Read The Secret Lives of Housewives for Free Online Page A

trunk, then headed home. To get to her town house, she drove down Sheraton and gazed at the expensive houses with their mile-long driveways and carefully manicured lawns. From time to time she’d considered buying one of them, but why? For show? She had no need for six bedrooms and a three-car garage. Oh, an in-the-ground pool would be nice, and maybe a sauna, but really. Why? Her town house was more than enough for her: three large bedrooms, living room, dining room, den, and spacious kitchen. What more did she need?
    As she pulled into her cul-de-sac in Evergreen Estates, the super high-end condo development she’d bought into three years before, she glanced at her watch. Almost two. She’d take a few minutes to do the few things that Hillary, her cleaning woman, hadn’t done, then attack the pile of work she’d brought home. How little time she got to relax wasn’t important. Coronary. She’d work at a bit more leisurely pace, but she had to get this stuff done for a meeting Monday morning.
    Sam, her forty-five-pound Dalmatian, greeted her at the door with his exuberant barking. As she leaned down to rub his chin she marveled at the fact that he got just as excited when she’d been gone two hours as when she was gone all day. The dog quickly rolled onto his back and Monica spent several minutes scratching his belly, causing Sam to spasm in delight.
    â€œOkay, love, get your leash. We can manage a quick walk.” Wagging most of his body and almost grinning, Sam skidded across the off-white Spanish tile on her kitchen floor, ricocheted around the refrigerator, grabbed his leash from its shelf, and bounded back to the front door. “Sam, sit,” she said, and the dog sat facing her with his bright blue leash in his mouth, wiggling with barely restrained glee. “Give,” she said as she reached out her hand. Sam put the leash gently into her hand and she hooked it to his collar.
    â€œGood dog,” she said, marveling yet again at how well behaved he was.
    Two years earlier she’d gone to the animal shelter with her younger sister Janet and her family to look for a dog for them. When Monica saw Sam’s face behind the bars, however, she’d fallen in love immediately. “It’s so impractical,” she’d said. “I’m gone all day and that’s not a good thing to do to a dog.”
    â€œYou have a fenced yard out back,” Janet had answered with a twinkle, “and there’s probably a neighbor who could take care of him when you’re gone.”
    â€œI know, but…” An hour later Sam had joined her household. She quickly discovered that he’d been well trained by his previous owner and was a pleasure to own. When she was out late or stayed in the city overnight, as she often did, Craig, her next door neighbor’s fourteen-year-old son, was delighted to come over, play with Sam, then feed him and leave him in the house until he could let the dog out again in the morning. In return, Monica paid him twenty-five dollars a week, a small price to pay for good care for Sam.
    Now she hooked Sam up, opened the front door, and followed him outside into the steamy midday sunshine. It was amazing that the streets were completely dry despite the downpour of a few hours earlier. “Let’s have a nice calm walk,” she told the dog. She usually took him out for just a few minutes but as she strode through the visitors’ parking lot she deliberately made herself slow down. Coronary. She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and pressed a speed dial number.
    â€œBonnie? Hi, babe.”
    â€œHello yourself,” her older sister said.
    Now that she’d called, she felt a bit awkward. “It’s been a while.”
    â€œIt sure has. How the hell are you?”
    The two made small talk for several minutes while Sam sniffed at every bush and tree around her block of town houses. Finally, Monica said,