By October, they were picking up larger customers and hiring additional staff. It just seemed almost too easy how well this was going, but they didn’t dare back down out of fear. The only way to make this work was to continue to forge full speed ahead. Stephanie was elated when a client she had been working with from the old firm walked through their doors and told her he wanted to hire her to take his account. They were really making it, and she couldn’t have been happier.
That night, she and Neil celebrated the way that suited them most. He came over for dinner and a movie, then they spent the night making love. As she lay in the darkness, looking at him lying beside her, she wondered how she ever could have missed what was right under her nose all those months at the firm. Curling up against him, she fell asleep the happiest she had been for a very long time. Everything was going so beautifully between them and at their new business. She could never have imagined things going so wonderfully for her so early in life. What more could she ask for?
Chapter Thirteen
“Stephanie Carter and Neil Montgomery?” the man asked as they walked up to their building and began unlocking the door. He had been leaning against the brick wall nearby and quickly made his way over to them when he saw them sliding keys into the lock.
“Yes?” Neil answered, stepping slightly in front of Stephanie protectively.
Stephanie wasn’t sure what the man wanted, but the fact that he had been there waiting for them made her uneasy right from the start. She could tell that Neil was already preparing to defend them if the man tried anything, but he only reached into a messenger bag he carried and pulled out some papers, handing a copy to each of them.
“You’ve been served,” he said. “Have a nice day.”
Stephanie wondered if anyone who had just been served papers ever continued to have a nice day. She was guessing they didn’t. They each looked down at the papers they had been handed. Their former employer was suing them for a violation of the non-disclosure and proprietary agreements they had signed while they worked there.
“We have a completely different client base and we’ve used nothing that he could consider a violation of our employment contract with them. He doesn’t have a chance in hell,” Neil said furiously.
They had gotten inside so they could sit down to look at the documents. Both were absolutely livid. They were doing so well and it was obvious that they had somehow become a threat, though they couldn’t see how such a large company could be worried about what they had accomplished so far.
“What are we going to do?” Stephanie asked.
“What do you mean? We’re going to fight this. He can’t sue us just because he’s pissed that we’re doing well on our own,” Neil responded.
“I know, but we have to prove we did nothing wrong and court could drag on for months. Plus, a lawyer capable of fighting something like this is not going to be cheap. We don’t have that kind of money,” she said.
“We’re going to have to have it, Stephanie. This is our life. If we don’t fight, he can destroy us. Not only will we be out the money we’ve invested in this place, but we’ll be making payments to him while working some minimum wage job somewhere. No one in the ad industry will hire us if it goes on record that we took trade secrets from our previous employer. You and I will become baristas at the coffee shop down the street! We haven’t done anything wrong, and we can’t afford not to fight this!” Neil railed.
Stephanie noted that he was flushed from head to toe. It was the first time Stephanie had ever seen him this angry. She was upset. too, but nothing like he seemed to be.
“You’re right. I’ll call our attorney’s office and get us an appointment for a consultation as soon as he can fit us in. Then, I’ll go ahead and fax a copy of this nonsense over for him to review,” she told him, sounding much calmer than she felt. They couldn’t both be on the verge of exploding into a homicidal rage.
“It’s that damned Harlan Tyler account,” he said finally. “We should have never taken that on. He had initially contacted you when we were still with Johnston, but he never signed with them. I bet he went back in there, found that you were gone and asked where you went, raising their dander because they lost a potentially lucrative client to us. They seriously can’t spare one client?” he ranted.
“We can’t turn down a big client like Harlan just because he went to them first. I hardly did any work for him when he visited there, and I scrapped what I did do when I created his ad package here. Nothing in it is remotely similar to what I was working on when we resigned,” she said.
“I know. I’m just frustrated. This is the last thing we need. We’ve been doing so well, and this could easily drain us of everything we’ve got,” he said, sounding less irate and more dejected now. Stephanie pulled him toward her and they stood there embracing one another for a while until they were disrupted by the receptionist, Sadie, coming in.
“Oh, don’t let me get in the way of you two lovebirds,” she said cheerily, looking a little hurt when they both gave her halfhearted smiles and walked back to where their offices were to make some calls.
The following afternoon, they sat in the law offices of Connelly and Bass, looking at a diminutive little man named Bob Higgins. He was so pale that he was almost translucent, appearing to never venture into the sun. The effect was intensified by his incredibly pale blue eyes and snow-white hair. For what Bob lacked in stature and coloration, he made up for in ruthlessness.
Word on the street was that he did not like to lose, and so he rarely did. In the rare instances that he couldn’t win a case, he often appealed it pro bono until he got his way. He only took cases he felt had merit, so the mere fact that he was considering representing them was a good sign. After introductions were made, he sat quietly for a few moments flipping through the complaint Stephanie had faxed over yesterday.
“Okay, let’s start with some questions. The simplest one, of course, is, did you violate the terms of your former employment with the litigant?
“Absolutely not,” Neil said with certainty.
“Are you both positive of that?” he asked. They both replied that they were sure.
“Why do you think he is pursuing this if he has no case?” he asked.
“I’ve thought about it and I think he is scared. We are small, but we are growing fast. We created a major campaign for a client that initially sought out his firm but declined to contract the work with them when he found out that Stephanie was no longer there. He followed her to our firm. I think he is trying to scare us or break us so that we aren’t a threat to him in the future,” Neil told him.
“Do you agree with that supposition, Miss Carter?”
“It is the only conclusion that either of us can reach,” she replied.
“Okay, let’s talk about this particular client then,” he told them.
“Wait, before we go too far. I’m not sure that we can afford your services. I apologize, but we’re going to need to know what kind of money we are looking at,” Neil interjected.
“I won’t be able to tell you that until I get a little further into what we’re looking at. I can tell you that my consultation fee for this visit is five hundred. My retainer fee – if I decide to check into the case for you – is another fifteen hundred. That will get you this consultation, basic research required to make a case, and an answer to the complaint letting the court know that you deny the accusations and will see his sorry ass in court. Past that, you’re looking at two-hundred an hour,” he told them.
Neil looked as pale as Mr. Higgins did suddenly. His voice cracked a little as he asked how many hours they might be looking at and waited anxiously for the answer.
“I really have no idea until I look into the case. If you’re lucky, he’ll back off after he sees you are going to fight just to save his firm some money, but don’t count on it. Folks like Harold Johnston tend to have more money than they have sense when it comes to wanting the upper hand over someone they view as having betray
ed them somehow,” he replied.
“We didn’t betray anyone!” Neil barked, angry again.
“Whoa, fellow. I didn’t say you did, but that is how he perceives the situation. He will do his best to pound you into oblivion,” he said. “Let us do some digging into the situation, and we’ll see if you have a case. If you do, I will make sure he feels some pain of his own. We will run him into the dirt,” he told them.
Neil looked at Stephanie and she nodded her head. They could probably find a cheaper attorney, but they needed the best. Johnston would have the best, and they couldn’t afford to pit some half-ass lawyer against him. They had the upfront fees. It would put a strain on them, but they would manage.
“All right, let’s get started then,” Neil told him.
After some further discussion of the particulars regarding Harlan Tyler’s account and their previous employment with Johnston, he sent them on their way. The couple returned home feeling better about their chances at beating this, but deeply concerned about how much it was going to cost them to do it. They had to find a way to pay for his services. There simply was no other choice.
“Let’s move in together,” Neil told her as they sat at her kitchen table having a light dinner later that night.
“What? We both love our places, and we haven’t even talked about moving in together. I don’t want to do it just because we are in hot water with finances,” she told him.
“I don’t either, but that’s not why I asked. I mean, yes, it will help, but damn. This isn’t how I wanted this to go at all,” he said.
“What? What are you talking about?” she asked.
“I was so angry when that man showed up with papers,” he said.
“Well, yes. We both were. We have good reason to be angry about all of this,” she said.
“Yes, but there was more to it than that,” he said, reaching for something in his pocket and pulling it out to hold out to her.
Stephanie looked down to see a gold colored ring in his hand with a large emerald heart in the center. She didn’t understand what it was at first, but as she looked at it a bit vexingly, he began to explain.
“This was my grandmother’s ring. It’s been handed down in our family for generations. It’s called a Claddagh. I told you my parents are originally from Ireland, and this is a traditional ring many there wear to signify friendship, love, and loyalty. See? The hands holding the crown are for friendship, the crown is loyalty, and the heart is love.”
“It’s beautiful,” she said, still not fully understanding.
“If you wear it on your right hand, heart turned outward, it is a token of friendship. With the heart turned inward, betrothal, and moved to the left hand in the same way, marriage,” he told her.
Stephanie looked up at him, realization dawning on her face as he slipped the ring on her right hand with the heart turned inward.
“Stephanie, will you marry me?” he asked.
“Oh, wow. Wow. I didn’t expect this,” she told him.
“Do you need to think about it? I know the timing is horrible now,” he said.
“No, no. Not at all. Yes! Yes, I’ll marry you!” she said, jumping up and hugging him tightly.
“Well, that’s a relief. I thought my life was going to get even worse for a moment there,” he laughed.
Stephanie did, too, but then her face fell as she considered everything that was going on around them. He was right, this was horrible timing.
“What? What is it?” he asked.
“I just always wanted a really big wedding, and we can’t afford one with all of this legal stuff going on,” she said.
“I know, but we can just have a long engagement and then have the wedding we want when it is all over,” he told her.
“But I want to marry you right now!” she said.
“I want to marry you right now, too, but I want our wedding day to be nothing less than what you want and deserve,” he told her.
“I guess I will just have to settle for moving in together for now, then,” she replied.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
‘I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,” he replied.
Chapter Fourteen
Under different circumstances, Stephanie would have been elated to live with Neil, but she still feared that he hadn’t been ready for this. Though he had proposed and told her this was what he wanted all along, she couldn’t help but feel it was about money. They were barely keeping their head above water. They hadn’t previously discussed moving in together, but it was getting harder to make ends meet in separate places.
His mood that night was horrible, and she found herself, once again, trying to lighten it up a bit. That was nearly impossible here lately. Even with the money his parents had loaned them to help with attorney’s fees, they were always just one payment away from disaster.
“Be serious,” he said gruffly, not taking the bait. “We have to find ways to save money.”
“Okay, grumpy pants. Do you want to move into my place, or shall I move into yours? She was hoping he would move in with her. Their apartments were fairly equally priced, but his was smaller. He had traded a more modern space for size, whereas she had chosen an older place that had more floor space.
“Neither. We need to give up both and find a cheaper place, and we can’t wait out a thirty-day notice. See if you can break your lease,” he told her.
“What? No way can we fit all of our things into one tiny place,” she said.
“Stephanie, it’s not optional. It’s either cut back at home or lose the business. We’re shelling out thousands of extra dollars a month to the lawyers and struggling to keep the lights on, all while pretending nothing is wrong to our clients. If they walk in and it’s pitch black in the office, they are going to run screaming to the competition to take over their ad. I’m entertaining new clients on our credit line and that’s going to bite us in the ass very soon,” he said. She could hear the angst in his voice.
“Okay, baby. I know this is hard for you. It’s hard for both of us,” she said quietly, leaning against his back as she hugged him from behind.
She remembered how he had once told her that he didn’t know how he could ever handle being poor. This was definitely a crash course in the survival of poverty for him and someplace she’d hoped to never be again. They sat down and began looking through the classifieds for a place they could afford.
Stephanie was lucky to get out of her apartment easily. Her landlord was itching to up the price for a new tenant. Neil had a harder time with his rental company threatening to keep his deposit and require him to pay out the remainder of his lease. In the end, he was able to use his considerable charm on them and work it out, offering them some free advertising plugs on their rentals in exchange for forgiving the remainder of his lease.
After a lot of looking and some soul searching, they finally found a one bedroom apartment in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn. It was horribly outdated in the pre-war building that had been renovated to form a half dozen small apartments, but it was near a subway station and only a short walk from the Harbor and Verrazano Bridge where they could jog together or just grab a cup of coffee and relax. The biggest issue was downsizing their things to fit in the smaller space and the fact that it would double their commute to the office. The upside was that it was an unheard of twelve fifty a month, so they would save several thousand dollars per month in rent alone.
After selling quite a few of their things in preparation for the smaller space, they began relocating to their new home. Rather than paying a moving company, Neil was able to rent a U-Haul to pack their things in and have a few of his friends help them move everything into the new place. Though no one said anything, the looks on their faces when they saw the crappy new apartment reflected what they were thinking. Stephanie and Neil were in trouble and, while the savings in rent would be enough for them to keep paying their attorney’s fees, they were still on treacherous ground. Unfortunatel
y, that applied to much more than just their finances.
Neil stood looking out the window at the ratty old buildings that surrounded them. It wasn’t exactly Upper Manhattan anymore, but it was fairly quiet and one of the safer neighborhoods in the area. Stephanie unpacked dishes in the kitchen, trying to find enough space to put everything and finding that they still had too much for the small space. She ended up packing away some things into the bottoms of closets, still in the boxes. Hopefully, this wouldn’t be forever.
“Come on, baby, let’s go to bed,” Stephanie coaxed, rubbing his back as she walked up behind him.
He had finally moved away from the window and was unpacking some books onto a nearby bookcase. Stephanie couldn’t help but notice how weary he looked, and she suspected it was just as much about stress as it was about having moved their belongings up a flight of steps earlier in the day.
“I’ll be there in a little while,” he told her, continuing with his unpacking.
“Okay, then. Don’t stay up too late. We have a lot to get done tomorrow before we go back to the office on Monday,” she reminded him.
“I know,” he said, kissing her on the forehead before she walked away.
Hours later, Stephanie rolled over to find that the bed was still empty. She could see the light from the front room shining in from beneath the door and wondered what he was doing. Before she could get up to check on him, the light went out and she heard his footsteps padding in to go to sleep. Pretending to be asleep, she waited to see if he would make any attempt to rekindle the affection that was sorely lacking between them since all of this had begun. Instead, he rolled over on his side, facing away from her and let out a deep sigh. After what seemed like hours of him tossing and turning in an attempt to doze off, Stephanie reached for him, stroking his hair softly with her hand.
“I’m sorry, Stephanie. I’m keeping you awake. Why don’t I go sleep on the couch so at least one of us can get some rest?” he told her.
“I’ve got a better idea. How about I help you relax? It’s our first night in our new place, don’t we need to break in our brand-new bedroom?” she said seductively.
Stuck in the Cabin (Exiled Dragons Book 8) Page 7