by Katie Kyler
A couple of hours later, I was in a courtroom in the next building, standing before the judge. “How do you plead, Mr. Bennett?” he asked.
“My client pleads not guilty, your honor. Grayce Gladden for the defense,” she said confidently as she strode around to join me at the table in the front of the courtroom.
“Your honor, the defense will show that my client was, in fact, assaulted by Will Sanderson when my client interrupted him in the act of sexually assaulting a female patron of the nightclub in which he works, Twist. Sanderson assaulted my client, who first warned him, then deflected Sanderson’s blows not once, but twice, before defending himself. My client is a respected and upstanding member of the community. We request remand.”
Damn, she sounded like a cop show.
“Your honor, the defendant assaulted Officer Sanderson completely unprovoked.” The prosecutor’s words caught my attention, but his appearance and demeanor suggested he might be phoning it in. “We request bail be set at fifty-thousand.”
Grayce said, “Your honor, my client is a public figure. He is well known in the fashion and advertising communities, and his face is currently plastered, forty-feet high, in Times Square. He is not a flight risk, and he has limited resources for bail. Request remand.”
“Mrs. Gladden, I am holding you personally responsible for ensuring he shows up for his day in court. Please tell Carter that Judge Perkins says hello. Remand!” He banged his gavel, and the clerk took me into a little room at the back of the courtroom where he uncuffed me and handed me a slip of paper with my court date and terms of probation.
I walked back down the corridor to the doors in front of the courtroom to find Grayce. I was grateful the judge had let me go home, thanks in no small part to Grayce. Still, I was fuming at the mention of her asshole ex-husband’s name.
When I saw her, a wave of relief washed over me. I was glad to be going home, and even more so to be going home with her.
“Mr. Bennett, let’s get you out of here,” she said. We walked to her Mercedes, and she kept a shoulder’s width of distance between us.
Once we had gotten a few blocks from the courthouse, she leaned over to me at a stoplight and hugged me, her arms tight around my neck.
“Thank God we got him to let you come home!” she said with a huge sigh of relief. “I’ll file a motion to dismiss tomorrow. I talked to the prosecutor and told him the part of the story that Sanderson hadn’t shared. He seems to think we can kill this whole thing. Can you believe that asshole is a cop? He’s supposed to protect and serve, and instead, he assaults women in bars who smile at him. Un-fucking-believable.”
When we got in the apartment, Grayce immediately shrugged off her jacket and kicked off her heels. I grabbed her arm and pulled her to me, wrapping my arms around her tightly, and laid my cheek on top of her head.
“Tyler, we said friends, remember?”
Ouch. My own words, coming back to haunt me. The phrase cut me right to my core.
“I know. I just wanted to say thank you,” I replied.
I went to work the next day as usual. My court date wasn’t for three more weeks, so I had to just go about my regular routine as usual. I talked to Steve. He said the cops had been by with a warrant for all their surveillance videos. He had already made copies and sent one set to Grayce, and took the other set home to his place.
“So,” Steve said, leaning back in his chair, “I told them, ‘Don’t worry, officers, we know you want to get this scumbag who assaulted one of our patrons. My guys are ready to testify about everything they saw that night, don’t you worry.’ Dude, you should’ve seen the look on their faces!”
The next couple of days were nerve-wracking, but they went by pretty quickly. Grayce was coming in after work and working on my case every night. If I came home early enough, sometimes I’d hang with her for a bit before she turned in. One night, I found her asleep on the sofa, so I picked her up and carried her to bed where she could at least sleep comfortably.
Early the next week, Grayce called me from her office in the middle of the afternoon. I think it was the first time she had ever called me on the phone. “They dropped it,” she said as soon as I answered. “They dropped all charges. You’re a free man, Tyler.”
I was so thankful, I swear I almost could’ve cried. At some point, it had occurred to me that if the criminal charges had stuck, it might affect my ability to become a counselor or psychologist – whatever path I decided to pursue.
I wanted to do something nice for Grayce. She had fought hard for me, and I had learned quickly that she was a fierce professional in her field. When she would talk to me about my case, her eyes had an intensity and determination that I had only seen one other time – the night we spent together.
I texted her before I left the gym.
ME: You coming home after work?
GRAYCE: I plan to. Got company? Should I stay at Ella’s?
Damn! She was clearly as determined as ever to stick with this whole just friends thing.
ME: No! I just wanted to talk when you get home. What time?
GRAYCE: 6? See you then.
I stopped at the organic market and picked up the ingredients to make glazed salmon and squash risotto. I grabbed a nice bottle of wine to go with it, then headed home to make dinner.
I was almost finished with dinner when Grayce walked in.
“Wow, smells good in here!” she said as she came into the kitchen.
She leaned back against the doorframe, feet crossed, hands in the pockets of her slacks. Loose, chocolate-brown curls pooled forward against her green blouse, onto the left side of her chest.
“I have a confession to make.” I walked up to her, but careful not to cross any boundaries without an invitation. “I wanted to see if you’d be home tonight because I wanted to make you dinner. I want to say thank you for everything you did for me – getting the charges dropped.”
“Tyler! Are you serious?” She stood up straight to face me. “You do remember how this whole thing started, right? You were just trying to help me. If you hadn’t jumped in, you wouldn’t have had all this trouble in the first place.”
“Grayce,” I put my hands on my hips and shook my head, “just take the thank you, and eat the dinner I cooked you, all right?”
She laughed. “Okay.”
“I’m going to get all this plated. It’ll be ready in fifteen minutes if you want to get more comfortable.”
Grayce came out of her room a little while later, wearing shorts and a t-shirt. I set up dinner on the kitchen island and poured us each a glass of wine.
“You’re a pretty incredible cook,” she said, taking a bite. “This risotto is amazing.”
I wasn’t sure if it was the relief of the charges being dropped, but Grayce was definitely at ease over dinner. She cracked jokes with me and laughed as we ate. After her second glass of wine, I started clearing the dishes.
“Wanna watch the latest episode of that comedy you like?” I asked.
“Sure! I’ll go queue it up.” She smiled and headed to the living room.
As I was finishing up the dishes, I heard a knock at the front door.
“I’ll get it,” Grayce said.
I walked into the living room, and Grayce was looking at a packet of papers. “Who was it?” I asked.
Her face was serious as she held the papers up. “It was a courier. Tyler, Sanderson has filed civil litigation…he’s suing you.”
“What? I don’t have anything for him to take. Can he do that?” I asked, sinking into the sofa beside her.
“I’m afraid he can. He is suing to recover damages from his fractured jaw and concussion,” she said, shaking her head. “But it gets worse.”
“How much worse?”
“His attorney…it’s Carter,” she said, putting the papers on the coffee table and dropping her face to her hands.
“Fuck! Grayce.”
She took a deep breath and looked up at me. “What?”
&
nbsp; “He’s trying to goad you. You don’t have to do this. I can hire someone to help. I don’t want you to have to deal with that asshole.”
“No, I got us into this, and I’m going to get us out.” She slouched back on the sofa. This was bad, and could be a big mess, but I had to admit I liked hearing her say us. “I’ll countersue for my attack. He’s pursuing civil litigation because I sought criminal charges against him. I know Carter. We went to the same school and worked at the same firm. I know all his tactics, remember? If he wants to fight dirty, he better be ready for how dirty this fight will get.”
I put my hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. She put her hand on top of mine. I wanted to take her in my arms. I was trying hard to respect her wishes, but at the same time, I knew something had shifted between us.
When Grayce wasn’t around, all I did was think about her. When she was around, all I thought about was that look on her face the night we were together. She was happy, and relaxed, and free. I wanted to make her feel that way all the time. I had dated a lot of women, but no one had ever affected me the way she did. Grayce ignited some instinct deep within me. I wanted to protect her. I wanted to make her happy. She made me want to be…more. I was never going to be some boring suit with a stick up my ass like her ex. But for her, I wanted to be better. Was that love? Was that what Shane and Becky had? Hell if I knew.
I had called Jason earlier that afternoon to let him know everything had worked out with criminal charge. I also told him to get me every gig he could book. Modeling wasn’t a long-term play for me – not anymore. I’d told him I’d take whatever work he could get me – cologne, cars, hell, I’d even do work for one of those river cruises all the retired people take. I didn’t care. I needed to sock some money away and free up time by losing one of my jobs. I was going to go back for my graduate degree, and that meant I needed time to study and attend class.
Maybe it was arrogance, or even self-delusion, but I still thought I could change Grayce’s mind. I still felt something from her when she looked at me. If I could make her see that too, maybe I had a chance.
Chapter 17
Grayce
Fucking Carter! I still couldn’t believe he would stoop so low as to represent the scumbag who had attacked me. I had Ella set up a meeting with him, Sanderson, Tyler, and me at his office.
It had been about a week since the notice had been served at our apartment. I filed my countersuit the following day, alleging suffering and defamation of character on Tyler’s behalf, and pain and suffering on mine. Carter had tried to call me a dozen times, and he’d sent me at least twice that many text messages. I had told Ella to let him know that all communication regarding the case had to be conducted through discoverable channels. He knew better than this shit. He was trying to get me to talk to him – to lull me into thinking our conversation was casual so I’d slip up. I wasn’t going to fall for it.
“I still can’t believe that piece of shit is representing the asshole who attacked you,” Ella said.
“I don’t put anything past him anymore. I mean honestly, would you have thought he was fucking Kay behind my back?” I replied.
“Speaking of…I heard something.” Ella said cautiously.
“What do you mean?”
“I heard Kay left Thomas and Thomas,” she replied, looking down. “She supposedly went to work for in-house counsel at some big financial firm.”
“Huh. Well, that will make it a lot easier for him to bang somebody else at the office behind her back, I’m sure.” I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. The point is, Carter will try to use anything to throw me off my game. I won’t let it happen. I’m going to represent Tyler to the very best of my ability, and he doesn’t deserve to be going through all of this.”
“Speaking of,” she started.
I cut her off. “Stop it, Ella.”
“You know what? No. I won’t stop it. Grayce, you and I both know that was a lot more than a one-time fling with you two. I can see it all over your face when you talk about him. He means a hell of a lot more to you than just some beautiful body. Don’t you think you should tell him?” Her hands were on her hips and she was leaning forward as if she were annoyed.
“Ella, I just can’t with him! He’s the biggest playboy in New York! He’s been with God knows how many women. Not to mention the fact that he has three jobs. We’re a terrible fit. It makes no sense.” All the things I was saying were true. At the same time, what Ella said was true as well.
There was something more there. The way he looked at me was filled with desire, something I never saw from Carter. The way he touched me was full of tenderness. When I was with him, I wanted to give myself to him completely.
My heart may have wanted him, but my head knew better. I’m sure there were enough broken-hearted women in his wake to fill Yankee Stadium. I’d always felt sorry for those women who gave their hearts so easily to a man who wasn’t as invested as she was. I had been a fool for Carter. I would be damned if I’d be a fool for Tyler too.
“Love doesn’t fit onto a checklist,” Ella said. “I’ve seen you two together, and there is something there that you don’t find every day.”
“So, the world’s biggest cynic about men is becoming a romantic?”
“My ex was a piece of shit. We both know that. I also know this—when people show you who they are, who they really are, you should believe them. I think he’s trying to show you who he is. You should let him.” She brushed her hands together as if saying ‘job done,’ and walked out of my office.
The meeting at Thomas and Thomas was set for the next afternoon. My stomach was in knots. It was bad enough having to see Carter, but I had to do it in the big, beautiful office where I used to work. I hadn’t seen any of my former colleagues since I’d left, tail between my legs. They all knew Carter had chosen Kay over me. It had truly added insult to my injury.
I had texted Tyler earlier that we needed to go over the plan. He had cleared his schedule for that evening, and the following day for the meeting as well.
When I walked into our apartment, Tyler was sitting on the sofa, but I had to do a double take.
“Holy shit, you cut your hair,” I exclaimed.
“Very observant, counselor,” he said with a chuckle.
“But why?”
“Two reasons. First, I wanted to look a little more conservative for our meeting tomorrow. If this thing ends up going to trial, I want them to see that a jury can see me as more than just a face from a billboard. Second, Jason is going to get me some more conservative ad work. This look will be more marketable for that.” He paused, furrowed his brow just a little, then asked, “Do you like it?”
I thought his longer hair was sexy, so I was surprised by how hot I found the new, more conservative Tyler. “It looks really amazing.” I smiled as my eyes scanned from his new haircut to his handsome face. “I do like it.”
“So, can I assume since you handled the criminal charges so brilliantly, that I have nothing to worry about with this civil suit?” He gave me that easy smile I loved.
“Well, to be clear, I am a spectacular lawyer,” I said with a giggle. “But we have to be on top of our game. There’s no telling what Carter may pull.”
“Him being involved—do you think that’s about you?” he asked.
“I’m not sure. But I’ll be glad when this is all over.”
We went over the arguments I thought Carter would pose, and our responses. Tyler and I went over the events of the night of the attack, so I could make sure his story was consistent. He was telling the truth, but Carter would try to trip him up with questions, and memories grew foggy with time. I wanted to make sure everything was just as we remembered it, from any angle Carter attacked.
The next day, our meeting was at nine o’clock. I wore my charcoal gray suit with a bright blue top. It was the suit I wore when I had to go to court. It was the one that made me feel the most confident. Tyler was already in the living room when I c
ame out. Fuck me, he looks hot, I thought as I saw him in a navy suit that looked like it was made for him.
“Wow,” I said. “That’s quite a suit.”
“Thanks. A designer I did some work for gave me the pieces I wore in the shoot. Two suits, and a couple of other things. He had the suits tailored to me, so I thought I should hang onto them just in case I ever needed them.” He smiled and gave me a half shrug. “I wouldn’t normally be rolling around town in a suit that cost more than my car’s worth, otherwise.”
With his new haircut, the look really came together. He could’ve walked down Madison Avenue and easily been mistaken for a broker or a CEO, he looked so put together.
“Well, it’s a really good look on you,” I said, a little more enthusiastically than I meant to. I was trying to stay focused on the case, but all I could think about was ripping that suit off him and riding him.
“Thanks. You look great too. I mean, really professional, but also incredibly beautiful,” he said, smiling sweetly at me.
We got to the office and I was relieved not to recognize the receptionist.
Being back in the office felt surreal. I had walked through that door hundreds of times. In those days, I was on top of the world. I had a rich, handsome, successful husband who was the darling of the firm. I got some of the best clients, and I was on a fast, five-year trajectory to make junior partner.
Besides my career and my husband, I also used to have friends at the office. They had quickly scattered, though, as soon as Kay started spreading nasty rumors about me. It felt strange to be in the place I had spent so much time working, laughing, and planning my future.
The new receptionist showed us to the conference room. As we sat and waited, I asked Tyler if he had any last-minute questions.
“No, I think I’m ready. You look really stressed though, Grayce. I’m not worried – you shouldn’t be either.” He reached over and squeezed my hand.
As much as I hated to admit it, his touch felt electric on my skin. As soon as his hand touched me, I remembered how his fingers had felt on my hips the night we were together. I thought about his lips on me, and how I felt him so deeply inside my own body that it felt as if we were one. I wanted to tell him that I had lied. That I was willing to take a chance if he was. That he was worth it. But my lips couldn’t find the words, and this was the worst possible time for that conversation, anyway.