(Complete) When Tim Burke meets Julie at a party, she isn't impressed. When they see each other again, Julie decides to give him a chance. As Julie faces burdens and sorrow in her own life, Tim and his family provide the support and love she needs...
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Michael Shaw took his glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose. He'd been staring at the computer screen for hours and wasn't getting very far.
His partner and best friend, Toby, glanced over at him. "We need a drink."
Michael looked around their apartment. They were just about to graduate from Stanford but were too busy to celebrate. They were working on an idea which was sure to revolutionize the web. Both bet on the Internet to exploded with possibilities and they wanted to cash in on it. Ideas required time and money, and they were running low on both. The money part would be solved, but it would eat away at their time. As soon as he marched in his cap and gown and received his diploma, Michael would be working as an independent contractor. For fifty dollars an hour, he would prepare for Y2K. Companies around the world were paying the big bucks to make sure their computer systems were ready to switch to the year two-thousand. Doomsday theorists predicted chaos would ensue at the strike of midnight of the new millennium, but Michael knew better.
He didn't want to stop working to sleep, so he really didn't want to go for a drink. Going out always ended up being complicated because Toby inevitable picked up some girl and Michael would feel awkward when his friend brought a stranger home to pleasure for the night. Michael didn't have anything against sex, but he preferred to know her name and favorite color first. He basically felt it belonged in a relationship, but a relationship was the last thing in the world he had time for. Toby often told him he would feel better if he got his frustrations out, but he took care of them on his own just fine.
His biggest current frustration was his mother had called to nag him. She wasn't happy he wasn't returning home to Southern California after graduation. Michael lived in Silicon Valley with all the opportunities and money. He tried to explain this to his mother. He even mentioned he liked the weather better but what he kept to himself was he enjoyed being away from his smothering sisters and overbearing father.
He was lucky enough to grow up comfortable, but in return his father worked long stressful hours, as a vice-president at a large regional bank. He was never the father who played catch or took the family on vacations. Instead, he came home to a glass of something on the rocks and demanded complete silence while he watched the news or read the paper. Growing up Michael feared his father and wanted some affection or approval from him. Unfortunately, when the man noticed his son it was for what he hadn't done versus what he had done. Michael had a mile long list in his head titled, When I'm a Dad. He would work hard while he was young, but when the time came, his kids would come first. At least it was his plan even if he had a niggling at the back of his head it may never be a reality. He feared the desire to have a comfortable lifestyle or a challenging position would cause him to lose the balance. He liked to say that was what happened with his father, but he was certain the man just wasn't the play with your kids type.
Michael liked to play with his nieces and nephew when he went home. His four older sisters were already married. One or more was always pregnant. If they kept reproducing, he would have trouble keeping up with who each kid belonged to and what their names were. All of his sisters bossed him around and treated him like a baby his entire life. They acted as if he wasn't capable of doing anything on his own. Looking at his somewhat clean clothes and not so clean apartment, they were wrong or at least would be if he had some free time. He hated the smothering but loved the care packages they had been sending him the four years he was at Stanford.
His family had him labeled as the absent-minded computer geek, but his grades showed that he was anything but. He paid his bills on time and took the time to have an eye exam every year, which meant hey didn't need to baby him. Even if the job opportunities weren't right where he was living, he would not return home to be stifled by the females in his life. He loved his family from afar.
Before he could reply to Toby's suggestion to go out, Michael changed a line of code and executed the program. The sequencing worked. He had successfully solved the bug he had been working on all day.
Relieved he smiled. "Not now... We're on a roll."
Toby rolled his eyes. "That's why we need to go celebrate."
Michael quipped back. "You just want to get laid. Call one of the girls you have on speed dial. Don't mind me. I'll just work through the screaming."
Toby smiled a wicked smile. "Jealous?" Michael shook his head and his expression showed that he was not amused. "Fine. We'll keep at it, slave driver, but we're ordering pizza. I'm starving." Toby went to the refrigerator and pulled out two Sierra Nevada Pale Ales.
Michael took the bottle and scowled. Pizza again, maybe his sisters were right because he wasn't taking good care of himself. Someday everything would be different, but for now he would keep trudging away toward his goal.
Only his parents made the trip north for his graduation. His father grumbled the whole time - the flight was delayed, the hotel was noisy. Michael wanted to scream. Are you proud of me?
As if she knew, his mother hugged him. "Your father and I are so proud of you."
She didn't even hound him to come home at least not once she found out what he would work on. Michael was fairly certain she was afraid of the world ending and was glad her son would do his part to stop it. It help her father's bank were trying to prepare for the ominous date. He knew his mother would start hounding him on January first, two-thousand assuming the world still existed and phones worked and the power grids hadn't exploded.
Thankfully, his parents only stayed overnight, just long enough to take him out for dinner after the ceremony. He listened to his mother complain about how he was too thin and didn't eat enough. Then she moved onto how he was too pale, because he didn't get out enough. He wanted to remind her the sun was not healthy, but their family had a pool in the backyard. She was always in the sun while the kids swam. He knew his sisters spent most days at the house mooching childcare and meals.
Her last nag surprised him. "Don't waste time on girls."
"Really?" He asked. He thought she would say he needed to find a wife and settle down.
"Wait until you come home. I don't want you with some girl from here, so you won't come home."
Michael just rolled his eyes, because dating was not in the cards until he achieved what he wanted to achieve.
