Tim & Chuck

Ch. 7 Makeshift Babysitting 102 with Tim

"Oh hey! Um...how long have you been standing there?"

"Oh, you know, long enough to see everything and understand none of it."

Friday passed peacefully and the four occupants of the Gallagher house fell into a nice routine. Tim escorted Hanah to school around 8 AM and Carly headed to work at her bakery around an hour after.

For the sake of ease, Tim opted to work from home for most of the day Friday, taking full advantage of the fact that there were no urgent meetings that he had to attend to. However Mandy faithfully kept him informed on the shenanigans of Kevin and the office interns, and Tim made a mental note to have a stern meeting with Kevin the following week.

But that was for next week to figure out.

Tim found himself really enjoying work from home. It was peaceful and significantly more stress-free, which he knew he could become easily addicted to. Chuck kept himself busy with his squeaky toys, which gave Tim ample time to get into a heavy work mindset at his bar counter, accompanied by a cup of coffee.

Once Hanah returned from school, Tim made sure that she had no pressing homework to be done. He knew her parents would never allow her to spend time with him ever again if she skimped on that and he had to admit, having another person around in the evenings was very enjoyable.

"Can we go bowling tonight?" Hanah asked hopefully. Tim looked up from doing his dishes. "If you get everything done tonight, we can definitely go tomorrow, huh?" Her face fell into what resembled in his mind the dramatic frowny-face emoji, but she nodded and resumed working.

A hectic Saturday followed what had been an uneventful Friday by comparison, but it started out fairly calm. Tim awoke at 7 AM to the soft click of his front door closing. Starting slightly, he jerked his arm wildly, smacking himself on the side of the head as he did so. He winced; now he was definitely awake.

Half-rolling off of the couch, Tim groggily went over to the kitchen to grab a drink of water. "I will be home around 4ish tonight if you still want to go bowling:-)." Tim smiled at Carly's cute handwriting, noting how she had chosen to refer to his house as "home". He then eyed the plate of fat, gooey cinnamon rolls that she had somehow managed to whip up without waking him. As far as he was concerned, Carly was a bakery goddess in more ways than one.

Since Hanah was still sound asleep upstairs, Tim decided to catch up on his favorite TV show and his crossword puzzles. After all, quiet Saturday mornings didn't come around as often as he would like.

Tim was already on his second cup of coffee and third crossword puzzle when his phone rang. Tim sighed. "Hello, father."

"You sound half-asleep, Timothy. I expected you to be awake by now." Jackson Gallagher's stern voice came through crisply. The patriarch of the Gallagher family was a businessman himself, with several conglomerates under his watchful eye, including what had been the Journal before Tim had taken full responsibility of it. His "tough love" approach with his children often made it difficult for Tim to see eye to eye with his father, but nonetheless Tim loved and respected him as best he could.

"It is a weekend, father. I don't often have free days like these to take a break from work." Tim said wearily, getting up to pace his kitchen floor.

"You are young and strong, son. You have no need for an off-day at your age. When you have reached an old age, then you can rest all you want." Jackson replied gruffly. "Never mind. I need a favor from you."

Tim grit his jaw and braced himself against his granite countertop. "What is it?"

"I have a golf tournament and luncheon with some prominent business partners at Montauk Downs today but my golf partner just canceled at the last minute with the stomach flu. I need you to be his stand in."