Julie followed Michael to a nearby café where Leon and Aria already sat at a table. “Everything okay?” Leon asked Michael as they approached. “Julie’s hesitant, but she’s willing to keep an open mind, and Aria?” Michael at least had the decency to look toward Aria for her reaction. Julie saw little reaction from Aria. But she noticed Ariad didn’t have her overly bright smile and wasn’t her loud, chatty self. This gave Julie a sinking feeling about this encounter. They sat, and the two men talked business for a while before they ordered their coffee. As they waited for their order to arrive, Leon turned to Julie. “I noticed you have a recent novel coming out soon. Did you know your books have caused quite a stir at the country club with everyone?” “No, I’ve been avoiding the club. Well, I knew a few people took offense. But it’s not something I intended.” Julie said. Her words quietly answered Leon’s question.
Julie slipped into a sapphire blue evening dress with intricately draped gathers that stressed her curves. She’d felt fat until she put this dress on because its construction hid the included shape wear in its design. Rather than wearing multiple garments, she only had to struggle with putting on the dress for the desired effect. Michael came out of his closet affixing a cuff link and stopped mid stride. His eyes roamed over her body with a heated gaze Julie now knew well. “Michael Barron no. We can’t do that right now, we’re short on time. We’re running late as it is.” He gave her a cheeky smile. “I could have you sit in my lap in the car, entertaining us both as you bounce.” “My dress will wrinkle. We’ll do it later when we’re heading home.” “You promise?” “How about I promise to give you my panties before we leave the car? You can help take them off.” “Only you could say such things seriously.
“I don’t understand, Leon. I apologized. Why didn’t she accept it? Is she that mean?” Aria wallowed in her coffee after Michael and Julie left. Leon could see she didn’t understand that unspoken rule. You can apologize to someone for anything, but there’s nothing that says the other person must accept the apology. Leon blamed her father and his cover-ups. Money moved his world. In his world, everything and everyone revolved around the sun. Of course, he’s the sun, so no one else mattered. Leon had grown over the last year after walking away from the plans for him to enter politics on Aria’s father’s coattails. The final nails in his coffin of his political career were when Leon realized Aria’s father could pin his dirty deeds on Leon, his grandfather’s involvement in the mafia back home in Italy. Leon walked away from politics, and he turned the tables on Senator Cain. The senator and his political career could sink or swim. Leon wouldn’t think twice of letting a few secre
This was Julie’s fifth book release, but the first release Michael was aware of and present for. Julie wasn’t sure how he’d respond to all the craziness. Gathering and shipping everything. Julie spent weeks with Beckett and Stephen, ensuring everything was perfect and it stayed within a firm schedule. Not something Julie liked to do, but she at least had helped. What Michael didn’t realize when she set up her apartment that’s where she stored everything. He never saw the boxes and boxes of books and merchandise. The bookmarks, stickers, postcards, and the boxes of books for her book signing needed her signature. Then there were the giveaway packages Beckett and Julie packed with the help this time of Ms. Higgins. These went out to almost fifty readers and Julie didn’t want anyone thinking they’d received a raw deal, so she researched packaging and ways to pack the boxes decoratively to survive the mail system, look good and impress her readers without being overly bulky. B
Leon hired a wedding planner after he’d received Aria’s ideas for their wedding. She wouldn’t deal with any of the vendors this time. Her name wouldn’t be on any of the wedding and her father wouldn’t have a word in its planning or contribute a single cent to the wedding, reception, or honeymoon. He knew where Aria wanted to go for her honeymoon and Leon figured it was a good start, but he’d add to her idea. When he finished with it, she’d have a honeymoon to remember and something valuable from each location that would remind her of their time there. He took techniques from Michael’s courting of Julie. They went for drinks several times together. They’d discussed the changes in their relationships. He’d shared what he’d learned about Aria’s situation and the help he’d struggled to find. It hadn’t been easy. Without his money and influence, he’d probably still be looking for help. Michael admitted they were looking for help from a specialist with
Julie gladly allowed the movers to take her things and pack them for her. They moved everything to the house and helped with placing many items they took with them. She didn’t have the strength or will to do any of it. If it’d been up to her, they’d be living from the boxes for months. Her recent novel and trying to remember to care for herself took up everything she had to get through the day. Michael seemed fine with this and pushed nothing with her. However, there were things they must unpack personally. One of those things was their clothing, and another was their offices. Copyright issues and risks of piracy or theft of her manuscripts kept her office unpacking for Beckett and Julie. Michael and Albert worked to unpack his office. However, Michael’s home office didn’t have the same level of complexity as Julie’s, with her stock of books and marketing merchandise. Julie now stored her work in various formats to prove her work from beginning to
Michael spent most of the afternoon getting Julie a faster appointment and succeeded before the business day ended. Finally, an appointment opened first thing in the morning. Michael spent a sleepless night. He was too concerned about Julie to sleep. Michael ended up sitting in bed staring at his wife, worried if he slept, he wouldn’t wake up to help her if she needed him. How had he ended up like this? He’d never missed sleep over anyone before this. Michael thought about how he waited a lot longer than he’d expected for Julie to become pregnant. He’d put a lot of effort into making it possible. His concern moved from impregnating Julie to her concerns about receiving decent care while pregnant and not suffering through the subjective opinions of the doctors and nurses masquerading as professional opinions. He understood Julie’s concerns. The entire medical system bogged down with opinions, blaming or belittling women, and he had los
Julie entered the country club again. Why she returned here, other than she missed being abused by other people. Not likely. Michael claimed that Edward Phillips wanted to pay for their dinner and apologize to them for his embarrassing behaviour. After Julie agreed to attend reluctantly, Michael told her what he thought happened to cause this. “I have a feeling the other members of the board of governors found out about your success and believe he’s made a mistake driving you from the club. I suspect they’ll try to encourage you to use their facilities to entertain business contacts and it’ll be lucrative for them in the long run. You’re a minor celebrity, but one who’s rising. They’d be foolish not to cultivate your membership.” “Michael, I only have a membership because I’m riding on your coattails. I think it’s more they are worried about you leaving and taking your business with you. Leon’s too, for that matter, and with his connection to Aria. Y