A Verdict for Love (7 page)

“Purring now, Chiara,” he said with
pride.

“You’re the best, Andy.”

She gave him a hug and took the keys,
walking quickly up the walkway to Grace’s apartment.

Grace heard Chiara’s light step
approaching and opened the door before she even had a chance to
knock.

They both giggled as she moved inside,
Grace shutting the door behind her.

Kissing each other slowly and
embracing as if they’d been apart days rather than mere hours. They
felt that happy to touch again.

“Shall we go to Piedmont Park?” Chiara
suggested.

“Oh that sounds wonderful. Let’s go
pick up some wings and iced tea to go and have a picnic.” Grace
suggested enthusiastically.

Grace wanted to drive her little blue
car to the park, and since Chiara was happy to have been able to
help her get it fixed and it seemed to please the girl so much, she
agreed.

They stopped off at Dugan’s on the way
for wings and tea and easily found a nice spot to leave the car
just across from Piedmont Park.

They walked slowly over the
sun drenched lawn to a beautiful patch of shade under
a large weeping willow tree. They sat together
happily nibbling the hot wings, enjoying a rare moment of bliss and
pure simplicity.

This was something Chiara had not
experienced since her own college days and she felt freed by it.
She felt younger in Grace’s presence and she was able to relax in a
way that had long eluded her…even with Helen.

They laughed together quietly and
watched all the couples, gay and straight, parading around the park
with their dogs.

It was a lazy afternoon and after they
finished eating, Chiara lay back and put her head in Grace’s lap.
Grace stroked Chiara’s long dark hair and sang to her softly as she
did so. The moment was so beautiful for them both.

At last, Grace felt something like
peace within herself. It was as though she had found the missing
piece to the puzzle of her life. She now understood what she had
wanted all those years. That the missing piece had turned out to be
another woman amazed her but she was way past questioning
it.

If this certainty was a relief to
Grace, it was also one to Chiara. She felt that she was able to
truly be herself with this young, accepting and gentle woman. And
she was nearing the point where she might not care who knew
it.

As they made their way back toward
Grace’s place, Chiara suggested,

“Let’s go to my house tonight, Grace.
You haven’t seen it yet. We can stop off at your place, switch
cars, and pick up some of your things and you can spend the night
with me tonight.”

“That would be fantastic! I’d love to
see your home.” Grace enthused.

Neither of them stopped to consider
what might happen if a partner or anyone at the firm saw them
arrive together in Chiara’s car for work Monday. The thought
flickered in Chiara’s mind for a millisecond as she turned into
Grace’s place but she thought to herself, ‘What the hell. If anyone
mentions it, I can just say Grace’s car broke down and I gave her a
ride to work.’

C
hiara enjoyed showing Grace her home. The big place no longer
seemed empty. It echoed with laughter instead of
silence
.

They ordered in some Chinese food and
sat at the table enjoying some Kung Pao chicken and shrimp as they
watched one another eating each bite with pleasure.

On impulse, Chiara said

“Grace, would you consider moving in
with me here? The place is huge. Yours is tiny and far from the
office. And…well….if you haven’t guessed it already…” she hesitated
for an instant, gauging Grace’s response with her dark sensitive
eyes and then went on…

“I’m in love with you too.”

Grace dropped her fork in her little
carton of Kung Pao shrimp and stood up with a huge smile on her
face.

“Are you kidding me, Chiara? Yes. Yes.
Totally yes!!!”

She ran around to the other side of
the table for a hug of appreciation. They kissed almost as a game,
planting a shower of tiny but intense pecks over each other’s
faces. Their hands in each other’s hair. The happiness that had
appeared was completely real for all its suddenness. They were in
love. They were set free. They were together. Life was
good.

Sunday evening they made dinner
together and had more lovemaking for dessert. Afterward, they
enjoyed a sublime bath in Chiara’s large porcelain tub with candles
strewn around the edges of the room. They bathed each other with
soft sponges to the sensual sounds of Morcheeba’s version of
“Summertime.” It was all liquid, slow, warm and erotic….

Summertime and the livin’
is easy

The fish are
jumpin’

And the cotton is
high…

They slept peacefully together nestled
in one another’s arms. Tired kids after a day of play.

T
hat they began arriving and leaving work together was
noticed. That Chiara no longer came in early or very often stayed
late was also noticed. The pair of them rapidly became an item of
winks and whispered conversations. They did nothing blatant or
untoward but given the slightest excuse, nasty minds always invent
nasty scenarios.

Sheila advised Chiara that tongues had
started to wag. The warning had given her another moment’s pause
but she had already made up her mind. The happiness she was finally
allowing herself with Grace was too important. Screw them and their
petty little minds! She had worked hard and had denied herself a
full life long enough. If anything her private doings were above
reproach compared to some of the wilder activities what went on
behind closed doors elsewhere in Atlanta.

When the ball dropped and Peter Smith
called her into his office it was not entirely unexpected. She went
up to the inner sanctum expecting the worst. Just outside his door
she paused and switched on the small voice activated recorder in
the breast pocket of her blazer.

As she entered, old Smith motioned for
her to sit. His desk was massive and intentionally
intimidating.

“You are probably a bit curious as to
why I asked to see you alone, Chiara.”

“More than a bit.”

“We rewarded you handsomely after the
stunning manner in which you handled that impossible case. He was
guilty as hell but you saved his business and his future.” He
smiled as if he had just awarded a star to a bright
pupil.

“There must be some point here beyond
another pat on the back.” Her piercing brown eyes became
challenging.

“The point is that even though the
firm values your skills…and we accept that one’s personal life is a
private matter…still a certain amount of circumspection
…”

Chiara interrupted impatiently,
“Please cut to the chase here.”

“We have an image to protect. You are
going have to let your new assistant go. And now that your name is
on the door with ours, the other partners have asked that I get a
guarantee that you will be very discreet in the future conduct of
your personal life.”

Every fiber of her being filled with
anger and resentment but there was also a sudden feeling of
release. Her long seething disgust with the firm and with herself
for having played along with their hypocrisy could now be vented.
The true lawyer in her rose up. She paused and let her gaze hone in
on him with her eyes like a laser beam.

“Are you threatening me?” she
demanded.

“Let’s just say you have a lot
invested here, Chiara. It would be a shame if we came to a parting
of the ways. If that happened…well…you know our firm is very
influential. Despite the warmth you’ve been enjoying from your
recent success you might find that Atlanta can turn frosty very
quickly.”

“You want me to choose the firm over
my feelings for Grace or you’ll blackball me?”

Peter Smith merely smiled and
shrugged.

“I’ll take that silly shrug as a yes.
You don’t need to worry. I resign right now. But you should know
that I expect to be compensated for leaving and for the trouble
you’re causing me.”

“How much?” The question came so
quickly that it was obvious her reaction had been
anticipated.

“Oh, let’s see….I had planned on
suffering through five more years here…so something in the
neighborhood of five million should do.”

“Ridiculous!” He snorted
derisively.

“You think so? You are on the verge of
a joint suit for discrimination and sexual harassment. Five million
will be cheaper and far less embarrassing.”

He cleared his throat and laughed.
“You are acting way too big for your tight little britches, missy.
You drag us into court for a pissing contest and you’ll find out
right off that Atlanta is still an old boy’s club.”

“It will cost you to prove it to me,
Pete old boy.”

“See you in court then.” He grunted,
“Now, get out.”

“With pleasure.” she
responded.

W
ithin five minutes of Chiara’s departure Smith had called in
the other senior partners. Saul Weinstein and James Rutherford
Brooks II looked at him expectantly.

“I tried to give her an out but she
wouldn’t take it. She’s leaving.” he told them.

“Good riddance.” Brooks said quickly,
“I was against making that ice queen a partner in the first place,
Peter.”

Weinstein laughed. “You just never got
over the fact that she wouldn’t let you get in her
pants.”

“Never mind all that. The bitch plans
to take us to court!” Smith said sourly.

“Is she nuts? She can’t beat us up in
our own town. We’ll have her guts for garters.” Brooks
declared.

“We’d better not take this
too lightly, Jimmy. Hell hath no fury and all that rot.
I want you to get with Barnes, Lee and Stuart. We
do a lot of horse tradin’ with them.
Get
us their best litigator and have him
start
getting ready as of now. And you, Saul…you still play golf at the
club with Judge Kirkpatrick?”

“Yes. We have a foursome set for this
coming weekend.”

“Be sure and nudge him on this. See if
when the suit is filed he can get it passed to someone sympathetic.
For my part I’ll get an investigator digging into her past and that
of the Butrell girl. We’re gonna need some nice stinky, sticky mud
to sling.”

“Maybe we should have just ignored
this, Peter.” Weinstein ventured, “I mean after all it wasn’t as
though she was out marching with the Rainbow Coalition. Even the
military is reconsidering ‘Don’t ask. Don’t tell’ and some states
are legalizing same sex marriage.”

“Why didn’t I hear any of this liberal
bullshit when the two of you demanded I take her to task? I’ve
already burned the bridge.”

“Now I’m having second thoughts is
all.”

“Well second think this, Saul…she
wants five million!”

“Fuck that noise!” Weinstein retorted
adamantly, “I’ll have the Judge over to dinner and twist his arm
tonight.”

C
hiara had left the confrontation feeling a kind of bliss. She
didn’t care anymore. She had finally said what she truly felt about
this whole sordid business. She was sick of trying to please Peter
Smith and his pals.

She patted her breast pocket and
congratulated herself on having walked in prepared. The recording
was made surreptitiously so they would seek to have it excluded but
there might be a way to get around that. She also anticipated that
they would mount an all out assault on both herself and Grace. As
far as she knew there was nothing really damaging for them to find
but she was sure they would invent something. She was not overly
disturbed though.

The old adage was that anyone
representing themselves had a fool for a client. It held true even
for a capable attorney. She was going to need someone else out
front. Someone who wouldn’t be afraid of the good old boys. Tamika
Brown came immediately to mind. She was a black civil rights
lawyer. Chiara had seen her in action and been
impressed.

Chiara smiled again. She would fix
their wagon, take their money and leave Atlanta. She had secretly
wanted something different and fuller for a long time
anyway.

Now, she only needed to talk to Grace.
This might be rough because she had no doubt the girl would be
upset and possibly frightened. It would be up to her to be the
strong shoulder.

Could it be possible that they might
come out of this mess whole and together somehow and be happy? This
would be the dream she really wanted but had repressed: true love
and true living.

G
race was at Sheila’s outer desk poring over a brief with her
when Chiara whipped in.

“Grab your stuff so we can get out of
here, Grace.”

“But…I mean lunch is still a couple of
hours away. Where are we going?” Grace asked in
confusion.

Grace had been unaware that anything
odd was afoot but Sheila’s questioning expression registered
immediately that something drastic had occurred during her boss’s
meeting upstairs.