I turned to David, who nodded in agreement. “Whatever it takes, man.”
“So we’ll file in the papers that visitation will be alternating weekends and major holidays and Mr. Kent is to complete treatment for his alcohol consumption and attend AA meetings. Is everyone in agreement?”
“I am,” David said.
Mrs. Kent whispered something to Gary, who responded for her. “Mrs. Kent agrees to that.”
“Great. I’ll get the paperwork filed. You guys will soon be divorced,” I said.
“Thank fuck,” David mumbled. Mrs. Kent and Gary stood, Gary shaking my hand before they left the room.
“That was painless, wasn’t it?” I asked David.
David ran a hand through this hair. “I’ll be so glad when all of this is over. Thanks for meeting with us.”
I patted his shoulder. “No problem. I’m here anyway I can.”
He said goodbye and left the room too. “I should’ve just given you the case. I feel bad that I’m still getting paid for this case when you’ve done most of the heavy lifting,” Aaron said as he followed me back to my office.
“Nah, don’t worry about it. I don’t like poaching clients, especially from my friends. I’m glad I could help.”
Aaron was my best friend; it was no big deal to help him with a case in which his client’s wife was a huge bitch. Mrs. Kent originally started with one of our powerful rivals as her lawyer, sparing no expense to get what she wanted. Although Aaron was confident in his ability to fight against her, he didn’t want to take any chances. I’d fought against Chance Steel and won several times. Considering that he was a cocky asshole who liked turning simple cases into a spectacle, I jumped at the opportunity to help Aaron with his case. Shame that he dropped her as a client when he found out I was on the case.
“Well, I definitely appreciate it.” He leaned against the doorframe. “I’m done for the day and the wife is working a double. Wanna grab some wings or something?”
“I’m actually having dinner tonight with Aaliyah,” I said idly, packing my briefcase.
“I haven’t seen you have more than one date with a girl in a while.” He smirked as he crossed over and sat down. “You’re serious about this one, huh?”
I paused in my packing. “Yeah, I guess so,” I murmured.
“How’s everything going with your meetings?”
“Good. I have a sponsor and everything, so it seems like things are better. I haven’t called an escort in a little while, so I’d say that’s progress.”
“Even after what happened with your dad?” he asked with wide eyes. I chuckled.
“I had Aaliyah with me that night. I didn’t need an escort.”
Aaron grinned. “Well, better to be with someone you know and are trying to date.”
“That’s how I’m trying to look at it. But right now, she and I are starting over. Keeping sex out of it for now.”
“Friends with benefits exists,” he said and snickered. I smirked with him and headed for the door.
“No shit, Sherlock. But since we have history, I don’t know if that’ll really work in our case without emotions getting involved.”
“You got a point there. Well, you don’t have to eat anything if you don’t want to. I just want to hang out for a bit. I feel like I haven’t talked to you much after work anymore.”
“You just saw me on Saturday,” I said and chuckled. “You aren’t getting clingy on me, are you?”
He scoffed. “Yeah fucking right. What’s wrong with wanting to hang out with my homeboy and catching up? Plus, I wanna talk about our plans,” he said, using air quotations around plans. No sooner than the sentence left his mouth, my father exited his office, locking the door behind him. He looked in our direction, but didn’t say a word. He checked his doorknob to make sure it was locked and walked down the hall away from us.
“Is he still mad about you calling him Mr. Carter?” Aaron asked. I shook my head.
“No. I’ll have to tell you about it.”
“Oh boy.”
*
Aaron and I settled down at a table near the window of the Twin Peaks restaurant. Customers were quickly trickling in for Happy Hour, a majority of them finding seats at the bar. Twin Peak Girls strutted around in their plaid knotted crop tops and tiny white shorts, smiling and flirting with all the male customers they came across. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought they were in competition with Hooters to see who could be the most sexy.
“So what’s up with your dad?” Aaron asked as he flipped through the menu.
“I…might’ve told him that I was leaving.”
Aaron’s head snapped up. “Holy shit. What did he say?”
“Nothing actually,” I said with a shrug. “He hasn’t said a single word to me since I told him.”
“Damn.” Aaron bit his bottom lip for a moment. “You don’t think he’ll try to bad mouth us, do you?”
“Nah. He doesn’t even know about our plan. I’d only told him that I was going to be leaving. I think he thinks I’m going to go work for someone else.”
“Have you thought about it?”
I shrugged. “If I needed to until we’re able to open our own place, I would. But I don’t really want to.”
“There are firms who’d snatch you up in a minute. You wouldn’t have much to worry about if you did decide to go elsewhere,” he said, just as a waitress approached our table.
“Hey fellas,” she said, her country accent prevalent. “What can I start you off with?
“I’ll just have fried pickles and a glass of water,” I said. Aaron squinted at the menu.
“I’ll have uh…” He looked up at me. “If you had to choose between a steak and chicken and waffles, what would you pick?”
“Probably a steak.”
“Then I’ll have the chicken and waffles and your best beer from the tap,” he said to the waitress and handed her the menu. I smirked at him.
“What the hell was the point of asking me that if you’re only going to order the opposite?”
“I just wanted to confirm with myself that I wanted chicken and waffles,” he said with a shrug.
“Samson’s fiancée Faith made the best steak I ever tasted in my life.”
“Samson?”
“My sponsor.”
“Ah.” He picked at a loose napkin in the dispenser at the end of the table. I laughed.
“You’re not jealous, are you?”
“Jealous? Why would I be jealous? I mean if that’s the reason we haven’t been hanging out as much as we used to, then whatever.”
“Cut it out. He helps me keep my mind straight. You should meet him though. He’s cool.”
“Sounds cool. But in all seriousness, I’m glad you have someone helping you. I’m sure fighting it alone can be hard.”
“Yeah. It always helps to have a support system.”
“Especially your little lady friend,” he said and snickered.
“Oh yeah, I need your opinion on something.” I took out my phone and opened the picture that Aaliyah had sent to me the night after we met up. “So this is her.”
Aaron let out a low whistle when he saw it. “Damn, she’s fine. You’d be crazy to let that one go.”
I opened the picture I took at Samson’s house. “Now look at this one.”
He squinted at the screen and cocked his head. “Why does that guy look so familiar?”
“He’s one of my newest clients. But look at who’s next to him.”
His brow furrowed in confusion. “That’s the girl from the first picture. You’re dating a client’s wife?”
I shook my head. “No, no, no. Look at how similar they look.”
He scoffed and waved me off. “Similar? Mason, that’s the same woman.”
“I sent her the picture and asked her about it and she said she didn’t know who he was.”
“Of course she’d say that. Why would she admit to cheating on her husband?”
; I looked at the picture. Would she lie to me about that? “I don’t know, man.”
“If she’s not the woman in that picture, then I’m a virgin. And considering the way I fucked my wife last night, I know that’s a lie,” he said with a chuckle as the waitress reappeared.
“Here’s your fried pickles and water,” she put it down in front of me, “and your beer, sir. Your entree will be out shortly.”
“Thank you,” Aaron and I both said.
“Anyway, I think homegirl is lying to you,” he said and took a long pull from his beer.
“But why though? She could’ve told me the night we met again that she was seeing someone.”
“Would you have left her alone?”
“Yeah. I may do a lot of questionable shit, but messing around with a married woman isn’t one of them. I didn’t see a ring or anything when I saw her.”
“What’d she say about the picture?” I showed him the text exchange and watched him shake his head in what I assume to be disapproval. “I don’t know about this, man. Unless there’s some kind of separated at birth situation where she doesn’t know she’s a twin, I’m 99.999% positive that that’s her. Why she would lie about it? No idea. But something isn’t adding up,” he said.
I sighed. I couldn’t argue with him; he was highlighting my own thoughts about the situation. I’d been letting my feelings and memories of her cloud my judgment of our reality instead of seeing it for what it was.
It looked like Aaliyah and I had a lot to talk about tonight.
Chapter 12
I plated the salmon dinners I had delivered via Bite Squad and waited for Aaliyah to arrive. So many questions swarmed around in my mind that I was on the brink of a migraine. I wanted to trust what Aaliyah told me, but she wasn’t the teen girl I dated back in high school. The Aaliyah I knew wouldn’t have kept secrets from me and she definitely wouldn’t have ended up being an escort no matter how tough life got for her. I didn’t ask any questions in the beginning and if we continued the way we were, everything was bound to get messy if things weren’t what they seemed.
A light knock sounded at the door. She stood on the other side when I looked through the peephole, smiling at me when I opened the door.
“Hey,” she said. I stepped aside to let her in, closing the door behind her.
“Is salmon cool?” I asked her as I headed back to the kitchen to grab the plates.
“Yeah, that’s fine.”
She’d settled down on the couch when I went to join her, giving me a soft smile as she took a plate from me. “You made this?”
“What if I said yes?”
She smirked. “Then I’d say you’re full of shit,” she said.
“What? You don’t know that. Do you see any delivery bags anywhere?”
“Mason, if you cooked this, it would smell like it in here. It doesn’t smell as if any of this was prepared here.” She playfully rolled her eyes. I laughed.
“Okay, you got me. Had it delivered.”
“Really?” She observed the food on her plate. “Who delivers full meals like this?”
“Bite Squad delivers from almost any restaurant you want.” I took a forkful of fish in my mouth. “I think this restaurant was just added.”
“That’s pretty cool,” she said and dug into her own food. Dinner was silent for the most part. There were so many things I needed to ask her, but I wasn’t sure where to start. How did I ask her about her about Joseph again without offending her somehow?
“What are you thinking about?” she asked in between bites.
I shrugged. “Not too much.” That was a complete lie.
“It doesn’t seem like it. You’re awfully quiet. I don’t think we can get to know each other if we don’t talk.”
“True.” I took a deep breath. “How did you end up becoming an escort?”
She pushed her mixed vegetables around on her plate. “I needed a job.”
I cocked a brow. “And that’s the only job you could find around here?” I frowned.
“That would pay me decently without a college degree, yes,” she snapped. “Not everyone got the opportunity to go to college after high school like you did.”
“I wasn’t…” I shook my head. “Look, it was just a question—”
“It feels like you’re judging me.”
“I’m just trying to understand.” I tilted her head up to look at me, noticing the tears pooling in her eyes. “I hate that you think you have to sell your body in order to survive. I hate to think about what you have to do when you’re working.”
“It’s not the most ideal job to have, but it allows me to take care of myself and help my mom.” She pulled away from me. “Besides, what makes me so different from any other escort? We all have reasons for why we’re in this.”
“I don’t know them or their reasons.” I put my plate on the coffee table. “But I love you and want nothing but the best for you.”
She shook her head sadly. “You don’t know me to love me.”
“We may have grown up, but my love for you didn’t change. I may not know a lot about your life now, but I know that I still get excited when I see you, feel calm when I touch you, and my heart beats a little faster every time I kiss you and when you smile at me. That hasn’t changed.”
She giggled and wiped her eyes. “You always had a way with words. I hope this isn’t some ploy for you to weasel your way into my pants. Friends don’t do that sort of thing.”
I chuckled. “Not that I would complain if it worked, but no; it’s no ploy. I’m telling you the honest to God truth.”
“Hmm.”
When she gripped her fork, I took note of her ringless finger. There was no mark or tan line from where a ring should’ve been, so maybe she wasn’t Joseph’s wife.
“You know…I can’t stop thinking of that picture I sent you,” I said slowly. “You really look like that guy’s wife.”
“I wouldn’t be here if I were in a relationship, Mason,” she said, her voice tight. “I’m not like you.”
I clenched my jaw, her words a slap in the face. “I never said you were. It was just an observation.”
“Well no, I’m not in a relationship. If I were, I don’t think I would be an escort.”
I sighed, and put my plate on the coffee table. Our conversation was going nowhere and I was trying my hardest not to become annoyed with her. “How do you expect us to get to know each other if I still feel like you’re hiding shit from me?” I asked her with a frown.
She put her plate down and threw her hands in the air. “I don’t know what you want me to tell you, Mason—”
“The truth would be nice,” I said, my voice flat. She pursed her lips together and stared at me for a few moments.
“I’ve been telling you the truth.”
“You don’t know anyone named Joseph Wilde?”
“No.” Her expression was indifferent and her gaze never wavered. She didn’t look nervous or uncomfortable when I mentioned him, so all I could do was take her word for it. “Should I?”
“I guess not.”
She moved a little closer to me. “Is that what all the questioning is about? You really think I’m the woman in the picture you sent me a few days ago?”
I nodded. “I guess I don’t want to be in a situation later down the road where I find out the woman I’m in love with isn’t mine.”
She gave me a soft smile and straddled my lap. “I promise you that you have nothing to worry about,” she said softly. “I’m 100% single until you and I are ready to change that.”
“Oh yeah?”
“But not right this minute,” she said with a smirk. “Still friends.”
I groaned and wrapped my arms around her. “I guess I’ll be patient and wait. But…I don’t know if you sitting on my lap like this is appropriate if we’re just friends.”
“Hmm…” She ground against me. “Why? Too tempting?”
“Yeah, when you’re doing it on purpose,” I br
eathed. She leaned forward and planted a sweet kiss on my lips.
“Sometimes things just happen,” she whispered.
“You have to be careful of that when you’re friends with an addict,” I warned her. I fully respected her decision for us to leave sex out of our friendship, but I didn’t know how much self-control I’d have if she kept up with her antics.
“Do you not want me to do this?” She placed soft kisses on my neck.
“I’ve told you what I wanted; you’re the one flipping between what you want.”
She paused and looked up at me, her face blank. “I know that I want you right now,” she said. “But if you don’t think you can handle it, we won’t.”
“It’s not about whether or not I can handle it.” I closed my eyes and rested my head on the back of the couch. “It’s you and your mixed signals again. One minute you want to be strictly friends with no sex. Now you want to have sex. You really don’t know what you want and it’s frustrating.”
“Oh.” Her shoulders drooped as she dropped her gaze to her hands. “You’re right.”
“Sex with you isn’t the issue. I wouldn’t be having sex with you just because I’ve been triggered by something. But what’ll happen tomorrow? Back to friends only with no sex?”
“I don’t know, Mason. All I know is that I just want you right now,” she admitted.
I thought about what Aaron said earlier about Aaliyah being my friend with benefits. It was easy to have sex with women without involving emotions. I could do that with her…couldn’t I?
I ran my hands beneath her thin tank top, embracing the warmth of her skin. “Come closer.”
She leaned forward, wrapping her arms around my neck. “Close enough?”
I smiled. “Not quite. A little closer.”
“Now?” Her lips were centimeters from mine, begging to be kissed.
“Perfect,” I whispered and kissed her. She sighed against my lips as she pressed her body against mine, grinding her warm core against me. My hands traveled under her shirt, finding the clasps of her bra and unhooking it. She leaned back, pulling off her tank top and bra and tossed it onto the floor, connecting our lips again as her fingers went to work unbuttoning my dress shirt. I shrugged the shirt off, breaking away from our kiss long enough to pull off my undershirt. Her nipples brushed against my chest, making my cock throb with need as I hardened.
Lawfully Screwed (Lawful Affair) Page 15
