"I suppose you are right Melly. Come on I'm sure your mom is waiting for us." Three years ago shortly after Melodie's third birthday everything in Michael's life had fallen apart. It was pretty rare that he talked about it with anyone and for Melodie it was all perfectly normal as she had grown up in this kind of a household. Michael still thought even after these three years that he should have gotten custody of Melodie with his wife only getting visitation rights. He had raised Melodie those first three years far more than his wife had. In fact even now on most weekends she dropped Melodie off at his house for him to mind her. Not that Michael minded; no, he loved his daughter deeply.

Michael was thirty-four years old and still quite handsome. He had dark brown eyes that were a little small on his face, and a sharp but handsome nose that helped define the features of his almost round face. He was fit but not perfectly and could have stood to loose probably about five to ten pounds. Michael was a tax lawyer much as he hated to admit that. It was not a bad job, but it wasn't a great one either. If he could have he would have gotten out of tax law but so far there had been nothing to really motivate him.

His daughter had dark brown hair much like his own but it had a slight curl to it on the ends much like her mother's. His little girl was beautiful and since the moment she had come into the world had been the light in his eyes. He had known when Melodie was born that he didn't truly love his wife because seeing his daughter showed him what love truly was. The little six year old liked to dress in pink, it was her favorite color and she seemed to own everything in pink. He wasn't sure why it was her favorite but it didn't bother him, unlike her mother. As he stepped outside Tina his ex-wife honked the horn of her explorer and Michael leaned down hugging his daughter and said, "You be good for your mom okay and I will see you next weekend."

Melodie hugged him tightly and then kissed his lips once very lightly and said, "I love you daddy!" Then she headed off to the car. Michael as always was sad to see his daughter leave. As the car pulled out of the driveway he saw her in the back seat smile to him and then wave. There was hardly any contact between Michael and his ex-wife as she preferred it that way. She had Melodie call him most of the time and tell him that she was coming over, as that was to put it plainly a lot easier for her.

Michael sighed once to himself then headed over to his car. He had his own thing to go do. Tonight was the annual company party at his boss's house and Michael was required as were all senior members of the firm to attend. Last year he had gone and found it to be extremely boring, but he knew that he had to make an appearance if he ever hoped to make partner and retire rich. He started the car and pulled out of the driveway. Honestly he wasn't even sure why he wanted to retire rich. Perhaps it was because it was the only thing he had going for himself.

Michael did date on occasion but most of the dating he did was casual and it also usually ended badly so he had stopped dating almost all together which he partly regretted. It wasn't that he couldn't date, or that he was bad at dating, it was just that the women he picked up usually were all just not his type despite how interesting they appeared to be on the surface. Once he truly got to know them they all reminded him in one way or another like his ex-wife. They were shallow looking only for themselves and not even interested in what he was looking for. In fact it seemed as if most adult women he dated blamed their high school sexual experiences on the adult men that they now dated.

Michael pushed that thought away as he parked his car off to the side of the boss's house and got out heading up the steps to the large house. Douglas Brown the owner of Brown and Associates was a very well off man. He owned a house that took up almost half an acre all by itself and had over five bedrooms. There was not an inch of the house that his wife did not personally go over and redecorate once a year. Every room was redone as far as Michael could tell. He knew that the Brown's had only one daughter a girl named Heather, but he had never actually met her. He imagined she was a lot like her mother and that made things easier.

Inside most of the junior and senior partners were already here. As Michael was shrugging off his coat his boss Douglas Brown walked up. Douglas was an older man with a mostly receded hairline, his eyes were small and beady almost the color of black and he was slightly over weight to the point that he had a round stomach. He smiled when he saw Michael and said, "Glad to see that you made it. I was worried that you weren't going to be here."

Michael shook his bosses hand and said, "I wouldn't miss it for the world Mr. Brown, I just had to wait for Melodie's mom to come pick her up before I left the house." His boss knew that Michael had gone through a messy divorce three years ago after all he had helped get Michael a good lawyer, just not one good enough to get him his daughter.

"I understand. Come on in I want to introduce you to some of our new clients I think that we could put you on one or two of their cases what would you say to that." ......(cont)