Eden
Eden emerged from the offices of Ike & Sons with new clarity about her financial future. Investments were put into place. Certain loans were refinanced to more favorable interest rates. Money was moved out of Eden’s accounts, but she was all but guaranteed a decent, safe return as the years went by.
But… what do I do in the meantime?
This was her ongoing conundrum. Eden had enough money to get by for a couple of years. As she constantly considered, if she got any kind of job, she could extend that for several years. And, quite frankly, shewantedsomething to do. Idling around her apartment and the neighborhood was good fun for a few weeks, but Eden wanted to be productive, too.
But she couldn’t think of a damn thing she wanted to do, let alone in that economy. Every time she thought about applying to a random job that looked somewhat fun, she thought of all the other people struggling to get by who needed it more. Therewas some college student without a food fund, some single mom worried about getting her kid to the doctor, or some middle-aged man who had just been laid off and didn’t know what to do until he got back on his feet.
That didn’t account for the people living in their cars and using her gym to shower and work out. Or the people with housing and two jobs still standing in line at the food pantry.Maybe I should volunteer.Every time she considered that, she remembered that she could also end up homeless if things went tits up in the world and her relationships.
I need to make more money… just in case…
That was her loop. She sat in cafés, the library, and in her boyfriends’ cars, thinking about that stupid loop. Money was good. Well, it was neutral. She should probably get more of it since she was young and didn’t want to be dependent on any man. Benson was the first to agree with her as they discussed it over takeout in his apartment one night.“You’re right. Money is neutral. It’s neither good nor evil. We need money to thrive, but it corrupts the wrong people.”
But nobody could tell her what to do with her life. Benson was a bit traditional and a little too on board with paying for Eden’s living expenses for as long as they were together. Liam had money, too, but claimed to understand Eden’s perspective of wanting financial independence for herself.“Saw it all the time on the bases,”he said over coffee in their favorite place to meet up after his meetings.“Divorce left a lot of military spouses without hardly anything to start over.”He also knew first-hand how quickly an otherwise serious relationship could implode.
Blair wasn’t much help, either. She was entrenched in the world of the erotic arts, and even though she spread herself between three different incomes, she was still talking about how many millions more she and her partner needed to make before they could be “comfortable.” Which was how Eden gota crash course in property taxes and sick family members. Just running the camming and performance businesses costs a lot of overhead, too. Even her gigs at Le Salon and La Mariposa were contracted instead of employed, forcing the onus of taxes on her head.
“But I came from nothing alongside Mira,”she told Eden over more sandwiches at Bell Jar’s.“I had even less than her, since she at least had an ancestral home or whatever. But that place is not cheap! We used all our winnings from The Summit to buy it back and set ourselves up there, but it requires a small staff to keep it neat and, oh my God, the property taxes! Insane!”Blair often opined that she’d rather live in a penthouse suite that cost millions less a year to run, but a core part of her partner’s happiness was that damn house that was too big for two people. Eden had half a mind to joke about moving in with them and renting out a bedroom.
Her friends from before La Mariposa came into her life weren’t any help, either. Two of them moved out of town to cheaper pastures. The few that were left were ensconced in their own love lives and jobs as well. Things were not getting cheaper at the grocery store and at the gas pump. Eden couldn’t have a conversation with them without worries that someone wouldn’t make it through the year without having to move back in with their parents. Things were so touch-and-go with them that they still hadn’t meteitherof Eden’s boyfriends, and she further remained in that strange space between “serious” and “casual” with them.
So, she wanted a career. She wanted to know what her future might look like, as long as it was hers to control. She had learned a lot about herself and her own sexuality since coming back from La Mariposa. A place that had invited her back for even more money to be made.
It just feels stupid to turn it down.Except Benson had made it clear he was not okay with it, and Liam was probably only putting on a front that he was all right with her doing such things out of sight.
Was she turning into one of those people? Somebody who had to choose between love and work?
Am I nuts?Was she seriously thinking about it? To preserve her own future as a financially independent woman?
She wished she could talk to her mom about this, but the woman was back in California and railing every day about things that had nothing to do with reality – one of many reasons Eden had moved to the other side of the country for school. She had no other female family members that she could trust with this part of her life. Either people understood but didn’t know her history well enough, or they knew her history but didn’t understand what drove her now.
“You could become a zookeeper.” Liam wrapped his arms around her, his baggy plaid jacket warming her up as they stood at the edge of the lion exhibit at the nearest zoo. Their date had taken them from brunch to the zoo, most unexpectedly, but Eden wasn’t complaining.I haven’t been to one in forever.And she did like big cats. It being a weekday meant that they didn’t have to fight for space at the edge of the enclosure. “Or a vet. Go into a job like that without any debt, and you’ll be rolling.”
“Not sure I have a drive to save animals enough to deal with all the pet death, Liam.”
“We weren’t supposed to talk about that at the zoo, love.”
“Yet here we are.”
He sighed into the crook of her neck. “Here we are.”
She couldn’t help but giggle as he kissed her when nobody was looking.I usually hate couples that PDA, but…She couldn’t help it. Having Liam with her made her feel loopy enough to be caught kissing him in public, let alone cuddling in one giantjacket because she had misjudged a sunny day for beingwarmand didn’t wear a thick enough sweater for the zoo.
They canoodled like that throughout most of the zoo, careful not to be too PG-13 in front of the groups of families making their way through the same paths and gazing at the same enclosures. Eventually, they sat in a small café area to have some water while a zookeeper gave a presentation on the boa constrictor living not too far away in the reptile house.
“Ben says he can’t join us for dinner tonight,” Liam announced, referencing the group chat that Eden had yet to check. “He has to suddenly go out of town… something about his sister being in an accident?”
Eden fished her phone out of her sweater pocket and read the same words Liam had.“Very sorry. I need to check on Maryann. Will keep you two updated.”
“He has asister?” Eden gasped. “Since when?”
“He never told you?”
“No! Who the heck is Maryann?”
“His older sister.”
