Right now, he wasn't feeling very strong.
"You're here late.” He looked up to see his boss, Tina, standing in the doorway. She was tough as nails, and at first they had butted heads quite a bit. But now they had become pretty good friends, at least from his perspective.
"I'm the new guy. Have to impress the boss," he said, laughing. Tina was a VP of the company, and she’d been assigned to oversee him as he started the new division.
She walked closer and sat down in the chair across from his desk. "You've already done that. Our numbers are on an upward swing."
"We are a new branch. There's nowhere to go but up."
"I mean they are exceeding all expectations. You should be proud of yourself for what you've done in such a short period of time."
"Well, I'm glad you think so. I really want to make this place successful."
She squinted her eyes. “You seem a little down today? Is everything all right?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "Just thinking about everybody back home. This was such a quick move, I really didn't have a chance to wrap things up there like I wanted.”
She nodded. "I understand. When I left Los Angeles, it was quite a culture shock to come here. But, I like it. And I know you will adjust also. Remember, I've only been here a couple of weeks longer than you have. I’m still learning the ropes too.“
"I'm sure everything will be okay for both of us. Are you headed out for the evening?"
She laughed. "Actually, I think I'm going down to Malone's to get a nice big glass of wine and watch some sports."
He leaned back in his chair. "You watch sports?"
"Oh yeah. I grew up with three brothers, so I definitely enjoy pretty much any sport."
William was surprised to hear that given how she looked. She was tall, long legs and bleached blonde hair. A couple of the guys in the office spent most of the day ogling her since she looked like a Barbie doll had just sprung to life. He’d pulled the men aside and told them staring at the big boss wasn’t okay and certainly wasn’t the right career move.
"Well, you enjoy your wine, and I'll see you here at the morning meeting." He looked down at his files, trying to decide which one to finish before going back to his sparse new apartment.
Tina stood and sat on the edge of his desk. "You know, life is about more than working."
"Not for everyone," he said, with a sigh.
"Why don't you join me?"
"What?"
"Come to Malone's with me. Have a beer or a glass of wine, relax for the evening. You're going to burn yourself out."
"To clarify, are you asking as a coworker or are you asking me on a date?"
She smiled, batting those long, most likely fake, eyelashes. "Well, if it makes you more comfortable to think of this as some kind of business meeting, then we’ll go with that.”
"I don't think you really answered the question."
Tina stood up, laughing as she sauntered over to the door. "I'll meet you downstairs in ten minutes."
As William watched her walk down the hall, he wondered what he was getting himself into. Maybe he should just stay at his desk and then go home and eat another slice of cold pizza. Or, maybe he needed to try to embrace this new life he’d chosen.
Julie pushed open the door of the bakery and stomped inside, her mission spurring her feet to move faster than normal. Thankfully, the last customer was walking out as she walked in, because this was something nobody needed to see.
"Oh, what a nice surprise! My daughter so rarely comes to visit me," SuAnn said, raising an eyebrow. She walked past Julie and locked the door, before turning off the Open sign.
"Mother, this is not a social call. I have a bone to pick with you. Actually, I have several bones to pick with you. In fact, I have an entire skeleton to pick with you!" Julie had been mad a lot in the last couple of years, but right now she was purely livid.
"What on earth has got you all agitated?" SuAnn stood there, her hair in a perfect bun, her white apron wrapped around her waist.
"You've only been here for a couple of weeks, and you have already wreaked havoc on several people. I don't know how you work so fast."
SuAnn stared at her, like she didn't have a clue what Julie was talking about. "Why don't you sit down and have a piece of poundcake? I think your blood sugar might be low," she said as she walked back behind the counter and started to cut a piece of cake.
"My blood sugar is fine. I don't want any cake!"
"Julie, and don't take offense to this, but do you think you might be going through the change?" Suddenly Julie let out a primal scream.
“Honestly, mother, can you even hear yourself?"
"Good Lord! Don't be screaming like that. I'm new around here, and you're going to ruin my reputation as a business owner. Now, why don't you sit down and tell me what's upsetting you?"
Julie sucked in a long deep breath and blew it out through pursed lips. Janine had taught her that at one point, and supposedly it was a great stress relief. But right now, she felt like an entire bottle of wine was probably the only thing that might alleviate her stress.
"I don't need to sit down. I won't be here long. First of all, it was bad enough when you pressured Colleen to accept a proposal."
SuAnn chuckled. "Young women don't realize that they need to strike while the iron is hot. The young boy asked her to marry him, and he's got a good job."
“Just because he's cute and has a good job doesn't mean my daughter needs to marry him right now. You need to keep your nose out of her business."
"Well, I didn't know it upset Colleen. I'll apologize the next time I see her, although my family doesn’t visit me very often,” she said, cutting her eyes.
"And then, you go and tell Janine that she should leave town and go chase William. You don't even know William that well. Janine is happy here. She has a successful business, family and friends."
"Honey, we all know that Janine is getting on up in years. She shouldn't have let him leave. There's nothing wrong with moving to Texas and starting a new life."
"You honestly want your daughter to leave when you just got here?"
"Of course not! It would break my heart. But, I want her to be happy. Do you know how many years it's been since I've seen Janine actually happy? And then she finally meets this guy and lets him go!"
"Mom, she's happy. Well, not right now. I mean, right now she's a little sad. But, she had been happy before that.”
“Exactly! She was happy because of that William guy. She needed to follow him."
"You're impossible. Forget about Janine for a minute. The worst of your egregious behaviors lately was in the form of you telling Meg to stop going to her group sessions?”
"I didn't exactly say it like that. I told her to stop airing her dirty laundry in public. It's just not classy to tell everybody your problems like that. People are very judgmental, you know.“
Julie sucked in another long breath and blew it out, trying to get her heart rate down. "She’s struggling with postpartum depression."