Beautiful Mistakes

"Some of them. One of the apartments is really nasty, I'm going to have to gut it completely, but the one he already has rented to someone must not be too bad, and the one I cleaned out with all my free time wasn't bad, it just needed some TLC."

"And the other ones?"

"All need work, but I still have some time to work on those before Flavor opens and what I'm bringing in from the two apartments I'm going to be renting out pretty much pays my monthly payment on the whole unit. Not quite, but once I get another unit up and running that should cover it. By the time I get four rented out I'll be seeing some profit."

Shaking her head, Julie stated, "Aaron, you're too ambitious."

"Nah, I just want to give our little poppy seed a nice life," he said, giving her a little smile.

"Which we could do with your income from the café alone, and once I get my bachelor's degree I'll be able to help out, too."

Shrugging, he said, "Getting the place cleaned up will be the most work; once I get the place fixed and rented out I’ll just have to maintain it. I've never minded work, Julie."

"I know," she said with a slight nod. "But I want you to want to be home more than you want to be at work."

Chuckling, he said, "Well, obviously."

"Can we afford all this?" she asked, beginning to get concerned. "I mean… I'm only working part-time, and I'm working for you. You're running the café, opening another restaurant, buying apartment buildings and now looking at a condo? Why don't we just stay where we are at least until we make sure we can finance all this?"

Laughing, Aaron said, "Julie, if I couldn't finance it I wouldn't be doing it. Don't worry about it."

Realizing she really knew nothing at all about Aaron's financial situation, she began to wonder about it. She should probably check into that if they were going to get serious.

"Well… why don't I help you?"

"With what?"

"With the apartments. I mean, I can't do any of the big manual labor because I'm pregnant, but I could do simple things like cleaning the apartments up and helping you pick out stuff."

"The apartment I'm working in now does need to be completely retiled," he acknowledged. "You could probably help me pick that out and do some of the easier stuff. I could take you through it if you want."

Smiling, she told him, "I would love that. I want to be included, I want to help out. And I'm a good decorator, too; I could help you make the apartments really cute."

"You can't do very much, you're pregnant."

"I may not be able to lift a couch over my head, but I can certainly pick things out," she reasoned.

"True," he allowed. "You can pick colors and things like that." Then he looked up and smiled a little. "But enough shop talk, we're arriving at our second part of the date."

"Oooh," she said teasingly, smiling up at him. "What is it?"

Just as she asked they arrived at a little shop front that she couldn't see in, because there was some sort of black covering over the window. Frowning a little, she said, "You're going to murder me and hide the body, aren't you?"

"Damn, you ruined the surprise."

"Let me at least freshen up my lipstick first."

Aaron tossed a smile her way and then he stopped in front of the door, getting a key out and putting it in the lock. He held the door open, gesturing for her to walk in.

Giving him a funny smile, she walked through the door and walked up the three steps onto the raised hardwood floor. To her left and right were beautifully upholstered beige and burgundy seats that ran the length of the wall to the hostess booth. In front of the booths there were short round tables—two on each side.

Inside she was met with the sound of Frank Sinatra playing from the speakers and a smiling blond girl in a little black dress who came walking from the hostess booth holding two menus.

"This," Aaron said, lightly placing a hand at her elbow as he walked up beside her, "is my new restaurant."

Grinning, she said, "It isn't open yet."

"I figured we could be the first customers."