Morning all. Hope your week is going well. Mine is a bit up and down, but over all not too bad, The tree pollen is getting to me and I am hoping the upcoming rains will at least wash some of it out of the air, but well, spring, right? Lets all start off our day with a new prompt to get the brain moving. Timers set for fifteen minutes and let’s see what story this prompt brings.
Not where I thought this was going at the start.
Wednesday, May 6th: It was pure indulgence.
It was pure indulgence. She knew the cost of the spa weekend was high but felt after what she endured over the last six months, it was money well spent. A weekend of pampering was not just about all the high end products and luxury skin treatments, it was a mental break more than anything else.
The past six months were a balancing act. The daily tasks needed to be accomplished and they were many in number. Somehow she was put in charge of the renovation. She wasn’t entirely certain how. She suspected someone took the if you want something done give it to a busy person to extremes. Her parents didn’t work. Had never actually worked, to be honest.
The family money was made several generations prior. Her father made a pretense of going into the corporate offices for a while because his father thought he needed to. Eventually that stopped. It was less a duty done than the realization that the office functioned better without him.
Her mother was nominally on committees. Her name was at least and she attended the fundraisers if they involved dressing up and going to glamorous places. Otherwise it was just her name on the list.
Amelia was the youngest child by about fifteen years. She was a surprise her parents weren’t thrilled to receive. Her older siblings were teenagers and mostly capable of being self-sufficient. Her parents had already segway-ed into a live of leisurely travel and were not about to go back to parenthood. Amelia had a nanny until she was old enough to be shipped off to boarding school.
She went from boarding school to University with only the occasional card and gift sent her way to acknowledge her existence. When she landed a job that was near her parent’s house she thought it might be a good way to get to know them at least a little. They were happy to give her a guest suite especially as she would be able to coordinate things as far as the renovation went.
She lived at the house and ran the renovation while her parents travelled. Her siblings were out somewhere in the world doing whatever they did so Amelia was left in the family home alone. It wasn’t exactly what she planned, but it wasn’t unusual.
Work was interesting. She thrived and was given ever more challenging projects as she moved up the ranks. No one there knew she was one of the Vaughn’s. As far as anyone could remember they had only two children and Amelia was not one of the two they knew of. So she flew under the radar. It occasionally bothered her that she wasn’t considered as part of her family, but she did like that her work was valued on it’s own merits instead of for her name.
She had recently been offered a promotion that would take her away, across the country in fact, to the other office. It was a chance to run things. Amelia realized that once she left, she wasn’t going to come back. It was something to consider. She wanted to know her family, which is why she moved closer in the first place. It was clear, they had no such desire.
Ten til Midnight 