“You can send his picture to me; I can paint him and send it to you. Give it to him on his birthday.” he said.
When Charlie finally decided what he wanted to do after school, it turned out to be what nobody could have predicted. Tina knew Charlie drew comics too, copying the legion of pictures he had in his comics. She didn’t know Charlie loved drawing or painting so much.
Charlie went to Utah and enrolled in an institute of visual arts. His specialization was drawing and painting. He was in the second semester of his second year and Tina had seen that his painting had greatly improved. He had sent her a lot of his work online. Ronda was still in California although they visited each other a lot. She was planning to move over to be with him soon although Charlie hadn’t told Tina when.
“He would like that.” Tina replied him.
Her relationship with Toby was not surprising to many of her classmates. One was even very surprised, though in a different way, when Tina mentioned she and Toby just started dating.
“You mean you weren’t dating before.” she asked, her eyebrows raised.
They still went for classes together. They went to the library every day before going to class and went back to the library sometimes after class. Then they went home not forgetting to buy something to eat before they got home. She slept in Charlie’s room most times. They would wake up to read at night, their scholarly endeavors sandwiched between steamy sessions of love making.
“Is your grandmother rich or something?” Tina asked Toby one day.
They were just returning from class and Toby was about dropping his bag in the sitting room. The surprise he had when he heard her question made him forget about dropping his bag, as he turned to face her, his hands akimbo.
“Why do you think so?” he asked.
“Your flat is well furnished, very well furnished. I know you have some student scholarships but they couldn’t pay for these as well.” Tina said looking pointedly at the cushioned stool in the sitting room, the centre table with a decorative centrepiece and the T.V staring back at her.
“This is money from somewhere else.” she said.
“You are right.” Toby said, his cheeks were widened but Tina wasn’t sure he was smiling.
“But my grandma isn’t rich. No one in my family is rich.” he said.
He dropped his bag beside the stool and walked into the room after saying that.
Tina didn’t bring it up after that. She knew it would come up sooner and later. And it did much later when they were in their second year. Tina woke up one night with an incredible searing pain at the right side of her abdomen.
“Ahhhhh!” she screamed, looking around her dark bedroom.
She had slept in her flat that day. They still kept separate flats since they had both agreed they sometimes needed their privacy. She was alone and the pain was coming over her in waves. It was exact and pinching but she could feel the throb in her bones.
“Ahhhh, my side!” she screamed.
Toby rushed into her bedroom a few seconds after the second scream. He had leapt up from his sleep in his apartment. He heard the shout and recognized her voice. Toby eased her up the bed, saying soothing words and telling her it’ll be fine while she used all the swear words she had in her repertoire to describe the pain she was feeling.
He got her to the school clinic in less than five minutes, taking advantage of a student who was about parking his car. The student had just come back from a group reading. A quick examination was done on her. She had to have an appendectomy. Her appendix was full and had ruptured. She was going to need medical insurance.
Tina was awake when the Toby told the doctor to continue, he had the money but no insurance. He would pay. He had forgotten he could just call her parents and they would be there to cover her medical insurance.
When Tina woke up after the procedure, she saw her mom and dad holding hands. They were in a kind of serious discussion; they were oblivious to the fact that her eyes had been open for a few minutes. She couldn’t talk, she tried but her lips felt like lead weights. Toby came in and his gaze met hers. She didn’t hear what he said, her hearing was still unclear. But she saw his mouth move and saw the joy in his face. Her parents turned around in surprise. They all gathered around her.
She went home with them, spending two weeks at home before returning to school. She asked Toby later in his apartment, one cool Sunday morning a week after she came back.
“What money did you plan to pay the bills?” she asked.
“The same money you were asking about.” Toby said, still looking into his Criminal Law textbook.
She held his arm to make him look up.
“I deserve more than that Toby.” she said.
Toby pouted, Tina wasn’t sure he knew the expression was a pout. She guessed he was trying to show his reluctance.
“The incriminating evidence that I was telling you about that tied my dad to the case ….” he stopped to look at her. He wanted to know if she understood what he was talking about. She did.
“it was shared money. They forced him to collect the money to make sure he shut his mouth. The whole thing was caught on camera. He told the police he threw it to the road side on his way home but he had taken it home. He hid it in our building but not in our apartment; only my grandma knew where it was.”
“Why didn’t he submit it?” she asked, wondering how that was a good move.
“He wanted to. Then he noticed how the case was going, they got to collect the money from the other guys and still convicted them even the white guy. It wouldn’t have made any difference. It made no sense to give up the only gain from the entire tragedy.” Toby told her.
“How much is it?” Her voice had lowered when she asked that, as if she was scared her ears might not be able to take the answer if it was at the volume she was speaking before.
“One million dollars.” he answered.
Tina was taken aback.
That is an incredible amount of money.
“Then why bother put in for scholarships? Why study like you are struggling for survival?” she asked.
“I can’t tell if the feds are watching me too. Without scholarships how would I be able to attend school with traceable money.” he said.
“And I have many things to prove to myself Tina, being an excellent student is one of them.” he said.
Tina understood him. She agreed with the move. It was better than a complete loss. Although Tina knew Toby would give the money back many times over to have his father for one day.
*******
After the appendectomy, Tina moved in with Toby. He wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Our health takes precedence over privacy.” he said.
They topped their class through the second year till their third and final year of law school. Then they were preparing for life outside of school. Tina was worried about Toby’s plan for his father’s case. She still couldn’t grapple with his absorption with the case and sometimes he reacted without pattern whenever it was a matter of his dad.
“What are you planning to do about your dad Toby? After law school I mean.” she asked him one night out.
He didn’t look at her. Instead, he stared at the sweating bottle of cold beer; fumes rose above it as droplets of water ran down the side to form small puddles by the sides of the bottle. He twirled it round and round then took another swig.
“The case is closed.” he said.
Tina was surprised, that wasn’t the answer she was expecting.
“But I will revive it. I plan to appeal it. My father never appealed, choosing not to appeal when the others did. They had different cases and accounts. I will convince him to let me stand for him.” he said.
“That’s an obvious clash of interest Toby. It would get past the preliminary rulings. It wouldn’t even get to court. And you know it.” Tina reminded him.
He nodded his head.
“I just thought maybe I should try but his case is bad enough
. Starting on bad grounds would just kill it.” he said.
“I’ll help get a lawyer, might even be you.” he said which drew a smile from her.
“I’ll assist in everything outside the courts. I want him out of there.” he said.
Tina did too, even if just to allow Toby to focus on other things.
When they were about finishing law school they sent applications to law firms. They sent them to the same firms. They wanted to work in the same place and live in the same apartment while working. Tina hoped in her heart that marriage would not be far off even though she never mentioned it to him.
They were both at the top of their class at the University Of California Law School and so they received many offers from the firms they had applied to. They chose Stinger and Barlows. It was in California and offered the highest pay they could get. It also had a history of winning tough cases in criminal defense cases. Tina felt that was what appealed greatest to David.
CHAPTER 14
A GREEK INTRUSION
W
ork was hectic for attorneys, Tina discovered. She imagined how her relationship with David would have been if they hadn’t been living together. Even then sometimes they lived like roommates. They could go days without a single embrace or kiss. It sometimes disturbed Tina that times she felt like being intimate with him, Toby was just off. And times she felt off, Toby would want to be intimate. They had to work extra hard too, being newbies.
Toby started work on his father’s appeal. He just needed a lawyer to represent his father. Tina meant to be his father’s counsel but she had been placed in a different department from Toby and Toby needed someone to be on it during working hours. She was also very busy and was silently grateful when Toby chose Katherina Mempes to represent his father. She thought nothing of it, only that Katherina was working in the same department with Toby and was a very good lawyer with a couple of wins under her belt. She had an especially big win when she helped sue a pharmaceutical company when she was still in Greece.
I should have thought more of it, much more of it.
Tina remembered being taken aback when she first saw Katherina. Katherina was the embodiment of modern beauty. She had this smooth chiseled face. Her eyes were green, a deep green, unlike Tina’s faint green taint. Her nose was small but sharp nose and a small mouth which didn’t open wide a lot of times Tina found out. She was tall, taller than Toby who was a 6 footer. She was slim and still wore high heels most times despite her height. She saw every head turn in any room she entered and she sometimes felt a pang of jealousy. Katherina was beautiful and smart, a devastatingly attractive combination for men Tina discovered.
Over time Tina noticed Toby and Katherina became rather close.
“She’s his father’s lawyer. What else do I expect?” she used to tell herself.
She and Toby always spent lunch together every day despite the tight schedule. They had decided to always eat together, just to have forty private minutes with each other during the hectic work schedule. Katherina joined them one day and never stopped. One day Toby came to get Tina for lunch.
“Tina, what’s up? Let’s go eat, it’s lunchtime.” Toby said, leaning over her desk.
He was still handsome despite looking a little ruffled although most people would still see him as looking dapper. But Tina could see the slight bend of his tie, a crease in his sleeve and an opened button in his shirt. Toby would never have those if he wasn’t tired. He had shaved his beard, opening up his face. She took a while to get used to his new look but she loved it after. She preferred him clean-shaven to when he kept a beard.
“Let’s go Tina.” he repeated.
Tina wanted to go with him. She was about to hibernate her laptop when she remembered the files she had to read. Her direct boss had given her a lot of work on a huge case. Stinger and Barlows were the legal counsel for True Way Construction Company. True Way had built a gigantic warehouse according to the specifications they claimed had been given them but now the client was claiming those were not the specifications. The client wanted the warehouse built and a new one erected without paying any extra. There was no way that was happening. So her boss had told her to read hundreds of building plan contracts and payment schedules to ensure there would be no loopholes from their side as the defense. Tina couldn’t spare any minute.
“I cannot go Toby. This True Way case is so hectic.”
Toby looked disappointed. He just rubbed her cheek and turned around.
“I guess I could bring lunch for you then when I am done eating.” he said as he walked away.
“You can go with Katherina.” she said to him.
“Yeah, that’s the plan.” he answered.
Throughout that week, Toby went to lunch with Katherina leaving Tina with her heap of work. Tina wished now she knew what had transmitted between them during those lunch sessions. She was sure that was where everything had started.
Tina noticed Toby started talking to Katherina every time. She would get home and meet Toby talking on the phone with her, laughing about something. Sometimes she heard her thick Greek accented words if Toby placed the phone on speaker. It irritated Tina but she put up a straight face anytime she met her at work. Katherina had helped Toby get his case into court and the appeal case had been slated for the end of the year. She didn’t want to be the one to break the rhythm.
Tina saw Toby becoming emotionally attached to Katherina and she didn’t like it.
“Toby I want to talk to you about something.” she told him one Saturday evening.
“Really.” he answered, looking at her. “What is it about?”
He was about going to have his bath. Tina saw a good chance to broach the topic without things getting awkward.
“Go and have your bath. We’ll talk when you are done.” she said.
“Okay.” Toby replied.
He got into the bathroom about five minutes later. Tina waited two minutes before shedding her clothes and going in after him.
“Woah!” he shouted when he saw her enter. He had not been expecting her to do that.
“This is a wonderful intrusion.” he said as he handed her the soap to wash his back.
Toby turned around and Tina saw the male hardness of his back. She put her arms around him, pressing herself to him and traced his muscles from his chest to his back. She then soaped his back from top to bottom, strip by strip.
“Toby I don’t like something that I see happening.” she said. Her voice had to be loud to be heard over the pattering sound of water from the open shower.
“What is it?” he asked. He placed his hands on the walls, bending to allow her scrub his back well.
“You and Katherina, I don’t like it.” she said.
Toby removed his hands from the wall and turned to face her. His face mirrored the sad look her face had.
“There is nothing between us Tina. I have noticed we are closer nowadays but it’s all work.”
He held both her hands as he spoke. He entwined his fingers with her, causing her to drop the soap.
“I see you guys talking every time at work. Some people even think you guys are dating. And then when you come home, that is meant to be our time, just you and I. I see you on endless calls with her, laughing about topics I don’t even have the faintest glimpse into.”
She was sad and scared. She didn’t want to lose David and stand at the sidelines while it happened.
“I am sorry. I’ve been uncaring with our friendship, I and Katherina. We haven’t had enough time for ourselves.” he said.
“Yeah, we haven’t.” she answered.
“Let’s go on a vacation during our leave in two months time. Let’s go to Hawaii or a Safari in Africa.” David replied.
He was drawing her closer now, bringing her into the direct torrent coming from the hanging shower where he was.
“That would be wonderful.” she answered.
She was smiling, happy that she had spoken her mind and Toby had been in agre
ement.
Finally, we would have time to ourselves.
“We can stay in bed all day.” She said.
“What is now the point of going to a tourist destination if you are going to spend all your time indoors?” Toby asked.
“This would be the point.” she said, drawing his head down. She brought his mouth to meet her in a kiss.
Now her face was in the direct path of the shower but Tina couldn’t have noticed any less.
CHAPTER 15
LYING, CHEATING BASTARD.
W
ell, that didn’t work. He still went ahead and cheated.
They didn’t get to go for that vacation.
Tina did notice the reduced affection Toby afforded Katherina. He never called her at home anymore and he stopped talking about their work together. Then they had to go for the summit Stinger and Barlows always held every year.
Tina couldn’t go as she was busy with another case. The directors picked Toby and Katherina among five other staff to spend a week at New York at the annual Stinger and Barlows summit.
When Toby came back, he changed. He refused to hold long conversations with her and gave her rough narrations any time she asked about his time in New York. About two weeks after, Toby came back from work one evening drunk. Tina was scared. She had been calling his phone for the past two hours and he hadn’t picked.
“Where were you?” she asked after she had hugged him in relief when he came back.
“I went to have a drink.” he replied.
“I can see that.” she replied. She had smelt the alcohol when she hugged him.
“You and who?” she asked him.
He still hadn’t moved away from the door. He was looking into her eyes and Tina felt she saw a burden there.
“Something is wrong.” she thought.
“Me, myself and I. I needed to think.” he replied, moving away from the door but refusing to sit down.
After All This Time: What She Wished Page 9