estimated that a minimum of one tenth of the population was employed by his family’s company while another hefty percentage were just as heavily reliant on them.
Nick had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, which was definitely true. But he was never the type to rely on that. After college he had decided that he wanted to start a business of his own and when Aaron had finished his time in the armed forces, he hired him to handle all the computer support and technological aspects of the company since that was something he was really great at. Or at least that was what he said; Aaron figured it was just to have someone to hang out with at work. The company wasn’t really large enough to need him doing full time IT work, but when he did have a project, he put his all into it.
“Whatever man. You know the drill, lunchtime. I’m hungry, so let’s go. My treat.”
“No can do. Seriously. I have way too much to do today.”
“Yeah. You say that now, but I wonder what you’ll say when I tell you the great news.”
“I’m sure it’s not more important than this.”
“I disagree.” Seeing that Aaron wasn’t biting, Nick laughed before speaking to his friend again. “Well buddy, you leave me no choice. Aaron, when I hired you on here, I told you I’d never pull rank on you man, but I am bored out of my mind. You know I’m not leaving unless you come so stop wasting our time and let’s go!”
Knowing that he would get more work done after he returned from lunch, he finally relented. That and the fact that he was seriously hungry.
“Fine. I was gonna have to eat anyway I guess. Let me just lock up my office.”
“That works.”
Twenty minutes later they were both eating corn beef sandwiches on rye, one of Aaron’s absolute favorite meals in the world.
“Man I love this stuff. I didn’t even realize how starved I was until we got here.”
He stuffed a few more chips in his mouth and took a drink of his lemonade.
“I know. You probably completely lost track of time like you always do.”
“You boys doin ok here? Need a refill or anything?” The waitress came over to their table to check on them. Aaron noticed how Nick had been glancing at her occasionally and was sure that his friend found her attractive. He couldn’t blame him. She was pretty indeed.
“No thank you Donna, we’re just fine and we won’t take your time up too much longer.”
“Oh you are ok. You guys come in here so much I just want to treat my good customers nice. Stay as long as you want. And I am gonna get you a refill of soda since you pretty much guzzled that one down Nick, alright.”
“Well thank you very much Donna.”
Nick smiled at her a second extra when she grabbed the drink and Aaron laughed.
“How long buddy?”
Nick cleared his throat.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean how long before you tell her that you are interested? It’s obvious to me and I can see she enjoys your company. You always get twice as many refills as me.”
“That’s because I drink faster than you. Like a man, instead of your little boy sips.”
“I just like to actually taste my food. You know, get all the value I can out of my taste buds.”
Nick laughed at his friend before speaking again, excitement in his voice as he continued.
“Oooh I almost forgot.”
In between large bites of his sandwich, Nick kept talking.
“About the good news I promised you. Let me ask you a question... have you seen Emily yet?”
Aaron froze switching his gaze from the sandwich in his hands to his friend sitting across from him who was grinning like he had secret information.
“What do you mean?”
“I figured you didn’t know. Clueless. You have absolutely no idea what I am talking