(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 returned home exhausted. He worked an average of seventy hours a week. After successfully surviving Y2K Michael and Toby went back to work on their own project. They created a company, but funding it was hard, stressful work. The happiest day of his life was when they launched their product and started to generate sales.
Over six years later, they had drawn the attention of some big companies. The day they received an offer to buy their product Michael didn't know if he should laugh or cry. Could they give their baby away after all their blood, sweat, and tears. They began to negotiate in good faith, meanwhile they had a new release of their product scheduled which wasn't ready.
Exhausted he sighed when he put his keys on the counter at nine-thirty. He was famished with a faint memory of a sandwich around one-thirty and too many cups of coffee since. Between him and the fridge was Aria with her hand on her hip and a pout on her face.
"I've been calling you." Her lips were puffy for a pout. She loved Botox.
"I know." He sighed. "We had a problem with the new release and..."
"Blah, blah, blah, you know I don't understand all your tech jargon."
Michael ignored her comment, although he was pretty sure his teenage nieces and nephew would understand his last sentence. He wouldn't dare say it to Aria, because any mention of his family caused a fight. She wanted to meet them, but he kept putting her off. He was too busy to make a trip home for a weekend, but also his mother and sisters would eat Aria alive and spit her out. What she lacked in substance, she made up for in other ways. Her puffy lips came to mind.
"I need to find something to eat." He walked toward her.
She huffed and moved out of the way. The fridge was filled with various take-out containers, because Aria didn't really cook and he didn't have time. Occasionally on a weekend, they invited Toby and his wife, Lindsay over and he would cook. He had met Aria through Lindsay, but she was a friend of a friend. He knew Lindsay barely tolerated Aria. Lindsay didn't complain about the long hours, because Toby was working for their future.
His busy schedule and exhaustion were the reasons he couldn't deal with ending it. She was not his future.
"Is any of this shit still good," he asked as he looked at the various containers.
"I guess. The Thai was yesterday or was it the day before?"
"What did you eat tonight?"
"A wrap."
He nodded and looked in the freezer. It was nearly empty. Hopefully, he could get to Whole Foods over the weekend. Opening the fridge again, he was glad to see the milk was still fresh. It wouldn't be the first night he ate cereal for dinner or the last.
"We should go out to dinner. We never spend any time together."
"I know. You're right." He had no trouble admitting the truth. He had done it enough growing up with a house full of females.
