Living Without Dreams

Chapter 27 - Guests for Dinner

One of the most important things that happened during the intervening week between when Greg and Susan made the plans for their trip and the day they hoped to leave, was a visit on Tuesday morning for Greg with his accountant. When faced with the reality that they’d continued to spend, but that no money aside from their settlement checks was coming in, Greg learned there were a number of decisions relative to their budget they needed to make. After spending the morning learning about the nuances of that with Denis, he spent most of the afternoon discussing them again with Susan.

“The settlement money is continuing to tide us over adequately,” Greg explained. “Denis has set up a rolling budget, which means I should begin to see a regular income from the alternative estate account he set up beginning in January, but not before then.”

“That’s not that much,” Susan remarked when he told her the amount.

“No, it’s not,” Greg agreed. “It will cover the rent, but nothing else. It should improve gradually, but that is what we should plan on to start with.”

Susan nodded. “I’m glad we knew that before next week’s trip.”

“Why’s that?” Greg asked.

“Carolyn forwarded me the listings from the internal job board. The positions they have posted are so different from what I have been doing, I wasn’t sure I should be interested, but based on this I think I pretty much have to be,” Susan said.

“You don’t have to be, not for a job you don’t want to do,” Greg told her.

“I think I need to at least discuss them with her next Wednesday,” Susan said. “In the past, the job postings never did describe what the position really needed to do. I need to know more about it before I decide what to do. I need to be ready though.”

“Did you get your resume finished on Monday?” Greg asked.

“Almost. I’ll work on it some more tomorrow,” Susan said as they turned off the lights in their office and prepared to turn in.

c

Susan did try, Greg reflected at the end of the following day. However Wednesday proved to be even busier than Monday and Tuesday had been. The patio furniture arrived in the morning and required a certain amount of assembly by the delivery men. They’d left just as Greg and Susan were sitting down to lunch, but before they got half way through, the second delivery arrived. Susan interrupted her meal to direct them on where and how to set up Jessie’s new furniture. By the time they were finished, she abandoned what was left of her meal in favor of trying to work on her resume for an hour before going to pick Jessie up. By the end of the evening she considered it to be in better shape but she still wasn’t quite done.

“What about tomorrow?” Greg asked as they got ready for bed that evening.

“You’re going to the studio tomorrow … which means I am too. I’m not sure what I’m going to do while you’re there, but I don’t think I’ll be working on my resume,” Susan told him.

Greg frowned. “It’s such a waste of your time to have to chauffer me around like this.”

“I won’t be doing it forever,” Susan soothed. “There will come a day soon when we look back on this with fond memories because of all the time we got to spend together driving you to places.”

Greg furrowed his brow. “That may be true, and I do enjoy your company, Susan, but it really chaffs to have to be so dependent on you. I don’t mind so much when we are going someplace together, but on days like tomorrow … they won’t even let you into the studio you know, beyond the gate where you’ll need to drop me off.”