“Hello, I’m Rose Tate; I’ll also be working on this case with Susan,” Rose said as she extended her hand to the woman in the room first.
Over the last year, Rose had learned that the wife always needed to be greeted first. By doing that, Rose was acknowledging that the woman was there. Often times, the male clients would take hold of a meeting and not let their wife get a word in edgewise, but Rose liked to make sure everyone had a chance to describe what was going on.
In almost everything Rose did, she felt worried about how the women in the room were judging her. The thoughts had only started in the last few months, and Rose just couldn’t work through them.
In the past, Rose hadn’t cared at all what others thought. She didn’t care if women hated her or their husbands loved her. But she was making a new life for herself and getting on the good side of the women she worked with was certainly a big goal Rose had.
Women were notoriously much harder to get along with than men. Rose knew this, and she was going to make an effort to get Abby Stern to like and trust her. If the wife could trust Rose, the negotiations would go by much easier.
“Abby Stern,” the young woman said as she shook Rose’s hand.
“Theo Stern,” the man said when Rose moved down the table to him.
Abby was a knockout brunette with a curvy figure and amazing bright blue eyes. She seemed rather shy but confident all the same. Theo was tall, slim, and he had a bit of scruff for a beard; he was very confident and had the intense eye contact with both Susan and Rose to prove his level of comfort.
“We were just getting started, glad you could join us,” Susan said with her fake smile.
“Me too,” Rose responded without looking at Susan at all. “First off, I need to know if you guys are considering a settlement on this case.”
Susan seemed shocked as she looked at the couple and then over at Rose. The last thing they wanted to do was settle the case without a courtroom battle. The only way Rose and Susan would make money would be from hours billed. So a long courtroom battle would mean more money for the both of them.
The problem that Rose saw was that Abby was guilty. Sure, she might not have been charged legally, and she probably didn’t do the actual deed, but she did murder the man. There was no doubt about it. The actions that Abby took on that night had led to the death of a man. Rose couldn’t guarantee a win. It was a hard mental defeat for her, but the next step was to see what the couple wanted to do. If they wanted to fight in court, Rose and Susan would happily help them, but Rose didn’t think that would be necessary.
Theo and Abby looked at each other and then nodded. It was nice to see the connection between the two of them. Rose could tell that they were deeply in love. Abby held onto her husband’s hand and glanced at him for wisdom, but Theo also looked to Abby for wisdom as well. It seemed like the perfect relationship; at least from what Rose could see. She was very aware that behind closed doors, people often had much different relationships.
“We would consider it, if it was reasonable,” Theo said. “But it’s my understanding the woman is asking for fifty million dollars.”
“That’s certainly not reasonable. We can help you. It might take a few months, but we can get you into court and let a jury decide the truth,” Susan said.
Unfortunately for Susan, she hadn’t read all the file information and really didn’t understand the facts in the case. Rose strongly believed they had just as much chance of losing a jury vote as they would of winning, and those were bad odds when fifty million dollars was in the mix. The problem was that losing wasn’t in the cards for Rose at all. She had only lost a couple cases since joining the firm and wasn’t about to lose such a high profile case. Rose genuinely thought the couple should settle.
“Here, Susan, I have the summary notes you requested,” Rose said with a smile. “Mr. and Mrs. Stern, I don’t want you to settle if that’s not in your heart. I’ll fight with you to the bitter end. But I have to be honest. I don’t know if you’ll win. I came into this case thinking that I would be able to help you avoid paying anything at all, but I am just not sure anyone can guarantee you that.”
“I didn’t kill him,” Abby said quietly.
“I know dear,” Theo said as he held onto her hand.
“What Nicole is charging is that you were negligent in your behavior, and her husband ended up dead.”
“But Nicole is the one who killed him or the bullets from the police. I’m not really sure. All I know is that I didn’t do it.”
“Okay, let’s take a step back. Why is Nicole coming after you guys right now?” Rose asked as she pulled a pen out.
“She wants money,” Theo said plainly.
“Why does she want money? I mean her husband was filthy rich, wasn’t he?”
Rose knew the answer to her own question, but she wanted to give Theo and Abby a chance to come to the conclusion themselves. It was always easier to negotiate a settlement when the client understood the true motives of the person who was suing them.
“His funds were all seized after his death and taken because of his drug business,” Susan chimed in.
Rose smiled at her. It was nice to know that Susan was reading the notes Rose had provided.
“Exactly!” Rose said. “I don’t think Nicole wants this to go to court. I don’t even think she wishes either of you bad will. I think she has no job, and no one wants to hire her after what happened. I think she needs money to live, and you’re her only chance.”
“Oh, I didn’t think about that,” Abby said as tears welled up in her eyes. “Nicole is the only reason I’m alive. Because of what she did, I’m here.”
“We can’t just give her money because she wants it,” Theo said sternly.
“Why not? You give millions to charities all around the world. This is a woman you know. Someone we both feel bad for because of what she’s been through. And she’s the one who saved your wife’s life,” Abby said as she crossed her arms.
“Very true, but we can’t afford fifty million dollars.”
“How about I have her come in, and we bring a negotiator and see if we can’t settle this?” Rose suggested.
“I know a negotiator we can get on short notice,” Susan added.
Rose and Susan looked on as Theo and Abby talked quietly to them. It felt like they were actually working as a team. Rose could see the defensive wall figuratively crumbling between them.
“Thanks for the notes,” Susan said with a genuine smile.
“No problem.”
“I can’t afford more than five million,” Theo finally said as he broke from his huddle with Abby.
“I think she’ll take it. I think if we get her in here and you three together; I think she just wants this all to be over. Are you alright with me calling her?”
“Yes,” Abby said firmly.
Rose got up and went out to her desk. She was able to get Nicole and her lawyer into their office within the hour. The mediator was late, though, so the group sat in the conference room together for a bit before Susan had a bright idea.
“Let’ s get the lawyer out of the room and let them talk,” she said quietly to Rose.
“Great idea.”
“George, would you like something to eat?” Susan asked. “We have a whole table filled with bagels and other morning snacks.
“Sure, as long as we are waiting,” the lawyer responded.
As soon as the lawyer and Susan were out of the room, Rose found a reason to excuse herself too and left Theo, Abby, and Nicole alone to talk things out. She could only hope that the three would be able to come to some sort of kind understanding about the situation.
Fifteen minutes went by, and as the mediator arrived, Susan stopped stalling the lawyer, and they all went back into the room. Rose looked at Theo and Abby for some sort of clue to what was going on, but they weren’t saying anything with their faces.
“Nicole, I need to thank you for what you did to save my wife that night. I hate
that we are here, and if it would help you out, I’d settle this claim so we can all move on.”
“Oh, no, Ms. Gioacchino isn’t going to settle,” her lawyer started to say, but Nicole put her hand on his arm to stop him.
“I’d appreciate that. What number are you thinking?”
“What number could represent the life of my wife?” Theo said. “I don’t know, Nicole, but I can’t pay fifty million; you know I don’t have that.”
“How about two million?” she asked.
“Yes,” Theo quickly responded. “Yes, I would settle this right now and have the money wired into your escrow as soon as the papers were signed.”
“Nicole, if he’s willing to give you two million just like that, we have a good chance at court. Let’s take this to the courtroom,” George, the lawyer said.
“I have no need for courtrooms,” Nicole said as she stood up and walked around the table. “You’re a good man, Theo. I know why Aldo loved you so much. Thank you.”
“Thank you, Nicole,” Theo said as the two gave each other a big hug.
It was an emotional moment for Rose. Both parties had reason to draw the whole case out and drag each other through the mud, but there they were hugging each other and agreeing to a reasonable settlement. It gave her a little hope for humanity.
“We will have the papers drawn up and a messenger over to your office,” Rose said to George.
George didn’t look happy at all at Rose or Susan. Their little stunt had just cost him thousands of dollars in billable hours. But Rose felt good about what they had done. Not every case needed to go to court. Litigation was about more than dragging each other into the dirt. Each party just wanted to be heard, and when level heads were involved, both parties could end up winning.
“Elaine’s going to kill us,” Susan whispered. “We probably just lost a million dollars in billable hours.”
“Yeah, don’t worry; I’ll take the fall.”
“No way. I loved this. If you go down, I’ll go down with you.”
“Well, Susan, hopefully, neither of us will go down.”
Chapter 31
“Drinks, we have to go have some congratulatory drinks,” Shamus said as he stood over Rose’s desk.
“We only billed like two hours; you can’t exactly celebrate that.”
“Yes, you can. You served the client the best way possible. I bet you twenty dollars that he switches all of his legal work to us now.”
“I’ll take that bet,” Rose said as she shook her coworker’s hand.
Rose didn’t think it was likely that Theo would be switching all his business to them anytime soon, he still ended up paying out two million dollars in a settlement. But she did feel like they won the case. From fifty million down to two million was a pretty damn good negotiation.
“Oh, she’s coming with us,” Susan said as she pulled Rose’s chair out from under her. “No is not an acceptable answer.”
“I’m not really in the mood for drinking.”
“Someone get a thermometer,” Stewart added. “Rose is sick; she doesn’t want to drink.”
“Ha, ha, very funny. I’ll come, but just one drink, and then I need to get home and catch up on my sleep.”
“Yeah, yeah, one drink,” Susan said as she pulled Rose with her toward the elevator.
“You do know that we hate each other and this was supposed to end in a fist fight,” Rose jokingly added.
“Yep. I think Elaine expected to be able to fire one of us after this case.”
“She still might.”
Rose wasn’t entirely sure why everyone was so darn excited about the case. Elaine was going to flip out when she realized they had lost all those billable hours. Rose suspected it would all fall back on her, and she would again be labeled as the horrible person who ruined things.
At the bar, one drink turned into three, and before Rose knew it, she was totally smashed. It had been months since she had gone out drinking with friends. The fear of not being able to control herself around the men was constantly on her mind and had kept her away from the bars. But on that night, she felt totally in control. She was celebrating!
Not only had they done an awesome job with the client, but Rose and Susan hadn’t punched each other in the face; she considered that a pretty damn good thing to celebrate.
“Rose,” Noah said as he walked by with a couple of his friends and then backtracked.
He looked baffled at Rose and then over at Susan as the two women laughed. It was probably the last person in the world that Noah thought he’d see Rose having a drink with.
“Oh, hey Noah,” Rose said as she tried to not seem drunk.
“Mr. Conley, did you hear about our case?” Susan said as she leaned in.
Susan was also drunk, and as she put her arm around Rose to stabilize herself, Noah knew he was going to have to stay with the ladies and make sure they got home alright. He turned to his friends, said his goodbyes, and then pulled up a stool and sat down next to Rose.
“Nope, I didn’t hear. I thought it was going to be a long drawn out lawsuit?”
Rose scrunched up her nose and shook her head. It certainly wasn’t going to be a long drawn out lawsuit.
“Rose helped them negotiate a settlement. Isn’t that awesome!” Susan said.
“Well, it was both of us. We worked together,” Rose added as she tried to make sure Susan would also get in trouble if Noah were angry.
“That’s amazing ladies. The lawsuit was for fifty million; what did they end up settling on?”
Rose held up two fingers and took another shot of vodka. She couldn’t bring herself to look at Noah as he tried to figure out what the fingers were for.
“Twenty million? Wow, that’s a good negotiation,” Noah said sincerely.
“Two,” Susan leaned in to say. “Rose got them to settle for two million.”
Noah looked shocked at what he had just heard. He looked at Rose for confirmation. He grabbed one of the shots in front of Rose and downed it himself. Stewart and Shamus began to cheer him on.
“Way to go boss man,” Stewart yelled out.
“You’re shitting me. Nicole settled for two million after one day of negotiating? That’s a miracle!”
“It was all Rose,” Susan said as she leaned in and hugged her.
Rose wasn’t sure she liked all the new chumminess that Susan was handing out, but it was much better than getting punched in the face.
“So you’re not mad?” Rose asked.
“Hell no! You just proved that you could negotiate a settlement that would make any client happy. Our job is to make the clients happy.”
“We only billed a day’s worth.”
“Trust me, this is a huge deal. Can you just understand that you’re damn good at your job? Why is that so hard for you?”
Rose didn’t know. Her brain was foggy, and she couldn’t even remember why she had thought it was going to get her in trouble to make such a great deal for the client. Rose also couldn’t think with Noah sitting so close to her. Even his cologne drove her nuts and made her think dirty thoughts about Noah. More than dirty, she imagined every possible place her lips could touch on his body.
“Thanks, Noah,” she finally managed to say.
“You know it was a year ago right over there that you kissed me,” Noah said with a smile.
“Oh, that wasn’t a real kiss. I was just showing off for my friends.”
“Your lips were on mine; I’m pretty sure that’s a real kiss.”
“Technically, yes, but it didn’t mean anything. We were just messing around,” Rose said as she tried to change the subject. “What were you and your friends doing here?”
“It’s where us single guys come on Friday night to pick up chics.”
Suddenly Rose felt like she had been punched in the stomach. She didn’t know why she hadn’t realized it before, but if she wasn’t with Noah, that meant he was free to go find any other girl to sleep with. She didn’t like the th
ought of that at all, although Rose was very aware of the double standard that even thinking such a thought was.
Certainly, she hadn’t expected that Noah would just stay celibate while he waited for her. And how long did she really think he should wait? Wasn’t a year pushing the limits for any man to wait for a woman?
“Oh,” she managed to say softly as her head spun with ideas.
“I should get you ladies home. Neither of you look like you’re in any condition for driving.”
“Actually, I just called an Uber,” Susan said. “Stewart and Shamus live just down the street from me.”
“How about I take you home, Rose?” Noah asked.
Rose was still stuck in her thoughts, though. How many women had Noah been sleeping with over the last year, and she hadn’t noticed at all? Maybe he had a girlfriend at one time or another? Maybe he had meaningless one-night stands? Rose realized she didn’t know at all because she had been so self-absorbed that she hadn’t bothered to talk to Noah about his life in months.
“Um, yeah,” Rose responded.
She couldn’t think straight, and it wasn’t because of the alcohol. After how she had treated Bronx, she realized she was being just as horrible to Noah. Yet there he was, standing next to her and rooting on her work successes.
The ride back to her house was quiet because Rose was stuck in her own thoughts. She had been horrible to Bronx and then to Noah; was there any hope for her at all? She hated the realization that Noah had put his heart out there for her, and instead of grabbing onto it, Rose pushed him away. Not only had she pushed him away, but she did it while sleeping with someone else.
She didn’t deserve a guy like Noah. Rose was sure that he was too good for her. Years of loyal friendship, and she had just let him sit in limbo like she was some sort of teenager flirting with several boys on the same football team. Rose was embarrassed for herself. How could Noah even like her at all, especially after all she had put him through? But there he was gallantly taking her home to ensure she was safe.
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