Emison OneShots

Never Too Busy For You

In a universe where there was no A. Alison ran away from her parents and Jason was granted custody of her. She worked her problems out in therapy and unlearned the lying and manipulative behaviors. The girls are all 30. Emily and Alison are married with 8 year old twins. Emily owns a chain of high end restaurants. Alison is in event planning. Hanna has her own clothing line. Aria owns a photo gallery. Spencer has her own law firm.

Emily finishes getting her daughters, Lilly and Grace, ready for school.

"Ali, baby, what is on our schedules for today?"

"You have a 9 o clock virtual meeting with the regional managers, 11 o clock inspection at the New York location, and lunch with Aria to go over the details of the photos you need for the Vancouver location. I have a 9:30 with Hanna for show in Philly. An 11 o clock with Aria for the opening of her new exibit. Lunch with Veronica and Spencer to simultaneously go over the details of Veronica's presidential campaign in Philly and Spencer's community outreach event about representing those who can't afford representation. We have parent teacher conferences and 2 and Pam will be picking the girls up at 3 and will have them until 6 so we can do our weekly date night."

Emily smiles at that last part. She walks over and kisses Alison.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

The girls make a disgusted face and Emily and Alison laugh.

At 2, Emily and Alison meet up at the school. Emily meets with Lilly's teacher and Alison meets with Grace's. At 3, Pam meets them outside the school.

"There's my favorite granddaughters."

"We're your only granddaughters, lola."

Pam hugs the girls then gives Alison and Emily a hug.

"Enjoy your date."

Emily and Alison get into Emily's car and drive to the movie theater for an early afternoon movie. The theater is empty so they choose seats right in the middle. As the movie starts, Emily slips her arm around Alison and Alison cuddles into her. After the movie they head to dinner, then pick up the girls from Pam.

********

A few weeks later, Emily and Alison are being interviewed by Mona for a national journal.

"Emily, Alison. It has been a while."

"Almost a year. Everyone has been busy. The only  time we see the other girls is when it's work related or at Friendsgiving, which is when we last saw you."

Mona smiles and hugs them both.

"I know you both are very busy, so let's get this interview started, shall we? First question. How did you build your success?"

Emily gestures for Alison to go first.

"I connect well with people and I am a very organized person. I love to plan things. Organizing events and parties is a job I love to do."

"And Emily?"

"I used to cook with my mom when I was younger. I love doing it. At 20 I opened my first location here in Rosewood, and within a year I had two more locations. One in Philadelphia and another in New York. Now, I have more than a hundred locations across all 50 states and in Canada."

"The two of you have a family together and a strong marriage. How do you juggle your professional lives as well as your personal?"

"We make time in our schedules. When we come home, we leave our work at work. At home, it is us and our kids. Every Monday we leave work early and have a date night. Keep our relationship with each other strong. Unwind together."

"We keep a good balance. Like my beautiful wife said, we leave our work at work. You don't become successful by working all the time."

"Before this interview, I spoke to some of your employees. Employees from both companies had amazing things to say. You both pay $30/hour for entry level positions and after three months you increase to $50. You fully insure all of your employees from the day they start working. You offer unlimited paid sick leave and mandatory paid vacation. You offer two years paid parental leave and employees from both companies say they don't feel like they work for you but rather work with you. What prompted the decision to do all this?"

"I was very lucky to have come from a highly wealthy family and it didn't take long for my business to become a success. I didn't get into this to become more wealthy. What are we going to do with millions? When my business started growing, I knew I wanted to treat the people who work with me like human beings, not a mindless mass of slaves to make me richer."

"Food service has the highest employee turnover rate because those employees are treated like they are expendable. They are often put in unsafe working conditions with no workers comp for injuries and sometimes paid well below minimum wage. I wanted to change that. There are people who genuinely like working in the industry but management treats them like garbage so they leave. I give them the respect they deserve as people."

Mona continues the interview. Afterward they say their goodbyes, walking Mona to the door. Alison turns to Emily as she shuts the door.

"We don't have any more appointments today and there is still two hours before we have to pick up the girls from school."

Emily grins.

"What do you suggest we do?"

Alison slides her arms around Emily's neck and kisses her sweetly. They both smile into the kiss. Emily grabs under Alison's butt and Alison hops up, wrapping her legs around Emily's waist.

"I think you have an idea of what I want to do."