by J. J. McAvoy
“You’re a horrible young man,” she laughed as she lifted the lid and examined the contents of the box.
Her eyes lit up and a smile broke out across her face as she removed the tickets to her favorite performance of Swan Lake.
“You also have a dinner for two at Chateau La Rue, for anytime you want.”
“Levi—” she replied.
“Happy Birthday Betty.”
“Thank you.”
Nodding, I turned back to the other woman in my life. She stood at the window that overlooked all of Boston.
“Enjoying the view?”
“You just had to go and do something sweet,” she whispered, even though I saw the corners of her mouth turn up. I stepped behind her. “What do you need, Mr. Black?”
“You,” I casually replied, “but since that isn’t on the table right now, I’ll have to settle with this.” I handed her the case file.
She stepped away from me, and I reached for my guitar before taking a seat in my chair.
“I don’t understand.”
“Tell me how you would lead this case,” I replied, strumming the strings on the neck of my guitar.
“You’re kidding?”
“Figuratively of course. I like you, but I’m not willing to leave a woman’s future in your hands just yet. You kept your name on the board, which means you’re still the head of the pack. The deal is, if you do that, I’ll personally train you, and this is a training exercise. Now how would you run the case?”
“I would need to read—”
“You’ve been looking over the case for the last two months. If you still need to read anything, then you’re dreaming if you think you can be a lawyer.”
She glared, throwing the file onto my desk and crossed her arms.
“I wouldn’t waste a jury’s time trying to make Mrs. Nash look good, because it would be an insult to their intelligence. I would come right out and say it; Mrs. Nash hated her husband. Right off the bat, they might hate Mrs. Nash, but they will trust me because I’m the only one not blowing hot air.”
“Okay, what next?” I kicked my feet up, tightening the strings before I began playing again.
“Next, I would make it clear that Mrs. Nash was not the only person that hated him. When his daughter takes the stand, I would ask her how it felt to be cut off from the family fortune—”
“Guilty.”
“What?”
“I said ‘guilty’ because if that’s how you’re going to present this case, that’s what the jury will decide.”
“You said in class that the best way to get one suspect to walk, is by giving the jury another suspect capable of the crime.”
“That’s true.”
“Then how come my verdict is ‘guilty’?”
“Because you’re throwing softballs,” I sighed, closing my eyes to listen to the music. “Your thought process is right, but your approach is weak. Mr. Nash’s daughter was cut off. Why? Go for the jugular.”
“Isn’t that badgering the witness?”
“Not if you do it right. You might hurt her feelings, others will think you’re a bitch, but who gives a damn? At the end of the day it’s the win that counts. So don’t hold back. Lead her into the questions. Let her hang herself. Approach me as if I were her on the stand.”
She nodded, and I placed the guitar down, and straightened my posture as I awaited her questions.
“Ms. Nash, was it true that you left your family home a year ago?”
“Yes, I wanted to see the world.”
“It wasn’t because your father was furious about your drug abuse?”
“No—”
“No, that he was furious? Or no that you don’t have a drug addiction?”
I wanted to grin. She was getting it.
“Yes, I had a drug problem, but I was getting better. My dad was helping me over my sickness.”
“If someone was helping you, why would you leave?”
Good question.
“I—”
“And if your father was helping you, why would you need to steal over two hundred thousand dollars’ worth of jewelry?”
“I never—”
“I will remind you that you are under oath, Ms. Nash, and that lying on the stand is a criminal offence. Did you know that your father called the police to report that the jewelry had been stolen, however he dropped charges when he realized that it was you?”
I stopped for a moment, in awe of her, and slightly turned on, before remembering something much more important at the moment.
“Wait, do we have proof of that?” I asked, breaking character.
“Not necessarily.”
“What does that mean?”
“Mr. Nash kept an inventory of all their jewelry. When I was looking through it, I saw that almost two hundred thousand dollars’ worth of it went missing the same time his daughter did. So I called the police department, stating that I was one of Mrs. Nash’s lawyers, and I asked if there was a report filed for the missing jewelry, they said that an initial call had been placed, but a couple hours later, Mr. Nash called them back and informed them that he had found it. However, according to his records, there was no further indication that it was ever found.”
“And you’re saying this now?” it didn’t solve the case, but it did make our case stronger.
“There was no paper trail—”
“It doesn’t matter. If we can use it to rattle the defense and the witness, it might as well be written in stone.”
“Oh.”
It was things like this that reminded me that she was still a student, and she had a lot to learn. But once she graduated, she was going to be a force to be reckoned with.
“Okay, start over again.” I said, listening to her explain how she would take down the witness.
I could watch her like this forever.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
THEA
“You shouldn’t be calling me,” I said, as I placed a bowl of water down for Shadow.
She got one lick in, before jumping at the thunder outside.
“What if it’s work related?” he asked.
His voice over the phone gave me shivers. I’m not sure what it was, but having him speak directly into my ear was… sexy.
“Is it work related?” I asked him, already suspecting that it wasn’t.
“It depends on your definition of work.”
I wanted to laugh. “Levi, you have to be in court again in the morning.”
“Come over.”
“Yeah, that’s not happening,” I said, sitting on my couch.
“Then I’ll come over to your place.”
“Don’t you dare,” I warned him.
He sighed, “You’re making this so much more complicated than it needs to be.”
“That’s my line!”
“Ouch. That was my ear.”
Crap.
“Sorry, you just bug me sometimes.”
“Only sometimes?”
So annoying.
He went silent for a moment and so did I.
“You’re going to kill it tomorrow,” I whispered.
“I know.”
“Why must you be so cocky?”
“I’m from Boston,” he replied. “It’s part of our swag.”
I couldn't help but laugh. “Oh my god you are—”
“I’m what?”
I sighed, as I grabbed my pillow and hugged it to my chest. “You really don’t know when to give up.”
“Why in the hell would I give up? I’m enjoying it, and so are you.”
“I am not.”
“Liar.”
I could feel his smirk over the phone.
“Come over. We can have dinner, watch a movie, and talk like grown-ups.”
I pinched my cheeks to keep from smiling.
“Like grown-ups?”
“Whenever we’re alone, I only have a few minutes, sometimes seconds. We never really have the chance to just talk, so instead, I
end up jumping you like some horny teenager. As fun as that is, I still would love to get to know you more.”
“If there’s anyone who knows me outside of my family, it’s you Levi. You need to stop digging, because you’re only going to find more things you hate about me than you like.”
Shit. It just spilled out of my mouth.
“I have to go,” I said, panicked that I had said too much.
Hanging up, I threw the phone to the other end of the couch, before placing my pillow over my face.
What’s wrong with me?
I could hear the phone ringing, but I couldn’t bring myself to answer it. Rolling onto my side, I watched the rain beat against the windows. I could feel my phone at my feet and I wanted to call him. Everything felt better when I was talking to him. I was just a chicken. Why couldn’t I be… more woman-like?
When my phone vibrated again I snatched it quickly.
“Hello?”
“Jeez, what’s the point of having a phone if you never answer it?” Selene hollered into my ear.
Pulling the phone away I understood what Levi meant. Ouch.
“Sorry, I thought you were someone else. Is everything okay? Is Grams ok—”
“Everyone’s fine. I just missed you. And I was wondering, can you come home for Christmas?”
“Selene I would—”
“It’s okay if you can’t. Seriously though, I just met someone—”
“Wait, what?” I squealed.
I jumped up suddenly, scaring Shadow off the chair.
“Selene? My baby sister? She met someone?”
“Hey, don’t make me sound like I’m emotionally stunted or something!” she chided.
“No. No.” I slowly sat back down. “I’m surprised, good surprised, and happy for you… as long as you’re okay.”
“I’m fine,” she said. “He’s good guy, Grams likes him. But she told him he has to get the stamp of approval from you, so that’s why I was calling, he’s been asking to meet you for weeks now.”
She’d left two months ago.
“Weeks? So long have you been seeing him?”
And why was I just hearing about it now?
“We started talking before I left for Boston, but then we lost contact when I got there. And when I came back, we kind of hit it off when again.”
Again? Why was I just hearing about it now?
“What’s his name?”
“No way I’m telling you that! You’re gonna go Facebook stalk him or something, and I want you to meet him in person, before you judge him.”
“I won’t judge him,” I said, and even I didn’t sound convinced by that,. “Much,” I added to avoid completely lying to my sister.
“Is that her?” I heard a deep voice ask in the background.
“Selene, it’s eleven o’clock.”
“Grams is here, and he’s leaving.”
“Wait, can I at least talk to her?” the guy asked.
“We’ll see you whenever you’re free and can come down to visit. Good luck with everything. Love you. Bye.”
She didn’t even let me get a word in before she hung up. Looking through my phone I noticed that all my missed calls were from her. Levi had never even called me back after I hung up on him.
Why did that bug me? Why am I like this!
Getting up, I grabbed my rain boots and my jacket as I headed out.
“Pray for me Shadow.”
LEVI
“I’m coming!” I hollered, as I dried my hair off with my towel. Opening the door, I found that my late night caller was the very last person I expected to see.
“Thea?”
I moved aside, letting her in. She took her boots off at the door, before stepping further inside.
“And of course, you’re not wearing a shirt,” she sighed, heading into my kitchen.
“Be happy I have clothes on at all.”
She took two glasses out from the top of the cabinet, and grabbed a bottle of wine from the chiller. Pulling a few drawers open, she searched for what I could only assume was the bottle opener.
“You moved it,” she frowned, turning to me.
“Yes, in the four months since you been here, I’ve moved my bottle opener,” I said as I reached into one of the cabinets to get it for her.
“You sound annoyed.”
“You hung up on me, remember?”
“You never called back,” she said, pouring the wine into her glass.
Sighing, I tried not to get pissed off with her. “I don’t want to play these games with you Thea. You can’t keep protecting your heart by acting like you don't have one. Why. Are. You. Here?”
“My little sister has a boyfriend,” she smiled but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I was rolling around on my couch with my pillow to my chest, like a little kid, beating myself up over how much I enjoyed talking to you. Meanwhile, my younger sister is in a stable and mature relationship. Her boyfriend wants to meet me, but I have no idea why, because I am not the mature one in that relationship, either.
“I like you, but I’m a mess Levi. I really am. Some days, I don’t even know how I get out of bed. You should walk away because I will likely fuck your life up. Trust me, it’s what I do, and I don’t want to do it to you.”
She finished off the rest of her wine.
“I don’t answer to you,” I said to her. “You can’t make choices for me. If I want to be with you, then I’ll try to be with you. The only other person who has control over this is you. So are you in or out?”
She shook her head and reached for the wine bottle when I stopped her. If we were going to have this conversation, we were going to have it sober.
“Look at me.” Of course she didn’t. “Thea.”
She sighed, looking up, and I cupped her cheek.
“You are not a black rainbow. I see every one of your colors. You may have been one once, but you sure as hell aren’t one now.”
She gaped at me in shock. “How did you—”
“The day after you rejected me— the first time— your sister called me up and asked to meet with me. She was worried about you being here alone, and I think she just wanted to see me in person.”
She sighed, leaning on my counter. “She really is the mature one.”
“I think she takes after you.”
They had been each other’s support systems growing up, and so they always tried their best to remain strong for each other.
“Are you staying the night?” I asked her.
She swallowed, gripping on to her glass.
“We’re on winter break right now, and at the moment, I’m not your professor. So, are you staying the night?”
“I am. And I’m going to act like a grown-up.”
I smiled, pulling out my cell phone. “Then we’re going to need dinner.”
THEA
I sat on his lap on the living room floor, changed out of my wet clothes and into one of his cotton shirts. We were both eating Chinese, and listening to the thunderstorm outside. After being apart for so long, I was expecting it to be awkward, but it was as if we had picked up right where we had left off.
He stroked my thigh with one hand, while flipping through the emails on his phone with the other.
“A penny for your thoughts?” he asked as he caught me staring.
“Only a penny? What type of girl do you think I am?”
He snickered, kissing my shoulder. “Don’t overthink it.”
“I’m not.”
He gave me a look.
“Okay, I am,” I admitted. “But I can’t help it. It’s like nothing’s happened and we’re back to week one again.”
“I don’t mind week one.”
“Neither do I, but you know so much about me, and I feel like I know nothing about you.”
“Ask me something then.”
I thought for a moment.
“Why did you become a lawyer?”
I tried in vain to pick up my rice with my chopsticks as I a
waited his answer. After about three tries, I gave up, and took the spoon out of the bag on his coffee table.
He grinned at me, using his with ease to pick up a dumpling.
“No one likes a show off,” I told him with a grin.
“I’ll teach you.” He reached for my spoon, but I backed away.
“You’re avoiding the question, Mr. Black.”
“I hate that question because I never have an answer for it. I don’t know why I became a lawyer. My father was one, and I was good at it, so I just stuck with it.” He shrugged.
“That’s weird, I was expecting something a little more… inspiring,” I said, once again not using a filter.
“It’s fine.”
“Surely you wouldn’t have stuck with it for so long if you didn’t like it?”
“Oh no, I love it now. But back then, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I kind of just followed the path that had been laid out for me. Luckily, it all worked out and I found my calling.
“Court is like a giant chess game to me. Skill and strategy, confined by a set of laws. It’s one of the reasons why I could never be a district attorney, they’re shackled to the law. On the outside, there are loopholes and tricks. The harder the case, the better the game.”
He grew more and more animated the longer he talked about it. His entire face lit up, and he seemed… really happy.
“And helping people is nice too,” he added quickly, and I laughed.
“No judgment.”
“No judgment,” he whispered again. His eyes went to my lips for a split second before he looked away. “Next question, Ms. Cunning.”
“What are your parents like?”
He already knew all about mine… if you could call those people parents. I hated one, and I hadn’t seen the other in years.
“Thea?”
“Sorry, I was just thinking. What did you say?”
“I didn’t say anything, you just looked like you were getting carried away by whatever thoughts were in your head.”
How did he know me so well?
“Your parents?” I asked him again.
“My mother was a ballerina, until she got hurt during her last run of Swan Lake. She now has her own studio, and teaches girls from six and up. And like I said, my father was a lawyer until he retired. They’re both Boston socialites now, and they’re still madly in love too. On New Year’s day, my dad always moves all the furniture around the house and allows my mom to basically put on her own show for him,” he said with a laugh, shaking his head at the thought of them.
