CHAPTER1:
Sue Bergamon is the picture of a woman living the dream. She was a straight-A student in law school. Now she is a successful lawyer working for one of the top firms in Baton Rouge. All her bills are paid on time, she has her own car, she lives in a beautiful home, and she has everything she needs at the tips of her fingertips. Yet things are not always what they seem.
“Can you please get me a cup of coffee, Marie? On second thought, make that a bucket,” said exasperated Sue while she sat in her desk buried neck-deep in paperwork.
“The Lawsons’ case stressing you out again?” asked Marie as she handed Sue her cup of coffee.
“Ugh, you won’t believe how fussy that couple is -- they’re absolutely impossible to please!” groaned Sue . “They’ve changed their mind twice today. And it’s not even past lunch time yet.”
“Come on, boss. Let’s grab something to eat. Just take your mind off the case for a little while so you can start fresh later,” offered Marie.
“You don’t know how tempting that sounds, Marie, but I need to go to the Lawsons’ this afternoon. I’ve only got a few hours left. I need to finish this quickly.”
“A week more of that and you’ll start to look like one of those anorexic girls. You haven’t eaten your breakfast yet, too, boss-- would you like me to order some takeout for you?”
“That’s sweet of you Marie, but I’ll just grab a bite later while I’m on my way to the Lawsons. Enjoy your lunch!” said Sue while forcing a smile.
“Alright, boss. By the way, I’d hate to add more to your stress, but your mom called earlier and wanted to speak to you. I told her you’re extremely busy right now and she told me to tell you to call her back as soon as you can.”
“I see. Thank you, Marie. I’ll take care of it.” Marie closed the door behind her.
Sue stared at her phone, contemplating whether to call her mother back or not. She took a deep breath, picked up the phone and started to dial. The phone rang once. She hung up. She stared at the phone for a couple more minutes, and then she dialed again. She let it ring three times then her mom picked up.
“Hi, mom! Marie told me you called earlier. Is there something wrong?”
“Does a bad thing have to happen first before I call my favorite daughter?”
“Mom, I’m your only daughter.”
“That’s right. And that’s why you’re my favorite.”
“So why did you call today?”
“I just missed you, sweetie. Your dad and I had been pretty busy with our own cases lately and we haven’t talked to you in ages. So I decided to give you a call.”
“Well, I’m neck-deep in paperwork, too, mom. The Lawsons’ case is so impossible.”
“Awww… I know you can handle that, baby. You’re a Bergamon after all. The Bergamons are the best lawyers anyone can ever hope to have. I’m sure you won’t let the Bergamon name down, dear.”
“Yes, mom. Of course I won’t.”
“That’s great. Well, I just really wanted to hear your voice, sweetie. And now that I have, you can continue your work. Break a leg, honey.”
“Thanks mom, say hello to dad for me, too.”
“I will.”
Sue stared at the flyer leaning against a picture frame on her desk. Then, she looked at her calendar. It was Thursday. She said to herself, “Well, I haven’t got much to lose anyway. If my parents found out, I’m dead. If I don’t do this, I’d die from this sickening job sooner or later anyway. Either case, I’d die so I might as well choose to die with a smile on my face.”
CHAPTER2:
“Hi! I’m Sue Bergamon. I’m one of the contestants for tonight’s New Orleans Battle of the Voices. I’m here to register.”
The chunky black woman with dreadlocks behind the registration table looked at her from head to toe with one eyebrow raised as she scrutinized Sue’s smart suit and briefcase. “You don’t look like you stand a chance, honey. There are some pretty amazing singers who have signed up this year. You’ll most probably be squashed like a bug. Just saying,” said the woman.
“Well, at least I tried, right?” said Sue in a nervous chuckle. The woman shrugged as she gave Sue her contestant number. I’m number 13…just my luck, she thought.
She put the number in her briefcase and started walking towards the wharf. People are hustling back and forth at the The Cutting Room Bar getting ready to prepare the stage for tonight’s singing contest. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The saltiness of the sea breeze filled her lungs and the constant and steady sound of the waves rolling their way to the shore filled her ears.
“Oh well, I guess I’d better get ready for tonight.” She went back to her car to get her small black suitcase and walked towards her hotel to check-in to her room. As she was turning a corner towards the elevator, a guy who was running to catch up with another guy bumped into her and knocked off her key. He very quickly apologized, picked up her key, and handed it to her before he ran off again. She stared at him while he ran off until he disappeared. Then, as she turned to go, something on the floor caught her eye. It was a royal blue guitar pick. She flipped it over and the initials “BS” were written with a black marker. She reckoned it was from the guy she had just bumped into and she put the pick in her briefcase.
After she settled in her room, she took off her boring all-black suit and took out her mint green halter top summer dress accented with crystal beads she bought the day before to wear for the contest and put it on. She let her naturally wavy light brown hair down, parted it on the side, and clipped one side with a starfish clip. She took off her glasses that hid her beautiful hazel brown eyes and replaced them with contacts. She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled nervously. Then, she opened up her briefcase to get her contestant number, but while she was looking for her number, she saw the guitar pick again. She stared at it for a while and decided to put it in her purse as well hoping it will give her better fortune than her contestant number.
At the bar, she entered through the back entrance and was stopped by two big, burly doormen. She showed them her contestant number and they let her in and told her where to go. She walked down a dimly lit corridor that opened up to a big room filled with other contestants preparing for the contest. She went to the last table and chair in a corner with a mirror on it marked number 13. Her heart was pounding in her ears. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to drown out the noises and calm her heart. Then, she heard the soothing waves outside calling her name.
One by one, the contestants were called to sing and she could hear their powerful vocals and the crowd’s applause outside the room. “Yep, I’m screwed,” she said to herself. They really were really good singers, just like what the black woman at the registration table said. She kept thinking that maybe this was all a bad idea. Maybe she is just going to make a fool of herself and go home accomplishing nothing at all. Maybe…
Her thoughts were interrupted by a tap on her shoulder. It was one of the crew holding out a microphone to her. “You’re on, sweetheart.” Her trembling hands reached out to get the microphone. She took a deep breath and stepped out onto the stage; the bright lights hit her and made the crystal beads on her dress sparkle. Suddenly, she could hear her heart pounding again and her knees started to buckle. Then, her music started to play. She smiled and closed her eyes as the melody filled her heart. She put the microphone to her mouth and started singing her heart out.
At the end of her performance, the crowd just went wild. The whole bar shook from the crowd’s thundering applause. She stood there in the middle of the stage speechless and shocked but extremely ecstatic. She did not expect a reaction like that at all. Suddenly realizing that she had been standing on th
e stage frozen for ages, she hurriedly went to the backstage, unaware that a set of gorgeous green eyes had been staring at her in amazement.
CHAPTER3:
Sue stared in disbelief at the trophy in her hand as she was walking out of the bar. She still couldn’t put her head around the fact that she had actually just won a singing contest. It has always been her dream but now it’s not a dream anymore. It’s real. She can touch and take home the proof of it all.
Suddenly, a man’s voice startled her and when she turned to look, she was staring back at the most gorgeous emerald eyes she had ever seen. He was holding a guitar guitar in his left hand and was wearing tattered jeans and a body-hugging shirt under a leather jacket. He combed his right hand through his sun-bleached brown hair before extending it to her for a handshake. “Hi! My name is Bryan.”
“Sue .” She shook his hand and smiled, realizing that this guy was the same guy who bumped into her at the hotel.
“Your performance back there was amazing! How come I’ve never heard you sing here before?”
“Thank you. I’m a lawyer from Baton Rouge. I just took a chance to drive here for the weekend and enter the contest to see if I can be in the same league as other singers.”
“The same league? Girl, you surpassed them all!”
“Hahaha! Thank you! That’s nice of you to say.”
“It’s true. Say, have you had dinner yet?”
“No, not yet. I’m actually starved but I just didn’t feel it before because I was still so shocked to be holding this trophy in my hand.”
“That’s great. I know a really good place to have dinner.”
Bryan took her to his favorite seafood restaurant. While they were waiting for their order to arrive, Sue asked Bryan about his guitar.
“Oh, this old thing? I play guitar in the band in the The Cutting Room Bar. I was playing while you were singing.”
“Really? I didn’t see you on stage. Well, I actually didn’t see anybody honestly because I was scared shitless. I closed my eyes and let the music fill me up, only then did I see clearly.”
“I love your passion for music. How come you became a lawyer and not a singer?”
The smile on Sue’s face faded as she said, “Well, you know how it is. Both my parents are lawyers so it only goes naturally that their only daughter must be a lawyer as well. I was a straight-A student. Only went from school to home. Never had many friends, just my face buried in books.”
“Naaaahhh…really? I can’t believe a girl with your personality will put up with a life as boring as that. No offense but I honestly think lawyers do a pretty boring job sitting around all day with tons of paperwork surrounding you.”
“You know what, you’re absolutely right. It is extremely boring. That’s why I came here to New Orleans to break free a little bit from my stressful and boring job.”
Sue looked at Bryan while he was whacking the bejeezus out of his crab claw, wondering what kind of person this guy was behind his emerald eyes. “So tell me about you? Your parents are musicians too so you naturally have to follow suit and be a musician as well?” she asked cheekily.
“Actually, they are.”
“Really? We’re in the same boat then.”
Bryan cracked a hearty laugh and said, “I was just messing with you. No, my parents weren’t musicians. They both died in a car accident a few years ago. Maybe my biological parents were. But I don’t know who the hell they are.”
“Oh, no. I’m very sorry, Bryan.”
“Don’t be. It’s all good. My foster parents are the best parents anyone could ever hope to have. They have raised the successful man you see before you.”
They both laughed out loud. Sue couldn’t believe how attracted she is to Bryan. It was like she has never seen a man so beautiful and who shared her passion. But she knows her parents would never approve of someone like him.
“Someone like him? What’s wrong with someone like him?” she asked herself as she waited for Bryan to come back from greeting a group of guys a few tables down from theirs. “Well, it’s not like it’s going to be serious or anything. I’ll just make the most of it while I can before I go back to my boring life in the firm again.”
CHAPTER4:
Sue was standing by one of the streetlights on Bourbon Street as she waited for Bryan to arrive. Despite talking for hours on end, she couldn’t get enough of him. He asked her out again the next day to give her a tour of New Orleans, and she agreed. She was lost in thought when something cold on her cheek jolted her back to her senses.
“Been waiting long?” asked Bryan as he was holding two soda cans in one hand and two corndogs in the other.
“Nope, I just got here.”
Bryan smiled knowingly since he had been watching her from the food stall since she arrived about 15 minutes ago. “Are you ready for your adventure today?”
“I can’t wait!” smiled Sue .
“You will need this.” Bryan handed her a black helmet.
Sue reluctantly took it from his hand and glanced behind Bryan to see his all-black motorcycle and smiled from ear to ear.
“Be ready for the ride of your life, Atty. Bergamon,” said Bryan cheekily.
Sue grinned as she took off her black blazer and tossed it into a garbage bin revealing a sexy backless halter top. “I’m ready, Mr. Bryan Singer,” she said before she put on her helmet.
“Oh, baby! You just made my heart skip a beat,” said Bryan. “First stop, ‘The Pink House.’”
They took off and Bryan took her to the famous tourist spots around New Orleans , giving her a guided tour of New Orleans . They stopped by a quaint little bistro for dinner and talked and got to know more and more about each other. Sue is amazed at how knowledgeable he was of New Orleans .
“Well, when I was a kid, I was a tumbleweed, and I guess I still am. I just go where the wind takes me. Every moment is fleeting so I made the best of every moment I had. I made friends along the way and so I know almost everyone here in New Orleans. That’s why I can say for certain that when I first laid eyes on you, I had never seen someone as beautiful as you.”
Sue blushed and gave a shy smile, “It seems you aren’t as great of a tumbleweed you think you are if you’re telling me I’m the most beautiful person you’ve ever seen. I’m telling you, I’m not.”
“You are to me,” said Bryan locking his eyes on hers. They talked some more, then Bryan took Sue back to her hotel. But before she turned to go inside, Bryan invited her to a party happening the next night where he will be playing with his band. She agrees to come.
The next evening, Sue made her way through the crowd up to the front to get a better view of Bryan and his band playing. Bryan caught sight of her as she gingerly walks through the crowd to avoid stepping on someone. After their song finished playing, he took the microphone and said, “And now ladies and gentlemen, we are going to hear from a special surprise guest tonight. She’s the winner of this year’s New Orleans ’s 6th Annual Battle of the Voices. Please welcome, Sue Bergamon!”
Sue froze in her tracks when she heard her name and the spotlight shone on her. She refused to come up on stage but when the crowd joined in chanting her name and pushing her to the stage, she grasped the microphone and sang away. The crowd loved her and she loved every minute of it.
After the party, Sue came up to Bryan, “Thank you so much! I had a blast. It was a really wonderful way to end my weekend here before I go back to Baton Rouge to my boring job.”
“The pleasure is mine, but since it’s your last night here, I’d better walk you all the way up to your room then.”
When they came to her room, she opened the door and thanked him again. He gave her a soft kiss on her lips and she couldn’t help but kiss him back. Then, he kissed her more passionately, putting his arms around her, and she putting her arms around his neck. He then lifted her up and she put her legs around his waist. He closed the door behind them.
That night, Bryan made passionate love
to Sue the whole night. All the while, she was thinking about leaving her firm and just staying there with Bryan. If only…
CHAPTER5:
Sue handed out the final papers to the Lawson couple. At last, they finally made a decision and they were happy with it. The couple thanked her and left her office. All Sue could think about was the touch of Bryan’s skin against hers, the warmth of their bodies, and the tenderness of his kisses.
She feels desperation and a frustration within her. She wants to go back to New Orleans , back in Bryan’s arms, back to fulfilling her dreams of singing. But she knows her parents would never approve of both her singing and of Bryan. But she’s never been happier in her life than she was when she was in New Orleans . There she can be who she really wants, who she really is. But how can she tell her parents? They would be very upset. “But I deserve to be happy, too, don’t I? And being my parents, they have always said they want what’s best for me. Law isn’t it. I have to tell them what I really want with my life.”
“Ms. Bergamon?” Marie, who had been calling her for the third time, jolted her back to reality.
“Yes?”
“Your mother is on Line 2. She said it’s urgent.”
Sue held her father’s hand as he lay on his bed sleeping.
“The doctors said your father has high blood pressure so he needs to be extra careful from now on.”
Spontaneous Encounters Page 1
