Imperfections (36 page)

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I woke up and you were gone."

"I'm sorry, did I wake you?"

"No, you were gone for a while. I missed you so I decided to come looking for you. You looked like you had something on your mind. Are you having second thoughts about us?" His eyes close down a little. I can see the intense look that changes the shade to the color of the sky on a cloudy day.

"There are no second thoughts when it comes to the way I feel about you, and us being together. I know what I want. I want you. I will always want you. Do you understand me?" he says with all the intensity I see in his eyes.

I nod my head. "Yes." He runs his thumb over my cheekbone, kissing me on the corner of my mouth.

"Don't ever doubt the feelings I have for you, Cat."

"So what's wrong?"

"It's nothing for you to worry about. It's late, you should go back to bed."

I place my hand on his arm before he has a chance to get up. "If you're worried about it, then it's something for me to worry about. Don't try to lie to me. I know when something is bothering you; we've been friends far too long for me not to know."

He puts the bottle down to the side, spreads his legs apart, pulls me between his legs, and puts his arm around my shoulders. He lets out a deep breath and I rest the back of my head against his bare chest. Bending down, he kisses me on the side of my neck and wraps his other arm around my waist. I could sit here like this with him forever. Just the two of us. Safe and secure.

"I love that you know me so well. I missed my friend. I'm glad you came back to me."

"I'm here and I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's on your mind. I know if there was something on my mind, you wouldn't stop until you knew what it was."

"I was thinking about a case I'm going to take and my father. Life in general."

"Is your father a part of the case?"

"No, he's a part of the reason I took this case."

"Why? Did he ask you to?"

"It goes back to what he taught me about being in business and a lawyer."

"What did he teach you? He's a pretty good lawyer. If you learned something from him it had to be good, it helped make you the success you are now."

"Yeah, it did, but at what cost? When you're a lawyer somewhere along the way you have to do things and make some deals that go against what you thought you believed in. Things that you would never do to get to the top of your game where you want to be."

"Like what?"

"Let's say there's a case where a young man allegedly mugs an old woman, he's arrested, his father believes he's innocent. I know he's one hundred percent guilty but his father wants the best for him, he doesn't want his only son to go to jail. He wants to get the best money and power can buy for him. I refuse to represent his son. He says,  'There's a case you're working on and I can give you what you need to win, which you can't get on your own to keep an innocent man from going to jail for life, for a crime he didn't commit. If you represent my son it's yours.'

"What would you do? Would you accept his offer?"

I think about it, while he's rubbing his hand across my stomach I look out the window.

"I know what you're thinking. This is a simply answer, it's black and white, yes or no, right or wrong. But if I refuse his offer an innocent young man goes to jail for fifty years. His life is over before he has a chance to experience it. On the other hand, if I take the case even though his son is one hundred percent guilty of attacking this poor old woman going through her regular daily routine minding her own business, I can get him off.

"There are no witnesses, she didn't see what he looked like, her eyesight is failing; she can't even tell you what he was wearing at the time of her attack. The only thing she can recall is the scent of the cologne he was wearing. He was arrested five blocks away from where she was mugged with the exact amount of money she had on her at the time, fifty-three dollars and eight cents was exactly what she had."

"And he had that exact amount on him?"

"That and a pen her granddaughter had given her for her eightieth birthday. All I have to do is put her on the stand and make her look like a senile confused old lady by making her doubt herself. If I don't take the case, someone else could take the case and get him off and I run the risk of sending an innocent man to jail for a crime he didn't commit or I could take the case, help set an innocent man free while at the same time letting a guilty man that committed a far lesser crime free. The punk wouldn't see a day in jail for the crime he committed."

"If you were this lawyer, what would you do?" I ask, not coming to any decision of my own.

"I would take the case and set an innocent man free."

"What about the elderly lady? The other victim, where's her justice? Who is going to stand up for her and give her the justice she deserves?" I ask him, feeling sad for her.

"She becomes an unfortunate casualty in the pursuit of justice for all. Her cuts and bruises will heal. She's had a chance to live her life. Sometimes you make a deal with the devil and he comes back to collect.

"That was the first deal I ever made, I've made a few more since then. Today, today was the last of my deals I made with one of the many devils out there. He came to collect."

Wow. "Have you ever regretted making the choice you made?"

"No. But I was sorry she didn't get the justice she rightfully deserved. I know it doesn't make up for what happened to her, but I paid her legal fees and paid her rent anonymously until she died last year."

This is a real side of him I never saw before. He's really showing me all sides, good and bad.

"In many ways I'm like my father, as much as I try not to be. I'm not perfect, Cat, I'm the definition of perfectly imperfect."

So am I.

"That's another reason I tried so hard to fight my feelings for you."

"Personally, I don't know your father well, I've heard things about him, but what does that have to do with your feeling for me?"

"My dad was never faithful to my mother. Well, maybe he was in the beginning of their marriage…that's what I assume anyway from their pictures and the way my mother used to talk about the start of their marriage. It definitely wasn't the case toward the end of their marriage."

"What happened, why did they get divorced?"

"He couldn't keep it in his pants. He had women practically falling out the kitchen cabinets. Didn't even try to hide it."

"That must have been hard for you?"

"Yeah, it was so bad I was afraid to go in the kitchen. I was afraid a big-breasted woman might fall on top of me and smother me to death."

I laugh at his attempt at a joke. "Nick, that's not funny."

"Yes, it is, you're laughing. Picture the headlines."

I shake my head at the thought. "He was a repeat offender."

"A repeat offender?"

"A guy who cheats more than once, it's their thing. I dated a few of those, I'm so happy I didn't sleep with any of them."

"That makes two of us."

He takes a sip of his beer and puts it back down.

"I can't believe he would do that to your mother. She's such a nice person."

"Seriously, fucked-up things usually happen to the nicest people."

"From the handful of times I've met your father he was always nice to me."

"He was probably scouting you out to recruit you to be one of his new mistresses when you came of age and just ripe for the picking."

My eyes wide, I turn my head up. He looks down at me with a smile and a soft chuckle.

"Eww, I'm glad you're joking 'cause that would just be gross, a real perv move." This is the first time Nick has ever really talked about his father to me. Now I know why. "It must have been hard to go through that, to see her go through that, I know how much you love your mother."

"I don't want to hurt you like that."

I twist around in his arms and sit up on my knees in front of him. "Will you?"

His knees up, he puts his arms on top of them looking directly in my eyes. He doesn't say a word, it's like he's searching for the answer. It shouldn't take this long.

"No."

"Putting my hands on his face I look into his eyes and run the pad of my thumb across his lips. Searching for my own answer.

"I believe you."

Grabbing me by the back of the head he kisses me long and hard until I can't breathe. I put my head on his chest and my arms around his waist. He cradles me in his arms, finishes his beer and I listen to the steady beat of his heart, the moon, and the many stars which are the light of the city watching us.

"What time is it?"

"Too early for you to be up. Go back to sleep," I tell her kissing her on the forehead. "I'll be back."

"Where're you going?"

"I need to go to the precinct to see a potential client. Go back to sleep. I'll be back as soon as I can." I pull the covers up over her shoulders and walk out the door regretting having to leave her alone in my bed.

"Let me get this straight, you now stand accused of assault and battery by your now ex-girlfriend and you don't have any money to pay your legal fees. Is that right?" I say across the table to my brother's friend.

"Yes."

"I don't own a Bugatti, hell, I can afford to buy ten of them and still not put a dent in my bank account."

Logan nods his head at me and remains silent looking down at his hands on the table.

"But you bought a Bugatti, a Bugatti! You don't have a pot to piss in, you don't even have a bush to piss in. You get an advance for your album and you blow it all on a car."

"No, I needed a place to live. I rented an apartment."

"Where?" I say, becoming increasingly annoyed.

"Upper East Side," he says, lifting his head up. "But I got a good deal because I know the guy."

I shake my head at how ludicrous this is.

"After I got the apartment I needed furniture. Then I needed clothes."

"You have nothing to your name, no stream of income, and you live with your mother; when someone hands you a check for one million dollars one of the first things you do is get yourself a lawyer and an accountant. The lawyer to save your ass from all the false accusations coming your way and the accountant and financial advisor to manage and diversify your money so you don't find your ass in this predicament."

"That's good advice. I'll make sure I take it for next time."

"I believe you, I'll take your case pro bono."

"Thank you. I'll pay you back, I promise." He looks down at his hands on the table.

"You don't have to do that. I'm doing this because I know your family, you've been friends with my brother for years and I know your parents raised you right."

"They're going to lose it when they find out. They never did like Shannon."

"Question, is this the same girl I saw you with a couple months back? The aspiring swimsuit model?"

"That's the one. Crazy bitch!"

"I told you she was trouble. If I remember correctly, you said, 'I like trouble.' See what trouble can get you?"

"Yeah, I see now, two to five."

"Remember that next time."

"Don't worry, I will."

"When you see Gage, tell him to call me. When I haven't heard from him this long it means he's up to something."

I leave the precinct and decide to go back to the office to pick up the legal documents I left on Friday. From now on when I look at this desk I'm going to have a smile on my face. I turn to leave and there she is. What is she doing here? She's not supposed to come back until tomorrow.

"Hello, Nick."

She closes the door and walks to me. The first time I saw her she walked into my office tall, beautiful, long blond hair, sophisticated, hips swaying, sexy as hell. We were a match for each other in every way. She worked as hard as I did and we played even harder especially in the bedroom. At one point I thought maybe I could see myself marrying her, on paper we were a perfect match. Glad I dogged that bullet to the head. Too bad it grazed my heart though. I watch her slide her fingers down between the collars of my coat.