“It's in the American Studies department. They need some help with filing. You'd get fantastic experience, Janie,” she said through Jane's locked door. “You'll need that for your college applications.”

“I know, Mom,” Jane lied. She
didn't
know. She wasn't sure she even wanted to go to college, and she had no clue what American Studies really entailed. It sounded awfully broad.

“What are you doing in there?”

“I'm changing my shirt,” she said, holding a pillow up to her face so her voice would be muffled. That was how much she didn't want to have to face her mother at the moment.

“Well, come downstairs and talk to me when you're done changing,” her mom said. Jane heard footsteps retreating down the hall and then coming back seconds later. “Are you going somewhere? Is that why you're changing?”

“No, Mom,” she said. There was a good chance that the combined sighs of mother and daughter could be heard around the world.

Jane bolted over to her computer, needing to find something, anything, to do with her summer. Her two best friends were going to be counselors at band camp, the sleepaway kind. They were leaving the next day for their ten-week stint. But seeing as how Jane wasn't actually in the band, nor did she play an instrument, a job as a band camp counselor wouldn't work for her.

A quick Google search brought her to an online job board. She clicked fast and furious, hunting for any jobs that might suit her, scrolling through the ads as if her life depended on it.

As if being friendless for the summer wasn't bad enough, spending all of break at her mother's university sounded like the opposite of anything she was interested in. It sounded soul sucking and mind numbing. So maybe, in a way, her life
did
depend on it.

Telemarketer: part time, unlimited earning potential

DO YOU LOVE DOGS?! Min. wage but get to play with puppies!

Knives, Knives, Knives: excellent commission

CASH FOR BILLS!

Sperm donors needed

Each one was worse than the last.

Her parents would kill her if she got involved in a pyramid scheme; she knew that for a fact. Her older sister, Margo, had gotten involved in one a few years ago. She was trying to sell beach condos. In their beach-adjacent community. The worst part was that her parents never seemed to get mad at Margo for the pyramid scheme. They claimed the humiliation of losing her money was punishment enough. Jane disagreed, but no one ever asked her.

“Margo skipped a grade. Margo passed all the AP tests with the highest marks. Margo got a full-time internship at Princeton University this summer, and she doesn't even go there. Margo's going to be the first person on Uranus,” Jane muttered under her breath. In a moment of desperation, she clicked on the link for
Child Care.
It was a last-ditch option, but that was where she was; that was what her life had come to.

Jane scanned the listings, knowing that she needed to avoid any and all situations that involved babies. Babies were terrifying, with their soft spots and their wobbly necks. Way too much responsibility for a girl like Jane.

Mother's helper needed for newborn triplets.

Child care in our home.

Do you love babies?

Babysitter needed.