Desperate Measures

by Elle Casey

  “So, are you going on a second date?”

  “Yep. He already asked me.”

  “Wow, not even waiting the three-day period. This must be serious.”

  “It is. I think it is. No, I know it is. Or I hope it is.” She started to feel stressed. “God, I hope it is. I’d just die if it wasn’t.”

  “No, you wouldn’t die. You’d move on. That’s life. The key is to enjoy what you have while it’s good, and either fix it or get the hell out if it’s not.”

  Aimee nodded in appreciation. “Wise words from a very smart girl. Now tell me about your night.”

  “Well, my night was … interesting, I’ll put it that way.”

  “How so?”

  “Come sit at the table with me. I’ll bring the juice.”

  Aimee sat down and waited for Kiki. She came out a minute later with two small glasses of orange juice.

  “Okay, so I met Brent at the gallery, hung out, looked at some great art - I think Elizabeth and the artist kind of hit it off, actually. Did she send you a text?”

  “Yes, she did. She sent me the address of some warehouse where he paints, I think?”

  “Yeah. So anyway, we left and went to his apartment.”

  Aimee rubbed her hands together. “Oooh, this is getting good, fast.”

  “Hold your horses. Don’t get too excited yet. So anyway, I got to drive his car, which was the highlight of the evening. An Audi R8, Aimee.” She looked at her friend expectantly.

  “That means absolutely nothing to me, but I get that it’s a big deal from that crazy look in your eye.”

  “Trust me. It is. So I drove his car to his penthouse apartment in the city. Amazing. Marble, leather, silk … the works. But then I got a tour, and in his bedroom, is a huge painting of me. Of me, Aimee.”

  “Of you? But how could he have a painting of you?”

  “He commissioned it from the artist at the gallery. Sebastian Buisson.”

  “No sir.”

  “Yes sir.”

  “But how could he have done that? He didn’t even remember you or where he met you.”

  “He took a picture of me on his cell phone at the gym.”

  “Oh, my god. That’s kind of …”

  “Creepy, right?”

  “Well, I was going to say flattering. But yeah, okay, I could see how you might find it creepy. What did he say when he showed it to you?”

  “Nothing. What happened is, I went on a tour of the condo, and he stopped the tour before his bedroom and let me do that part myself. He said he didn’t want me to think it was some sort of sad plan to get me in bed. So he wasn’t there when I saw it.”

  “What did he say when you called him out on it?”

  “Nothing. Because I didn’t.”

  “What?! You didn’t say anything at all? I’m shocked. That is so not like you.”

  “I know. I freaked. I tried to act like it was no biggie or that I hadn’t even seen it, and then got the hell out of there.”

  Aimee laughed, picturing Kiki busting butt to leave. “How did you do that?”

  “I don’t know … I told him you needed me. I pretended to get a text. Luckily, Elizabeth’s text had just come in, so I had the beep to cover my lie.”

  Aimee slumped down in her seat, finishing off the last of her juice. “That is just hilarious.”

  “Hilarious?” asked Kiki in a miffed tone. “How is that hilarious? He could be a stalker or a psycho!”

  “He didn’t strike me as the type,” said Aimee, still smiling.

  “Well, maybe that type can hide itself.”

  “Or maybe he just thinks you’re amazingly beautiful and wants to have an artistic image of you to keep him company, since you’re this mystery woman who won’t tell him who she really is.”

  “Well, he did actually title the thing ‘Mystery Woman’ or something like that. I’m going to tell him the next time I see him, if I ever do see him again. Maybe then he’ll leave me alone.” The tone of her voice should have been all self-assured, but it wasn’t.

  “I don’t think that’s what you want,” said Aimee.

  “What? You think I want a stalker after me?”

  “No, don’t be silly. I think you liked him before you saw that painting, and you’re hoping it doesn’t mean that he’s a nut case.”

  Kiki shrugged, refusing to commit.

  “If you knew for a fact that he wasn’t crazy, would you like him and want to go out with him again?”

  “If I knew that there was some valid reason for that painting that didn’t include insanity at any level? Then, yes. I admit. I found him … attractive.”

  “Pfft. Please. The guy is a god.”

  “Fine. He’s hot. And he’s incredibly smart, and he likes fast cars.”

  “Wow. It sounds like you found the perfect guy for you.”

  “Except for the insane part.”

  “Yeah. But the jury’s still out on that aspect of his personality. And, don’t forget to factor in how adorable your babies would be, if you two ever procreated.”

  Kiki looked at her like she was crazy. “Babies? Are you nuts? I’m not having kids, ever.”

  “Baloney. You’d make an awesome mommy. You should have at least three. Maybe four.”

  Kiki shuddered. “No way. Kids are noisy and messy.”

  “They give lots of good cuddles though and they give noodle necklaces, too.”

  “Noodle necklaces?”

  “Yeah, you know … how they paint dry rigatoni pasta and then put it on a string for you for Mother’s Day? Noodle necklace.”

  “Well, there is the noodle necklace. You do have a point there.” Kiki rolled her eyes.

  “I wonder how Elizabeth’s night is going,” said Aimee.

  “We’ll find out soon enough.” She looked at her watch. “It’s after two in the morning. I’m going to bed. We’re meeting Lizzie at eleven tomorrow for workouts and then lunch.”

  “Good. I need to lose about ten pounds, stat.”

  “Getting naked with a hot cop turning out to be good motivation?” teased Kiki.

  “You bet your buns, girl,” said Aimee, smiling as she made her way to her bedroom. She was beyond thrilled to feel so inspired about making herself look and feel as good as possible. And she thanked heaven for Jack’s terrible temper. If she’d never slipped on that juice and banged her head, she never would have met Joe. It was so cool how every cloud in her life was turning out to have a silver lining.

  Chapter 32

  KIKI GOT UP EARLY AND spent the first three hours of the day fretting about the possibility of seeing Brent at the gym. She really didn’t want to face him after running out like she had. What would I say to him if I saw him there, anyway? ‘Hey Brent, listen … I have a question to ask you. Are you a psycho?’ She was pretty sure that particular question would tick him off, plus there was no hope of getting an honest answer, anyway. No one ever admitted to being crazy.

  Aimee’s voice came from upstairs. “Are you ready? It’s time to go.”

  “Ready as I’m going to be.”

  Aimee came into the kitchen to join Kiki, and patted her on the back on her way to the sink to fill up her water bottle. “Don’t worry about Brent. He probably won’t even be there.”

  “What if he is?”

  “Well, you’ll talk to him. Apologize for running out, and then ask him what the hell that picture is all about.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Why beat around the bush? That’s not your style, babe. Go with what you know.” She moved to the front door. “Come on! You’re driving.”

  Kiki shook her head at this newfound bossiness of Aimee’s. It suited her to be taking care of people and their feelings like this. Kiki was glad to see her friend feeling so good and happy about her situation. She didn’t want to be one of those misery-loves-company-kind of people who gets grumpy when others are happy. She did her best to shake off her misgivings and started walking toward the door. Before she go
t halfway there, her phone beeped. She looked down at a message from Elizabeth flashing on her screen.

  CHANGE OF PLANS. MEET ME AT MARCUS’S OFFICE. HE HAS NEWS FOR AIMEE.

  “Hey, Aimee!” shouted Kiki at the open front door. “Change of plans!”

  Aimee came wandering back in, looking down at her phone, all of her good mood having evaporated away. “I got the text. What do you think it means?” She looked and sounded panicked.

  “Good news, probably. Come on. We’ll do the workout after.”

  They got into the car and drove to the lawyer’s office in silence. Kiki wanted to make Aimee feel better, but wasn’t sure what she could say to make her worry go away. They’d see soon enough whether it was good news or bad; there was no point in speculating now. She turned on the radio and sang along to top forty nonsense, determined to at least provide some comic relief.

  The receptionist ushered them in, and seated them in front of Marcus’s desk to join Elizabeth, who was already there. She stood up and gave each of them a hug.

  “How are you doing, Aimee? You look stressed.”

  “I am,” she said, taking her seat. “Anything that has to do with Jack and this divorce makes me freak out.”

  “Well, don’t freak yet. Maybe it’s good news.”

  “It is good news. Maybe,” said Marcus’s voice from the doorway. “No, don’t get up … sit, sit. I don’t have a lot of time. I have to be in court in forty-five minutes.” He closed the door and walked quickly over to his desk, sitting down and putting his folded hands on its surface.

  “Aimee. Darling. How are you?”

  “Well, I was good until about twenty minutes ago. I’m very nervous right now.”

  “Lizzie tells me you got the binders, is that right?”

  “Yes. We can bring them over later … ”

  “No, don’t worry about that now. And what about the computer?”

  “No, we ran out of time,” said Kiki.

  “Well, I might be able to get that for you anyway,” said Aimee, looking at her friends nervously.

  “How?” asked Elizabeth. “I don’t think you should break into the house again. It was really risky last time, and now he’ll be waiting for it.”

  “Don’t call it breaking in, love. It’s still her home,” admonished Marcus.

  “Yes, I know that technically it’s still her place. But entering through an upstairs window using a ladder, and racing to beat an alarm, feels like breaking in.”

  “Understandable,” he said nodding, before turning back to Aimee. “Tell us what you’re thinking.”

  “Well, a few months ago, I read an article online about the importance of backing up data. I told Jack and he said no, that we had everything in the binders and that if our system failed, we could just recreate the books.”

  “Meaning you could just do all that work,” said Kiki, disgust in her voice. Every time she heard another little factoid about Jack, she hated him more.

  “Yes. But I didn’t listen to him. I didn’t want to have to re-do the work. So I got an account at one of those cloud computer thingies. I’m not sure what it’s called. Anyway, all the books are there. At least, I think they are. I backed up the whole hard drive to it.”

  Kiki reached over and hugged Aimee, letting go so Elizabeth could do the same. “You little rebel, you. Good for you!” she said.

  “Thank you,” said Aimee, smiling shyly. “I felt guilty about it at the time. But, I guess, not so much now.”

  “That’s excellent, excellent news. Okay, so the reason I called you here was to share some information with you. It’s all good news as far as I’m concerned. I spoke with Jack, who’s apparently one of those attorneys who is so arrogant he doesn’t think he needs a lawyer for himself. I won’t bore you with all the details, but essentially, he’s ready to make a deal to get this over with.”

  “Wow,” said Aimee, shock in her voice. “I’m really surprised about that. I thought he’d fight more.”

  “Well, don’t give up on that thought just yet. He is going to fight … over the settlement. He thinks he’s going to be able to block the use of those binders against him. But your backup drive of the computer, the entire hard drive, in fact, will be all we need. I assume that’s the computer he used for personal things too? Did he have a password on it that you didn’t know?”

  “No. He had to give it to me to get into the books.”

  “Good. So he can’t claim that it was not part of the marital property. In any case, I’m going to hire a really great accountant I know,” with that he raised his eyebrows a few times at Elizabeth, “to go through those books of yours and do some forensics. If there are assets hidden anywhere that he’s somehow referenced in the system, she’ll find them. Once we know the value of the estate, we’ll have some figures we can throw out at him.”

  “He’s not going to give me anything. He already told me that about a hundred times.”

  Marcus held out his hands across the desk, signaling that Aimee should take them. She put her hands in his, and he grasped them firmly. “Jack is not in control of the law of the State of Florida, sweetie pie. Jack may think he’s not going to give you anything, but he would be wrong about that. Very wrong.”

  “But what if he refuses to pay?” asked Aimee, getting a small measure of comfort not only from his words, but also his warm hands.

  “He will go to jail for contempt of court.”

  Aimee’s eyes bugged out. “But he put all of our money into a townhouse for Tiffany. And a car. There is no money left to get from him as far as I know.”

  Marcus shrugged, releasing her hands. “Cash, real estate … it doesn’t matter. They’re all marital assets. He may think he bought that townhouse for Tiffany, but he really probably technically bought it for you. It wasn’t his money to spend. Not all of it anyway.”

  “But I never worked while we were married.”

  “And why is that?” asked Marcus.

  “Because he said he needed me at home to help with other things, so he could focus on building his practice.”

  “Exactly. His contribution to the marriage pot was building the business. Yours was managing the household so he could do that. It’s considered an equal contribution under the law, and that makes you entitled to half.”

  “Holy crap,” said Aimee. “That’s a lot of money, kinda. Well, more than I have now.” She looked at her friends, her heart feeling significantly lighter. “That means I could maybe have some money to invest in the business!”

  Kiki patted her arm. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves right now. You’re already a full partner. Let’s just see what happens with Jack before you go committing your entire nest egg to our venture.”

  “I agree,” said Elizabeth. “Give me a few days to go through those numbers and his receipts. I’ll see what I can find. Marcus, can you do a public records search? I’d like to know what his other assets are.”

  “Already working on it.” Marcus stood. “That’s all I have for you now. Make sure you give that username and password for the cloud drive to Lizzie.” He turned his attention to his cousin. “I need it by the end of the week. Can you do that for me?”

  “You bet. Probably even sooner.”

  “Good!” He clapped his hands together loudly and then rubbed them together. “This is going to be great fun! I love taking arrogant assholes down a notch or two. Pardon my French.”

  “Your French sounds good to me,” said Aimee, now more relaxed about her prospects.

  The girls left the office after saying their goodbyes to Marcus. They battled traffic on the highway on the way to the gym, Elizabeth following behind in her Buick.

  “I am so relieved at his news,” said Aimee. “Not only is Jack going to have to share, but I’m safe from his nonsense now.”

  “Damn straight,” said Kiki.

  “And I live in a secure neighborhood … ”

  “You’re dating a cop, too, don’t forget that part.”

 
“I’m dating a cop. You’re right. What could go wrong?”

  Kiki didn’t respond to that. She knew the answer was, ‘Plenty,’ but she didn’t want to rain on Aimee’s parade. Let her have some days where she doesn’t worry about what bad things might happen to her.

  They arrived at the gym and started with the circuit routine. Aimee and Elizabeth moved to the treadmill section while Kiki went to the free-weights. She was in the middle of the leg exercise that Brent had showed her when she heard his voice coming from behind her. She looked up and saw him in the mirror.

  “I see you’ve decided to include my tips in your workout.”

  Kiki stood up straight and put the hand weights she was using for her modified lunges on the floor, grabbing her towel so she could wipe her sweaty hands and face. She didn’t want to turn around and face him, but even more, she didn’t want him to think she was a chicken shit.

  “Hey, Brent, what’s up?” She turned and was bummed to see his legs and arms were just as gorgeously formed as the rest of him. Too bad he’s a nut job.

  “Thought I’d drop by for a quick workout during my lunch hour. Feel like spotting me?” He gestured to the bench that had a barbell and a set of weights all ready to go on it. He must have been there for a little while without her noticing. He probably thinks I was avoiding him. And I probably would have tried to avoid him if I’d known he was here.

  “Sure.” What am I going to say? No? That would be rude.

  He laid down on the bench and grabbed the bar. “I’m sorry you had to go so quickly last night. I didn’t even have time to make you that popcorn.”

  “Yeah, that’s too bad,” said Kiki distractedly. She was trying not to stare at his bulging muscles as he strained to lift the bar twelve times in fairly quick succession.

  When he was finished, he got up to add more weight to each side before lying back down again. “I kind of got the impression you were running away, actually.” He looked at her intently for a few seconds before focusing once again on lifting the bar and starting another round of twelve reps.

  “Yeah, well, I kind of did, I guess.”

  He put the bar back on the supports when he was done, breathing a little heavily. “You admitted it.”