by P. S. Power
“Really? OK. No take backs, you made the offer. I want a ring too. Diamond. It can be small, I'm not horribly shallow, it's just that diamonds are forever and it's a symbolic thing. Do you want one?” She wasn't looking at him at all.
“What? A ring? I've never thought about it. Sure? Something plain though? Diamonds on men just seem wrong. Well, unless I become a rapper. Then I might be able to pull that look off. You know, if it matched the rest of my bling.” They played back and forth like this for a while and she nodded seriously as if it weren't just a joke.
Promptly at noon everyone else started getting up. Meridith came out first, walking into the kitchen in an over sized shirt and little brightly colored ankle socks with rainbow stripes. If she wore anything else he couldn't see it, but he made a point of not trying to look. Instead staring at her face, which had a bruise on it beside her left eye. Not a bad one, but he pointed at it as coffee got passed in a big forest green ceramic bowl with a handle on it.
“Explain.” That was all he said. Flatly too. If there was abuse...
“This? Not sure really. No one hit me, but I might have face planted into a coffee table with a little help at one point. Mom. I don't think it was on purpose. The joys of being drunk, I don't really remember it clearly.”
She sipped at the coffee, made a face and then kept drinking. Bill and Laura came out almost at once, not looking at each other at all, just as he had the first of the eggs and pancakes ready. He set Amy to passing them out at the table.
“Eat. Everyone. I don't care if you're not hungry, we do not need low blood sugar issues today.” Josh waited until everyone sat with a plate in front of them, no one eating, to take one for himself. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't afford to sit next to Amy. He had to be fair or this couldn't work at all. It probably just couldn't anyway. Well, unless they wanted it to. Otherwise it was just him trying to prevent violence. Worth doing, but not the best case at all.
He took a bite of buttery scrambled eggs, not saying anything until he'd swallowed.
“OK, everyone here knows me, but just in case it got missed at some point, I'm Joshua Harding. I've been hired by an uninvolved third party to help set this situation as right as possible. That part isn't even a joke by the way. In order to do that, fix this, we all need to have our cards on the table, openly and honestly. Each of the people involved having a fair chance to express themselves.” He held up a hand lazily.
“Without yelling. That won't help anything. So, who wants to start? It pretty much has to be Bill or Laura right now.”
Bill cleared his throat, then stopped and shook his head. He looked horrible, bloodshot eyes and mussed gray hair. His expression reminded Josh of a basset hound, drooping eyes and so sad it almost hurt to see.
“What is there to say? It's all done, isn't it? I could have put up with a simple affair maybe, the age difference... I know Laura gets offers, all attractive women do...but so many? And some of the people involved were barely boys...”
It was a valid point. One thing to have an open marriage another to just make a job of being the town slut. Still, you didn't sleep with that many people just because it was a fun diversion, something else had to be going on. Possibly a mental disorder. Maybe even a real one. Josh mentioned that quietly, causing everyone to stare at him for a bit.
“Laura... is that what you want? For everything to be over?” Josh looked at her directly, not letting his eyes shift away from her. She didn't look good either and the urge was to not see it. That wasn't a real option though, was it? To keep it from being a psycho stare he tried to look compassionate. The woman shook her head slowly.
“No. I love Bill. I just... I can't help myself. I've tried, but nothing works. I mean I really can't stop. Even when I know it's wrong.”
“Have you tried counseling for it?” He asked, needing to know.
“Yes.”
“And you're willing to do it again, or find a new technique or trick if possible?
To keep working on it even if it gets hard or something doesn't seem to work? To make a point of finding the next thing or even having yourself locked up if you have to to stop yourself from making mistakes?”
She didn't speak, just looking down at her plate. After a bit she seemed to remember the question on the table and nodded.
“Yeah. I am.”
It was a starting point. Not enough in and of itself, but a place to begin. She'd go into therapy and stop drinking and the rest of them would go to group counseling sessions. He wanted to leave it there, but was kind of stuck with them all. At least until either the roads cleared or his ankle stopped hurting. It might have been fine, limping home, but by the time they all agreed to work on things and not just destroy the whole situation, it was already getting dark out and the caffeine had decided to fail him. He hadn't come for an overnight stay though.
Grand.
“Well, that only leaves one more thing to do, we need to get rid of all the alcohol. Grab everything and bring it to the kitchen please.” Josh expected arguments on that point. If drinking was a problem at least.
He was right.
Chapter twelve
The only person that didn't try to argue against the domestic prohibition was Amy, and she didn't seem happy about the idea overly. In the end though, they did it, dumping what had to be thousands of dollars of booze down the kitchen sink, all standing around like it was a funeral. Josh told them they could either do it or start a shooting spree, since that was the other main option. No one wanted to do that one though, so they finally fell into line. The place reeked for hours after, but everyone agreed that a lot of the problems they'd had were because of it, so they complied.
Josh figured that meant they'd all hidden some for later, but he wasn't going to go on a room by room search either. Either he trusted them, or not. The rest was up to them.
Given a nice guest room, having borrowed enough clothing and toiletries to be clean and presentable, if swimming in an old pair of sweats that belong to Bill, he called Mercy again and talked to her for a few minutes, explaining everything tiredly. He fought a yawn as he spoke, rubbing at his eyes.
“So, I'm here for the night. I didn't get to check a weather report. I don't know what tomorrow will bring, but I'll try to make it home if the situation can bear it. Now I need to call my employer and make sure he's up on everything.” Josh sounded exhausted of course. He felt it too, so that worked. Everyone was, but he'd been up for days. Nearly. He'd also walked over twenty miles in that time. It didn't sound so bad, but the snow and twisted ankle had taken a lot out of him.
Half an hour later he crawled into the bed, which was soft and warm and had nearly gotten to sleep when a soft, nearly timid, knock came. He got up, mainly through force of will, eyes not really opening enough to see, just in case it was an emergency or something that needed immediate attention, and found Amy standing in front of the door. She was dressed in a pair of flannel pajamas that were a red and green plaid. It was adorable and perfect for the time of year. Without a word she let herself in, gently closed the door and pressed him back in the dark room, against the bed.
Mouth to ear she whispered to him, her voice sweet and gentle.
“Yay you! We may not even end up living in the Beast. How did you manage it all? And more... Who hired you? Is that really real?”
“Um, I managed it with acting which you could probably tell since I'm not that great at it, I can't tell you yet who hired me and yes, it's real. I should be able to tell you who soonish though. It's not a big thing, but it could cause problems right now if Bill learned of it, though really I think he knows on some level, he's a smart man and I all but told him already. So I need to be careful. Even with you. After all, you could be a spy, couldn't you? Come to seduce my secrets from me?” He kissed her then, expecting her to do anything but what she did, which was to suddenly push him back on the bed and working down the waist of his sweat pant. He had underwear, but she didn't let that stop her either, getting t
hose down almost instantly. It was... a little shocking really. His mind was slow and fuzzy, not really tracking what was going on.
He stiffened, naturally, but it was dark, so she wouldn't know that, he told himself, wondering if this was a game or something. A prank meant to tease him for having been so bossy and out of character? The answer was or something.
A definite something that wasn't a game at all. Her hands found him first, which felt... heavenly. A lot better than using his own hand. After a bit something warm slipped around him. It took a second to realize what it was, not having any real experience.
Her mouth.
God.
The rest happened silently, with him in a daze and her doing pretty much anything she wanted to him. Like he was going to stop her? At the end he was going to offer to do the same for her, sleepy or not, but she stood up and left without saying anything at all. It was an abrupt thing, sudden and sharp. She didn't even kiss him or give him a hug.
It was still amazing. Josh wondered if the tingling feeling in his face was shock or just what happened when you did things like that? The first one, most likely.
He'd gotten to third base. Something he hadn't been sure would ever happen. Not for him.
With Amy.
It was a better day than he'd expected. Much so.
Of course then he nearly passed out, having pushed way too far, for way too long. He didn't wake up until nearly nine the next day. When he did it was to angry sounding yelling, a man's voice, deep and gruff. So he stopped, sighed, brushed his teeth and shaved quickly, then got dressed in his own clothes, wondering if it would be about him and Amy. It could be, but if that were the case, someone should be yelling at him. After all, he certainly hadn't told her no. That would be tense, but he'd take the fallout from it if it came.
When he got to the living room he saw that it was filled with people and that the ones yelling weren't anyone he cared about at all.
It was kind of a nice surprise. Christmas come early. No one was mentioning him at all even, so yay. His mother and Joanie were both there along with Dan Gables, another junior lawyer from the firm and Grace, the older, senior receptionist from the office. She was always nice to him and Dan made a point of remembering his name. None of them were doing more than looking mildly uncomfortable. The people yelling were mainly the four partners, but not Bill, who was humbly apologizing. That was the plan and the man was doing it remarkably well.
Really he wouldn't have done better if they'd written a script for it.
Everyone stopped when he walked into the room. So Josh nodded, and tried to pretend he was about fifty years older and had a lot more weight to his words. Like people should actually be listening to him. To make that seem real required eye contact with the people that had just been screaming, but that was alright, they'd switched to looking upset for the moment.
“Good morning, I guess the roads must be open finally? Good. Now, what seems to be the problem here?” He looked at the oldest of the other partners, a curmudgeonly man that he'd never spent much time around who pointed at Banister accusingly.
“He threatened our livelihoods based on a whim! One fight with his slut of a wife over her being unfaithful, as if that should be news to anyone, and we're all getting ready to hit the streets! Who are you by the way?” He blinked several times taking in Josh's appearance. It made sense, young boy walks in acting like... someone, it seemed reasonable to question it.
“Joshua Harding. Mediator. I've been asked to see to this situation.” Josh looked at the older man and nodded quickly, not letting him speak at all. “Now, I... don't think you have an immediate problem. You feel upset and need assurances that this can't happen again, which is reasonable, but not something that should worry you all overly right now. I think that in the next few days it will be possible for a bunch of lawyers to write up a simple document saying that, which doesn't allow for anyone to do anything funny at the same time. This is an unfortunate situation, but doesn't have to be a tragedy unless people make it into one. Is that acceptable?”
The man grumbled... but agreed.
“Alright. I tentatively accept that proposal.”
“Good. Now, stop yelling, will you all? Anyone else have an issue?” Why not, he was on a roll.
It was Grace who raised her hand, it was cute, because she looked like she could have been his grandmother and it was just a bit timid, but he just nodded to her. “Yes, ma'am?”
“We missed a day of work yesterday, due to all this, do I... get paid for that?” People actually started to try and shake their heads no, the partners, of course. He leveled a solid look their way.
“Yes, of course you do. It was an unfortunate thing, and no one will suffer financially from it. Bill?” He looked at the man who smiled and nodded his agreement.
“Of course. I'll cover any gaps for the non-partners. The rest of you, well, you didn't lose money anyway. Not at this stage of things. Again, I apologize for losing my temper and promise that the situation will be fixed in a manner that will prevent this from ever happening again.” It was the right thing to say and sounded professional, and more, nearly sincere. It worked well enough for everyone in the room.
Josh's eyes found Amy and Meridith sitting at the back, hidden nearly, on the dark sofa. He flushed when he saw her, but smiled, wondering if Amy would even make eye contact with him now. She'd left so suddenly he'd wondered if he'd done something wrong. It was possible, since he didn't have a clue what would be correct. He really needed to get that book that Joanie had mentioned before. She smiled back and waved, which sent a warm feeling through him. A little too warm.
At least if he was going to keep standing up in front of a group of his mother's coworkers and Amy's parents. Still smiling, he turned away from her, not wanting to at all.
“Anything else?”
No one had an issue other than the fear that their lives were going to disappear down a black hole if they blinked too long. That meant they were able to start moving toward the door about the same time that Samantha Banister showed up ten minutes later. Josh didn't recognize her at all. She was cute in a slightly square way, not fat, but no chance of winning a beauty contest either, at least until she put a smile on her face, that helped a lot. Her mouth was too broad and her nose a bit snubbed, her face should have looked like a man's, given how strong the chin was and her hair was an ugly dirty blond color. On her it all worked though. Her eyes were a strong and pretty blue, which he noticed as she searched the room.
Still Josh didn't get who she was until Bill called out to her, arms outstretched from nearly twenty feet away.
“Sam?” They collided into a hug, one with lots of back slapping that didn't last as long as the clench itself did by half. It was like watching two people that were afraid of drowning find each other in the water, without the desperate pulling on each other to try and keep their own head above water. Not yet. The woman kept looking around. She was dressed warmly, which was sensible, a heavy coat and gloves that were being pulled off as her eyes searched the room.
“Isn't Mr. Harding here? I was hoping to meet him...” She said to her dad, but loud enough for everyone to hear. It was a fair question, since they'd never met in person.
Josh walked forward, hand outstretched, she took it instantly and shook politely.
“Samantha? I'm Josh Harding, we spoke on the phone several times?” He smiled and let his voice sound professional as if he wasn't concerned with the fact that his age was a little low and that it would be silly for her to as well. For her part she just blinked.
“OK. So the incredibly expensive specialist is still in middle school. What did you do, offer to trade lunches with them?” The tone was sarcastic and a lot more pissy than she had any reason to be. Everyone else just stared at her as if she'd started swearing.
Josh nodded, a small smile on his face.
“Exactly. PB and J with no crust, with a hostess cupcake and Funyuns for all their problems, but I kept the soft drink
. I'd thank you not to point out my clever techniques like this, however, it's a trade secret.” Josh managed a perfect deadpan which got her to blink again. She did smile at least.
“No seriously... is he around I really need to talk to him. It's... private.” She looked around at everyone a bit desperately. Nervously.
Bill looked at his daughter and smiled.
“No honey, this really is the man. Don't let the looks fool you, he's the only thing holding my life together right now...”
He shook his head a bit at Bill, “no, you all have this now. Not that I'm going to be out of touch, but you don't really need me. Samantha... perhaps we could use Bill's office? If that's alright I mean Bill?” Josh looked around trying to stay calm in the face of the blatant disapproval coming off of the woman that looked a lot less pretty with a scowl on her face. Ah well, he wasn't planning on sleeping with her anyway. That brought a flashback to the night before, that still felt unreal. All these things kept happening to him in the dark, it felt almost like a dream.
Started walking toward the office door, the woman trailing, hesitantly, as if fearing someone was going to jump out and yell surprise, or maybe that Josh was going to need his diaper changed. It was a fair enough thought. Obviously her mental image of him had been different than the reality. Her doubt in him wasn't wonderful however and left him feeling a little cold inside. That he hadn't gotten as much doubt from a room full of forty-plus year old lawyers was probably just amazing. That or they'd recognized him as Mercy's son and already were clued in to the situation. Playing make-believe along with them, because if they wished hard enough it might work? Why not?
Once into the room he let her walk past and then shut the door firmly.
“Word from Warren?” The words popped out before she could say anything, which made her take a full step back.
“You... know about that?”
“Oh yea of... well no faith yet. alright, what's the issue? I have to caution you though, if it's anything other than you two agreeing that your fling was a onetime mistake, I suggest you learn to lie better. Bill cannot take you storming in here and requiring him to handle even one more thing. Not right now. Of course, I personally don't care what, or who, you do, but this is politics now and you're standing between two rather powerful men that need to be allies. I'm not saying you have to change your life, but it better look like it and fast.” He smiled and tilted his head at her, but his face looked hard. It was a look he'd practiced in the mirror. Just shy of his “I'm about to kick your behind” face.
