by J A Fielding
“What would ever make you think that you would ever mess our children up?” he asked and she took a long deep breath.
“I don’t know how I am going to hack being a mother, Axel.”
“And I don’t know how to be a father either. We are both going to be first-time parents and we will just have to do the best of it.”
She forced out a laugh.
“So, we will be making it up as we go on, huh?”
Axel shrugged.
“Yeah, that’s the only way. Because God knows that I do not trust those baby books. Half of them are a wild exaggeration and the other half is just made up shit so authors can sell more books,” he said in a soft voice.
She bit her lip and shrugged.
“Is that what you really think?”
“Many might think that conspiracy theorists are insane, but the truth is that the likes of Big Pharma and shadow government theories are an actual thing and so is publishing what people want to hear. That way, authors make millions,” he explained and she laughed.
“You really believe that, don’t you?” she asked and he nodded.
“Oh, yeah.”
She leaned her forehead against his and closed her eyes.
“We are going to be great parents. You will be an amazing mother to the little boys and girls we are going to have.”
She pulled away and looked into his eyes.
“Little boys and girls?” she asked. “Just how many children are you planning on fathering with me?”
“I don’t know…a number. Maybe three…or four. Four is a nice even number, don’t you think so?” he asked and she laughed.
“How about we just start with the one and see how things go from there?” she asked and he nodded before he pulled her close and held her once again.
“That sounds great,” he said in a whisper and he pulled away and held her face in his hands. “Do you have any idea how happy you make me?”
“I might have an idea.”
He smiled and lowered his head before he claimed her lips in a long luscious kiss. “The food is getting cold,” she whispered when he pulled away and began caressing her under the t-shirt, slowly bringing his hand up to caress her already hard nipples.
“You are all I need right now,” he said in a soft voice as he began running his lips down her neck as he gently lowered her on the couch.
She pressed a finger on his lips and took a long breath as he lay his weight on top of her.
“Promise me that if it doesn’t work out…the whole getting pregnant process, we will not lose this.”
“Lose what?” he asked.
“The romance that we have. The bliss of lovemaking. I just don’t want to be one of those people who just have sex on certain days of the month because it raises our chances of conception,” she said and he pulled her hand from his lips.
“I already told you, you are all I need. You are all I will ever need,” he said before he kissed her again.
*****
“Well, good morning,” Victoria Simmons said when Trina walked into the Crews and Associates office on Friday morning.
“Good morning.” Trina’s voice was almost musical. “How does our day look today?”
“Quite smooth actually. A few court appearances, one deposition, and that’s it.”
“Cool,” Trina said, smiling. “Maybe I should have just stayed home considering I had a really hard time waking up this morning.”
Victoria frowned.
“Should I even ask?”
Trina forced out a laugh.
“I would suggest not if you still want to keep your sanity.”
Victoria shook his head.
“You have to be the only person who still has romance in their marriage after so long. I mean, what’s up with that?” she asked and Trina shrugged.
“Well, marriage is just another relationship. It’s just like dating with a ring. No biggie,” she explained and Victoria shook her head.
“Onto other news, what did you think about the HHM package?” Victoria asked as she made her way to her office.
Trina smiled at her assistant as the two walked past her desk and right into her office.
“What HHM package?” Trina asked as she took off her jacket leaving her in the blue loose fitting blouse tucked into her black pants. “What was it about?”
“The partnership capital contribution?” Victoria said matter of factly.
Trina raised an eyebrow over the other. She had been waiting for the last fifteen months to hear anything about her capital contribution but her former law firm had been playing hard ball most probably because she had quit the firm at a bad time for the rest of the partners. HHM had long been looking to represent a multinational hotel chain ever since losing one of their biggest clients and with Trina hooking up with Axel, they had been quite keen on Ornen. But unfortunately for them, Axel was not keen on signing with a firm within the first few months of representation especially if said firm had not proven itself. So, it only made sense that he followed Trina when she decided to quit the firm and to get back at her, HHM had been trying as hard as they could to frustrate her. Left, right, and center including withholding her capital contribution.
“What? Have they finally decided to pay it out?” Trina asked and Victoria shook her head.
“I just know that’s what the package was about because I still talk to the associates at HHM and Hamlin’s new assistant overheard them talking about it.”
Trina raised an eyebrow over the other.
“New assistant? What happened to Natalie?” she asked.
Victoria shook her head.
“Search me.”
“But this new assistant would be the fifth since we left. Am I right?” Trina asked as she sat down.
“Yup.”
Trina pulled the envelope Darryl had given her the day before from her bag and reached for a letter opener.
“I do not condone office gossip but I will say this, the name partners at HHM are either in some deep shit or they are simply delighted in giving their human resources department the extra work,” she said as she opened the envelope. She was almost done when her assistant knocked on the door.
“I’m sorry to interrupt Mrs. Crews A…I mean, Trina.”
Victoria smiled and Trina shot her a dirty look.
“Yes, Kate. What is it?” Trina asked.
“We have a walk in who has asked to see you in particular,” Kate said. “He said his name was Lucas Keen and that you would know him.”
Trina felt the hair on her body on alert at the mention of Lucas’ name. She had never thought she was going to see him again. Ever. She could not imagine what he would possibly want with her after so many years.
“Do I tell him to wait or leave…” Kate wondered as she looked at her boss, but Trina shook her head.
“No. Give me five minutes and then send him in.”
She took a long deep breath as she gently put the envelope down on the desk making Victoria a little suspicious.
“Trina? Is everything okay?” she asked and Trina nodded reluctantly. “Who is the client, Lucas Keen?”
Trina took a long deep breath.
“My ex.”
Chapter 2
Lucas Keen had to be the one person who was solely responsible for almost all of Trina’s insecurities. Growing up, she had been a little unsure of what she was supposed to feel about herself. But when she hooked up with Lucas, she felt a whole lot more terrible about making the choice to date him. She did not know whether it was the constant need to meet that exceptionally high standard that had been set by Lucas to look a certain way or dress in the way he deemed appropriate. After all, she was this lower than average looking African American and he was this really attractive white man with a lot of money and she did not know it at the time, but that there was the problem.
Being a man who looked as he did meant that he was always getting the women he wanted. If they had been back in high school, he would
have been the quarterback who got with all the mean girls: the hot cheerleaders, the swim team captains, etcetera.
Her heart was racing as she sat there and it seemed like time had stood perfectly still ever since her assistant announced that he wanted to see her. A lot had been going through her mind in the last thirty seconds. She had been wondering why the hell Lucas would seek her out and how he even settled on a one on one meeting in the first place. All this while her brain tried to process what Victoria was saying even though she was not really listening.
“Trina!” Victoria said making her snap out of the trance she was in. She took a long deep breath and gently drummed her fingers on her desk.
“I’m fine,” she announced. “I’m…”
She was about to say fine, but she suddenly had a sick feeling in her stomach. She felt everything suddenly come up before she grabbed the HHM envelope and threw up her entire breakfast inside it.
“That just happened,” Victoria said as Trina pulled some tissues from the tissue box on her desk. “You know, if HHM makes you that sick, you should probably just tell them.”
“Use your underground railroad and talk to someone at HHM into sending me another copy and please do not under any circumstances use the words puke or throw up.”
Victoria shook her head.
“One,” she started as she walked to a table next to one of the windows. “I don’t know why that would come up and two, your office has a private bathroom,” she added as she walked back with a bottle of water.
“There was a very short window between the feeling and the action,” Trina said in a soft voice as she took the water from Victoria. She took a big gulp and rinsed her mouth out before she took another sip. She then got up, grabbed the envelope and walked to the bathroom. She dumped it in the trash and stood over the sink for a long minute.
“What the hell was that?” she wondered as she wet her hands and gently held the back of her neck.
She looked into her reflection and bit her lower lip. She had come a long way since being Lucas’ girlfriend and even though she was still a plus size woman, she had lost a whole lot of weight since and actually dropped a size or two. Her skin was flawless and a lot of people had told her that she had this whole Kim Kardashian vibe ever since she first went to Ornen. And she did. She had this perfect brown skin, a thirty-one-waist size, and a complementing hip circumference of forty-two. But despite all the changes she had gone through over the years, she did not know why she felt the way she did. She was sure that there was no way Lucas was making her feel the way she did. There had to be something more. Or was it that she was not ready to face her past yet?
She was still looking into her reflection when she heard a soft knock on the door.
“Trina, are you okay?” Victoria asked.
Trina took a long deep breath and opened the door.
“I’m fine,” she said as she walked back to her desk. “Just make sure you get me the HHM package. Okay?”
Victoria nodded, but Trina could not help but notice the worried look Victoria was giving her.
“Are you sure, you’re okay? Should I maybe call Axel or something?”
Trina looked up at her and shook her head.
“No! Hell no. It is probably something I ate…and I had salmon last night. So, maybe it is not sitting so well with my stomach.”
“Okay. So, what can I do?” Victoria pressed and Trina took a long deep breath.
“Leave me alone so that I can have my meeting. Is that too much to ask?” Trina asked, smiling, and Victoria shrugged.
“I guess not.”
“And maybe get me some crackers from the break room?”
Victoria nodded. “I’ll have them waiting for you when you’re done here.”
“You can just ask Kate to get them and you handle the HHM package and maybe the deposition you mentioned earlier. How about that?” Trina asked and Victoria nodded.
“Fine. But I will still hound you. All day long.”
Trina smiled and took another sip of water as she watched Victoria walk out of the office. Her smile faded as she took another sip of the water and then stood up getting ready to walk to the couch. She needed to sit on something a little more comfortable than her desk chair.
“That was a waste a perfectly healthy bowl of fruit over oatmeal,” she thought just as Lucas walked into her office.
“Wow,” he said in a low voice but loud enough for him to hear her. “Trina…you look…wow.”
“Thank you. I guess considering what you didn’t say was in fact a compliment,” she said matter of factly.
“Oh, it was. It definitely…” His eyes ran down her body and for a minute there, Trina could literally feel him undressing her with his eyes. “Definitely a compliment.”
He looked around and nodded.
“So, you finally left HHM.”
She nodded.
“Yeah, I figured it was about time.”
“What about you? Still making waves on Wall Street?”
He nodded.
“Yeah, but under my own banner now. So, I guess we are in a similar boat.”
“Your own banner? Wow, we are moving up in the corporate world, aren’t we?” he said, smiling.
“Well, it’s a partnership between me and Mason Cohen. So, it’s Keen-Cohen Capital Investments,” he said.
“Sounds great.”
She noticed him looking at her left hand and raised an eyebrow over the other.
“That is a serious rock.” He looked up at her and shrugged. “You got hitched?” She nodded.
“Yes, as a matter of fact. Two years next month.”
He nodded and pointed at a photo on her desk.
“Is that him?” he asked and she nodded.
“Yeah. That’s Axel,” she said, smiling.
“Wow, lucky guy.”
She shrugged.
“Yeah, he says that too.”
She walked round her desk and stretched out her hand.
“Nice to see you again Lucas,” she said and he looked a little confused before he stretched his own hand to shake hers.
“Yeah…it is.”
“Why don’t we sit here?” she asked as she led him to the couch. They sat down and she crossed one leg over the other, her silver anklet showing just over her teal stilettos. “So, what can I do for you?”
Lucas took a long deep breath and leaned forward clasping his hands together.
“I’m in trouble,” he started.
“Well, I don’t think you would have been here if you weren’t,” Trina said and he nodded.
“Well, it’s bad. I’m being sued for almost everything I have worked for.”
She nodded.
“Okay. What did you allegedly do?”
“Provide a hostile work environment,” he said and she smiled. “And sexual harassment.”
“What?”
“Just what the hell did you do?” Trina asked a little excited as she leaned back. She was not so sure if it was the fact that she was about to have a front row seat to the suffering of a person who once caused her so much grief or that it all sounded like some cliché scene from a TV show.
“I was kind of dating this girl and it got to a point where she started making demands and I just couldn’t handle it.”
Trina frowned.
“Lucas, I am not a mind reader. You need to be clear with me.”
“She was kind of running a little blackmail scheme. A little here, a little there…first it was getting her a car so I leased her a Prius, and then she wanted her own place and get out of the house she had been sharing with her friend. So, I started paying her rent…I didn’t mind at first because I thought she was the one. I mean, I even went as far as getting her the place she actually lives.”
Trina raised an eyebrow over the other.
“You bought her a house?” she asked and he nodded reluctantly.
“It was not expensive property. Just a simple two-bedroom apartment...pocket change
really.”
Trina put a finger up.
“Wait a minute. Aren’t you married?” she asked and he nodded.
“I was and it was complicated at the time. For a long time. We even got separated for a while and then when we got back together, I was in a catch 22 because I loved them both. My wife was expecting and Sonya…I was just having too much fun with her and she was just home for me for a while.”
Trina was trying as hard as she could to maintain a straight face. She could not understand why people…men said and did such things and actually went as far as making excuses for themselves. Maybe so that they can sleep better at night or maybe just for the sake of it.
“When things started getting bad between us, she gave me all these threats…going to my wife with everything she knows and I told her I would fire her. I just didn’t know the little cunt was baiting me. She had her phone recording the whole conversation. Now our affair is on record and the fact that I made a threat is not really helping the situation.”
“That is…messy.”
He nodded.
“Tell me about it. And as if that’s not bad enough, her lawyers are making this a race issue.”
She shook her head.
“What?” she asked. “And why is that?”
“Well, she is both African American and Asian.”
He reached for his phone and scrolled through his gallery before he handed it to her.
“Her father’s from the Philippines. That’s her.”
She took the phone and looked at the photo before she shook her head.
“She is a beauty. That much I can see.” She handed the phone back to him and took a long deep breath. “We had better get down to business then. I charge three hundred dollars an hour.”
Lucas took a long deep breath and nodded.
“I just want to have this whole situation handled,” he said as he reached into his inside jacket pocket and pulled out his checkbook. “I hope this will cover the initial cost.”
She took the check from him and looked down at it.
“Yes, this will do for now.”
*****
“Knock, knock?” Axel heard a soft knock on his door. A smile played on his mouth. He would have known his wife’s voice anywhere.
“Hey, you,” he said.
