Fated

by Nicole Tetterton

  “Please explain to me how you got away with that one.” I surprise myself when I laugh as well.

  “Well, I was pulled over driving and when I went to court the arresting officer ended up not being in the court room that day.”

  “So they dismissed it.”

  “Yeah,” I respond.

  “Wow, you must be one lucky woman.” He says, smiling over to me.

  “I’m not sure that lucky is something that I would classify myself as right now, maybe back then, but not now.”

  “Did Joe know about the drug problem?”

  “No, he actually never really noticed anything about me that I didn’t want him to, which makes sense now,” I pause, “But I did managed to get myself clean before I was forced to move in with him.”

  “Forced to move in with him?”

  “Yeah, a few weeks before I had to close the business I couldn’t afford my big lavish apart, and luckily the lease was up, and I had to move in with him.”

  “You had to move into Joe’s apartment?” he asks me again, with a smirk on his face and I am not sure what it is about. I can tell that I look at him with a confused face when he grins, “Singing cockroaches and all?” I surprise myself when it makes me laugh. “Great movie” it all he says afterwards.

  “I don’t know if I would call it great, but it was something.” He laughs at me again. He looks down looking to the clock and I know that he means that the time is almost up. “Soph, you want to go get lunch with me?” I turn my head slightly shooting him a concerned look, “Nothing like that, just friends, getting lunch.”

  I surprise myself when I agree. He smiles to me as he stands up and then motions for me to walk out of his office with him, then down the long hallway, and into the elevator taking it down to the bottom floor, then stepping out I see the reception area to the building and I see the girl that came out of his office looking over to us, he doesn’t even pay her any attention.

  “Really?” I ask him as we walk by.

  “What?” Is all he says.

  “I mean she works in the same building as you do.” He just shrugs.

  “It’s not like she really cares.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Look, she knows, as do most of every other woman, how I am,” he stops as we get to the door and looks directly at me, his intense stare causes my stomach to tighten, “If the right girl decides that I am worthy of her, I promise that I’ll stop, but until then what is it hurting anyone?” and he turns around and walks out of the door causing me to run behind after him. I think about his choice of words he didn’t say when the right girl comes along or when I find the right girl but he said if she decides that he is worthy. I’m not even sure what that exactly means. He is standing on the sidewalk waiting for me as I emerge from the doorway. Boy, does he know how to make an exit.

  “Dramatic much?” I ask him and he smiles to me. He holds out his arm and I hook my arm around his as we walk down the busy street. The plaque on the building that holds the names of the businesses catch my eye as I see it, Calloway & Pierce Attorneys at Law.

  “Austin, the company?” I pause pointing at the wall.

  “It’s my dad’s. I got hired on right after I finished law school.” I nod my head and we continue to walk towards the restaurant. We are seated and I look over to him and he smiles; he’s always smiling at me.

  “Austin, how old are you?”

  “27,” I nod.

  “How did you and my sister become friends?”

  “Seriously, Soph, she lives like three houses down from me,” I nod realizing that it was a dumb question.

  “Yeah, sorry that was a dumb question. So you never tried to sleep with her?” the question comes out before I even realize that I was thinking it, or that the topic seems to matter to me.

  “No,” he says it so matter of fact that it takes me back a bit.

  “Why not?” it comes out defensive but I don’t care. If he doesn’t like the way that she looks than I know that he doesn’t like the way I look, wait… do I care?

  “Because she isn’t the type of girl that I try to sleep with; she’s smarty, witty, caring.” He pauses I can see in his eyes that he legitimately cares for my sister, but more like he would his own sister than anything else, “You know you seem like you are a lot like her, but there’s something different, something rough, and edgy…” I cut him off.

  “Yeah, she was always the good twin.” He laughs for a moment and then adds.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Growing up, we were both smart, but she focused on school while I well… let’s just say I was a little rough,” he smirks, “Well that’s just how it had been our whole life, I mean look I had to move across the eastern seaboard to move in with her because I royally fucked up my life.” He looks to me and lowers his eyes staring into my soul.

  “You know, Soph, rough it’s a bad thing,” he pauses lowering his voice to match his eyes, “In fact, I actually prefer rough.” I feel my cheeks heat up while he lets out a laugh that brings attention to us from around the entire room. I can tell that he likes making me feel uneasy.

  “So, tell me when you were arrested what happened?” he quickly changes the subject.

  “Well since I couldn’t remember what happened they brought in a shrink, that explained that with everything going on in my life, that I had a mental breakdown, that hearing what was going on behind my back that it made me snap.”

  “Soph, I think if we can find any sort of evidence that we could actually have a case again him.” I shake my head and he looks to me as if I am insane.

  “I just want this to be over with. I don’t want him in my life longer than what he has to be. He really hurt me; broke my heart even and I just can’t put myself through that.”

  “I’m sorry, Soph,” he says letting his hand fall on top of mine. I want to pull it away, but I don’t. “But the mental breakdown I can work with.” He smiles, sadly at me.

  “Mar, told me that you are the best,” I tell him and smiles at me.

  “Well that was very gracious of her, but I’m alright.”

  “Then why would she call you the best?” I ask because I know that he is just being modest.

  “Because I haven’t lost a case, and I haven’t had the best of clients.”

  “That’s amazing,” I tell him but he just shrugs, “What is it?”

  “Honestly, I’m good, but I’ve never wanted to do this; I only did it because my dad paid for college.”

  “Well then what do you want to do?”

  “Play music.”

  “Like an instrument?”

  “Yeah, I play guitar.”

  “Really,” I nearly squeal and he takes notice, laughing. “Will you play for me sometimes?” I ask him and he rubs his hand along his neck.

  “I don’t know, Soph,” he pauses looking down at the table and for once he looks younger than I have ever seen him before, and then I figure it out.

  “Oh god, that’s your move isn’t it?” I whisper across the table, smirking at myself, and trying not to laugh.

  “What?” he tries to play innocent.

  “Your move, you pick the girl, bring her back to your place, and break out some cheesy acoustic ballad.” He looks down and I think I see a little pink to his cheeks. “Oh, my god, I’m right… I knew it.” he looks around nervously.

  “Yeah,” he says, embarrassed.

  “Oh, it’s alright. But I don’t want you to play your sex ballad to me; I want you to play what you really like to play.” He looks back up to me smiling.

  “Alright.”

  “Really?” I can’t help but grin.

  “Sure, if you really want to hear it.” I nod my head quickly as he laughs at me.

  “So tell me, why were you in Savannah?” I ask.

  “I had a court case.”

  “That you won of course.” I think I roll my eyes a bit. He laughs and rubs his hand on the back of his neck. I am starting to reali
ze that he does this when he is nervous or being modest. “So, can I ask a question?”

  “You just did, but go ahead.” He grins at me.

  “Aha,” I add dryly, “So, the note, why did you leave it on my door?” his face falls and I watch his hand begin to make its way but up the back of his back when the waitress comes up and places the food in front of us. My eyes grow wider as I look to the food sitting in front of us; I think that I hear him sigh loudly, and I forget about what we were talking about.

  Chapter Five

  I pull up to the house an hour later, completely stuffed. I see Mar’s car when I pull in and I park beside it. My car is nicer than I deserve, seeing as I paid for it in cash. I walk through the front door and Marsi stops what she is doing in the kitchen.

  “How was your appointment?”

  “Good,” I answer her, suspecting that she is going to pick me for information.

  “Good,” her eyes are wide like she is going to lecture me, “Soph, this appointment is about the court case that you have.” Yup, there it is.

  “Yeah, Austin said that he can probably figure it out.”

  “Well that’s good. Where’d you go afterwards?”

  “What makes you think that I went somewhere afterwards?”

  “Because your appointment was at eleven and it’s almost one now.”

  “Well Austin and I got some lunch afterwards.”

  “Sophie,” she exhales.

  “What?”

  “I told you, he is incredible attractive, but he’s a womanizer.”

  “Mar, it wasn’t anything like that,” I know that I am lying, “We just went as friends. I mean, geez, I watched a girl come out of his office when I was going in.”

  “What? That’s disgusting,” she says.

  “Well if it’s any consolation I don’t think he fucked her in there, just kissed her a lot.” I smirk but the fun I get out of making Mar uncomfortable with my crudeness isn’t all that fun this time, mostly because the sentence causes me to become a little jealous. I do get a good laugh when she starts to look uncomfortable though.

  “How do you know?” she asks me.

  “It didn’t smell like sex when I walked in.”

  “Oh that’s reassuring. Look maybe sending you to him for your case is a bad idea. We can find someone else.”

  “What, why?”

  “Because he’s tempting.”

  “Mar, you forget that my life just brutally fell apart including my fiancée who was just using me for my money, the last thing that I am looking for is a guy but sex maybe that could work.” Bingo, the look of disgust comes onto her face, “I bet that Austin could take my mind off of things for a while.” I joke with her. Her mouth drops open as she looks to me and says,

  “Soph,” Marsi was always the one who was more… well how do I put this nicely, prude.

  “Oh, you don’t think that he knows what moves the ladies like.” I say winking at her.

  “You’re disgusting.” She says and runs up the stairs.

  “Oh, come on, Mar,” I say running up after her, “I’m only kidding.”

  “Look, Soph, I’m just trying to look out for you. I want you to be happy and I know that he could never do that.” She spits out spinning around to look at me.

  “You don’t have to worry about that. He wouldn’t go there with me anyways.”

  “Why not,” she says all of sudden defensive.

  “Well, you managed to scared him off of me completely,” I think I frown a bit, “And he said that he could never look at you that way, so I can only imagine that he would think the same of me.” I know that I now sound sad.

  “Soph,” she gasps.

  “What?” I ask her looking away from her.

  “You like him.”

  “What? No,” I stop myself from saying anything further.

  “You have a crush.” She’s teasing now. “I know he can be very enticing.”

  “You know though, it’s not even that though,” and I see her face fall when she sees that I’m serious.

  “Well then what is it?”

  “Alright, well I met him before I got here.” I confess to her.

  “What do you mean?” she’s confused

  “He had a case in Savannah, and that’s where I stopped to rest for the night. We were both at the same bar and started talking. I basically threw all my shit on him and he listened. He actually listened. Well he paid my tab and then left to the hotel, which I was staying at as well. I had to make sure that he knew I didn’t tell him that to make him feel pressured into paying for me.” She nods her head saying that she explains and she would have done the same thing. “So, I caught up with him, he walked me to my room, kissed me on the cheek, and walked away.”

  “That’s it?” she asks me.

  “No, I woke up the next morning and went to leave there was a note under my door from him.”

  “What did it say?”

  “I hope on day that fate will magically bring you back into my life.” I had memorized it after the many, many times that I looked over it.

  “Austin wrote you that?” she asks, stunned

  “Yeah, why?” I ask her.

  “Well, it’s just not something he would ever say to a girl that he would just bring home.” I just shrug my shoulders at her.

  Tuesday morning was something that I didn’t want to wake up and face. Sunday I could handle due to the fact that I was a little hung-over. Monday I had errands that I had to take care of, but today, I am able to just sit and wallow in my self-misery.

  I finally pull my body out from the covers at two and I find myself sitting on my balcony, after I changed into a clean pair of lounge wear with my cup of coffee in my hands.

  “Ah,” I scream as a stream of water comes over the edge of the balcony railing, splashing me in the face, it’s freezing. I pick myself up as I look over the edge.

  “Hey,” I see Austin look to me grinning with a massive water gun in one hand, “I saw you sitting out here by yourself. What are you up to?”

  “Oh, you know, wallowing in my misery.” He laughs, and I notice that he has a drink in his other hand and I wonder if he is already drinking.

  “Nonsense, come hang out with me.” he says not asking me.

  “I’m not sure-,” he cuts me off.

  “I won’t take no for an answer. Come on if you don’t come over on your own free will I will come in there and drag you out.” He demands me.

  “What are you going to break in?” I retort.

  “No, Mar gave me a spare key… I’ll just use it. I’m sure she would understand.” He shrugs.

  “Ugh,” I sound at him getting up off the chair, “I’m not putting on real clothes; I’m coming just as I am.”

  “I wouldn’t expect you any other way, get up.” He smiles.

  I walk out of my room just as I said I was going to, still in my black yoga pants and my white tank top; sliding flip flops as I walk to the back door. I open the glass door and meet up with him and he smiles.

  “You look lovely,” he says and it causes me to laugh.

  “Thank you, as do you.” for a moment I can’t take my eyes off of him, he is wearing a pair of work out shorts with a white T-shirt and a pair of sunglasses, I was sad that they were concealing his incredible eyes.

  “This way, my dear.” He says using the water gun to point me in the direction of his house. We walk up the back and into his open door and he closes it and then shows me into his ‘music room.’ I see the guitars sitting around the room and the enormous CD collection.

  “Still keeping CD’s?” I ask him.

  “Yeah, there’s just something about having the case. I have a few albums stacked around here somewhere.” He says as I thumb through the collection, finding something that interests me.

  “No. Fucking. Way.” I say holding up one CD. “1997 called they want their band back.”

  “Are you holding Limp Bizkit?” He asks, laughing.

  “Yup.�
�� I smirk, secretly dying to listen to it.

  “Which one?”

  “Three Dollar Bill Ya’ll,” I say smiling and walking over to the CD player that sits in the corner. I skip through the CD until I get to track nine. “Favorite song that they have ever done,” As the guitar to their cover of Faith encases the room and I look over to Austin who has started to laugh at me as I am sashaying and dancing over to him while singing the first verse at him, he’s smiling and I realize that this song might describe us, perfectly. When the chorus starts Austin jumps up from his chair and starts jumping around the room singing/screaming along with Fred Durst. As the second verse starts he begins singing it to me like I was doing with the first. And then we start in on the chorus again together, until he screams the words in the song and we go along screaming the words into one another’s face, I feel the need to then mimic the sound of the record being scratched on the table as Austin starts to play the air guitar around the room. The song finally ends and we erupt into laughter.

  As the secret track comes through I start to rap the whole thing into Austin’s face as he laughs at me but by the time that the song is fading from the stereo his face has become more serious as he is looking at me until the following song comes on and pulls us out of our daze.

  “Limp Bizkit, huh?” he says smirking to me.

  “What we all have guilty pleasures?” I say looking back at his CD collection, “Plus I’m not the one that owns the CD.”

  “Yeah, Yeah,” he smiles. We sit around his room for hours just listening to music, not saying a word, but explaining everything through music, going from one genre to another. He is like my musical soul mate; he is the only other person that I have ever met who had such a wide variety of music as I do. Joe never understood my love with music.

  “Next,” I say smiling to him, “A Day to Remember, A Plot to Bomb the Panhandle.”

  “That’s a great one.” He says clicking on it form his I-tunes account. I’m singing along with the word when, I think, Austin realizes that the song has more meaning to me than just that I like it. He looks to me turning it down.

  “Are you alright?” I nod my head to him, “I can’t help but notice that…” he points to the computer screen and then reaches over and wipes a tear that I haven’t realized I let loose off of my face.