by LS Anders
“All right.” He began by clearing his throat, then running a critical eye over Avie’s lime green head. “I am Mr. Mathieu’s attorney. He has asked that I… Are you not well, Miss Mackenzie?”
Avie and the lawyer rushed forward, helping her over to the client chair. Her stomach had dropped as if she had just swallowed a bowling bowl at the lawyers’ words, and apparently her lungs had forgotten how to draw breath.
Sheesh, this was the second time she had almost face planted in this very room.
“Let me get you some water,” Avie said. “I think you need to leave, Mr. Petersen. Callie has been through enough already.” Avie stepped in front of the man despite her small stature and fiercely guarded Callie as if she were her cub.
“I think you have mistaken my presence, Miss Mackenzie. I am here to help you,” he said, then turned his attention to Avie. “I’m sure your friend has been through enough, but unfortunately we need her to intervene soon or she will be going through a great deal more in the future and it will most likely be very ugly.”
Next thing Callie knew, Tegan was pressing a cold bottle of water into her hand. “Callie, you need to let this man help you. Ok?” Tegan tilted her chin up so she had no choice but to look into his icy blue eyes.
She nodded and looked around her space. Everyone had gathered around her door, peering inside. She caught Evana’s eye and the girl nodded her approval at Tegan’s suggestion.
“Ok. Ok, fine, I will.”
“I’m in my office if you need me, Callie,” Evana said, before closing the pocket door.
“Let me begin by saying that I’m truly sorry you have had to go through this. Not only will I be representing Mr. Mathieu in a civil suit for an intentional tort as well as yourself, but I will also be handling the criminal case for the property owners that were trespassed upon. The photographer has been identified and arrested, and charges are being pressed against her and her accomplice. As I said, I would be representing you in the civil portion of this case. We need to discuss the amount of punitive damages that are due you.”
“Wait. I don’t understand. Who has been arrested? What damages?” Callie closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to make sense out of what he was saying.
“The persons responsible for invading your privacy have been identified, charged with criminal trespassing, and arrested. I believe one of the two is about to be released on bail. I have done what I can for the time being to silence the press from any further exposure to you and Mr. Mathieu, but it is imperative that the two offenders be served with this civil suit as soon as possible.”
“I don’t understand. Anyone with a camera phone can take pictures of other people in public. There’s no law against that.” Callie could feel her face heat up as she thought about the photograph that had made its way to the public eye.
She and Vehn were in a very public place when they had done the nasty on that rooftop for all to see. She remembered she had been so turned on at the time she wouldn’t have cared if he had bent her over a bench in the middle of Grand Central Station.
The lawyer had the good grace to blush and look away, setting his briefcase on her console table below where Vehn’s photo had once hung. He made a show out of retrieving some papers, and she took advantage of that moment to collect herself.
“To answer your question, it very well can be against the law to photograph someone in public. There are several factors that come into play. First, where the photographer was located at the time the photographs were taken. The circumstances as to why the photographer took pictures of the subject in the first place.” Mr. Petersen cleared his throat before continuing. “Please be assured that all the photographs that were taken of the two of you have been seized along with the camera used as evidence. The property owners have already pressed charges, hence the arrests.”
Humiliation lit a fire beneath every square inch of Callie's skin. It was embarrassing enough knowing that her friends had most likely seen the photos, but to know that a complete stranger had seen them was devastating.
“Once the location where the photographs were taken was determined and found to be on private property, the photographer, a one Miss Freda Perez, was arrested,” he went on to explain. “She admitted during questioning to being coerced by Regina Hemsley to follow the two of you around with malicious intent. Miss Hemsley was taken into custody immediately thereafter. Trespassing with the intent to cause harm becomes criminal trespassing. Since Miss Perez admitted to causing both you and Mr. Mathieu intentional harm and admitted to deliberately invading your privacy, that is known as an intentional tort. That is the civil suit in which I will be representing Mr. Mathieu and yourself. Miss Hemsley, being the coercer, will be included in that, as well. Mr. Mathieu wants to make sure you are represented in this case and to assure you that he is doing everything he can to make sure nothing else leaks to the media. If you agree that I may represent you, you just need to sign the contract. He also asked me to deliver this letter to you.”
Callie was speechless, fucking speechless! No doubt she looked as ridiculous as she felt sitting there with her mouth hanging open.
“I, um…” Callie’s throat was desert-dry by the time the lawyer finished talking. She had to take a sip of water, wetting her lips, just to be able to push some intelligible words out. “I don’t think I can afford you, but—”
The lawyer held up his hand, stopping her. “Mr. Mathieu said you would say as much. I am always retained by him, so there is no cost to you or the property owners. He feels that he is at fault for the predicament his celebrity has put everyone in. He feels that if he wasn’t in the public eye, none of this would have happened. The contract is just a formality giving me permission to represent you in court.”
He pushed the letter out towards her again. Callie looked down at the envelope, recognizing her name scrawled in Vehn’s masculine script on the front.
“What is this?” Callie tentatively took it from him.
“I have no idea, Miss Mackenzie. He simply asked me to deliver it to you.”
“Oh, ok.” Callie took the pen he offered her next. “So, the contract is just me saying that it’s okay if you represent me in court. That’s all?”
“Yes. We will set up a time to meet to discuss your case and put a dollar figure on the damages due you.”
“Wow, I don’t know what to do. This is a lot coming at me at once. Um, I think I need some time to think about this before I sign anything—” Callie yelped, holding up the envelope like a shield protecting her from the intruder when her pocket door was unexpectedly slung open.
“You don’t need to think about anything, Callie. Sign the damn paper and nail these two bitches to the wall!”
“Dylan! What the hell are you doing here?”
“Eavesdropping,” she said, giving Callie a cheeky grin. “I had a feeling my bestest buddy needed me, so I got here as soon as I could.”
Callie was up off the client chair and tackling Dylan into a tight hug. “Oh my God, I love you! You came all this way just to hang with me?”
“Absolutely! Of course!” Dylan gripped Callie’s arms, pushing her back so she could look her in the eye. “And not a moment too soon either. Now sign the contract, make an appointment with Mr. Hot-older-guy, and get your two cents in.”
Callie turned just in time to see a faint blush creep up the lawyer’s cheeks as he tugged on his tie, failing miserably to covertly check out her friend.
“All right, where do I sign?”
Mr. Petersen handed Callie the form indicating the space for her signature.
“Now that you've signed, I will have you added to the civil suit, and the two will be served first thing in the morning. Here is my card. Please call in the morning and make an appointment as soon as you are able, even if it’s after business hours or on the weekend. My assistant will be expecting your call. The media needs to be permanently muzzled posthaste,” he said, managing to compose himself even though Dylan was now retur
ning the favor of a slow perusal and she wasn’t being nearly as evasive about it as he had been.
“I will, and thank you, Mr. Petersen.” Callie extended her hand this time, shaking what she had rejected before.
The lawyer left with a nod and one last glance at Dylan.
Dylan turned back to face Callie, a smile plastered on her face after she had blatantly followed the man out into the hall, watching him leave through the front door. Callie could only shake her head.
“What? The man is hot, so sue me.” Dylan laughed at her own joke while Callie pursed her lips trying hard to keep from grinning. “Sue me! You get it? He’s a lawyer.”
“Yep, I got it. It wasn’t that funny.”
“Yes, it was.” Dylan placed her hands defensively on her hips. “Admit it, it was pretty funny. So, Avie is freaking adorable. I love her lime green hair.”
“Wait a few days and it will be a completely different color. So, how long can you stay?”
“A week. I need to get back to Wicked Brews the weekend after Thanksgiving. Annnnnnnd… Avie invited me to her bachelorette party,” Dylan squealed, happily jumping up and down. “So I’ll be coming back in December for that shit!”
Sheesh, Callie had all but brain-dumped Thanksgiving! And, she had been so preoccupied with being in love and now broken hearted she had even forgotten about the male review Arin had managed to get them seats for the following month. She wondered what other shit was in her cerebral garbage can next to the forgotten holiday and party.
She needed to remember to text Arin and make sure Dylan would have a seat, because Avie had no idea where the party was going to be. The location was being kept as a surprise. All she had been told so far was the time to be ready to go and when the limo would pick her up.
“Oh Dylan, that is the best news I've heard in a while!” Callie hugged her friend again, feeling less depressed now that she would be spending some much-needed time with Dylan. “I still have to work, though. That will suck, for you to have to hang out by yourself.”
“No worries. Arin and I already have plans for tomorrow and Saturday. She’s going to take me sightseeing.”
“She is? When did you meet her?”
“I haven’t yet. When I got here, Avie was chatting with her on the phone, and she invited me to hang with her. Avie knew who I was before I intro’d myself, too… which was kind of weird. You must talk a lot about me behind my back. It had better be all good, too, hooker,” Dylan warned teasingly.
Callie had talked about Dylan to her friends, but not enough that Avie would recognize her on sight. Evana and Rayna had met her once before, when the Ryder incident had happened, but Dylan had never met Avie.
Sheesh, was that the last time she had seen Dylan? The Ryder apocalypse?
Shit, it seemed the only time they were ever inclined to visit each other was when something bad happened. Time to change that shit up.
“Hey, girls, we are starving,” Evana called from the reception area. “You want to join us for dinner at the burger place?”
“Hell, yes!” Callie and Dylan yelled back in unison.
Callie had lost her appetite after Thursday, when her breakfast had made that fabulous reappearance. If it hadn’t been for Rayna practically force-feeding her, she probably wouldn’t have eaten at all.
Besides the package of cheese crackers she'd inhaled during the quick break she'd taken while Lizbeth ran to the restroom, the last actual meal she remembered eating was the roast beef dinner Rayna had brought by on Tuesday night.
The tenacious blonde had stayed until Callie had swallowed the last bite. She had thanked her for the meal, but had begged her not to go to any more trouble and explained that she needed some alone time. Rayna had seemed to understand and hadn’t brought by any more comfort food. But the thought of a bacon cheese burger and homemade root beer had Callie rushing to finish her station clean-up.
As she turned to wipe down her client chair, the stark white of the envelope grabbed and held her attention. With all the excitement of Dylan’s surprise arrival, she had almost forgotten about it. Picking it up, she paused to examine it, and even put her finger under the flap before deciding to save it until she got home.
Spending some time with her friends was the medicine she needed right now, so whatever was in the envelope could wait. Stuffing the thing in her purse, she sanitized her chair, blew out her candles, and shut off her work lamp. Dylan threaded her arm through Callie’s as they joined Evana, Cale, and Avie in the reception area.
“Ready?” Evana asked.
“Yep,” they said as one.
“Are you two going to be doing that unified stereo answering from now on, because that shit is gonna work my last nerve.” Cale blasted Callie with a dirty look.
Good! She was glad to see he had dropped the sympathy routine and was back in full-on annoying little brother mode.
“If it gets on your nerves, Cale, I will be sure to do it as much as humanly possible,” Callie promised, giving him a tight smile.
Tegan and Rayna finally joined the others, disappointing everyone when they said their goodnights.
“Hey, you two too good to join us?” Cale teased.
“Maybe next time, Cale. I’m super tired tonight.” Rayna kissed his check after hugging Dylan, promising her she would spend her day off on Tuesday doing something NYC-ish.
“What about you, T? You too tired from all your after-work play dates?” Cale raked his eyes accusingly over Tegan.
Tegan immediately stopped rubbing the small of his back when Cale drew everyone’s attention his way.
Rayna ducked her head and hurried out the door, but not before Callie got a good look at the two splashes of red coloring her cheeks.
What the hell! Tegan and Rayna were an item now and trying to keep it on the down low? It wasn’t like anyone cared if they were together.
“Later, people. Nice to meet you, Dylan.” Tegan hurried out the door, altogether avoiding Cale’s questions.
“He is delicious,” Dylan whispered to Callie. “How come he and Rayna are trying to hide the fact that they’re getting their freak on?”
Callie just looked at Dylan. If D noticed something was going on between the two, then it must be true.
“So are we hoofing it or are we calling a cab?” Cale asked, a mischievous smirk firmly in place as his eyes remained glued to Tegan’s retreating form through the studio's floor length windows.
Oh, yeah! If Cale knew something was up with those two, Callie was going to torture him until she discovered every tiny tidbit of information.
“Already have two cabs on the way. Don’t mean to sound like a wuss, but it’s too damn cold for me,” Evana said, locking up and shutting off just the main lights. She preferred to leave on the accent lighting to deter any break-ins.
The cabs arrived. Cale and Avie took the first one while Evana, Dylan and Callie piled in the back of the second.
The Burger and Barrel was the best burger joint in town. They had a decent selection of microbrews, but Callie wasn’t a huge beer fan, and even if she had been, the thought of alcohol just made her stomach pitch and roll.
What she needed was more comfort food like the type Rayna had been shoveling into her at every opportunity. The oversized bacon cheese burger with a side of yummy extra-thick cut fries and the crisp sweetness of homemade root beer were just what she needed to smooth some of the sharp edges of her shattered heart. She had swept the thing up into a pile, but it remained very much broken, not much in the way of mending happening yet.
She was acutely aware of the envelope in the bottom of her purse. It was beginning to feel heavier the longer it lay unopened. Hell, by the time they made it to her place, she probably wouldn’t be able to lift her damn purse. She knew some of the answers she sought were in there, yet she was almost afraid to look, because the answers to her questions might not be what she wanted to hear.
Maybe Regina had lied, but she didn’t know to what extent. Even though
Vehn was suing her for an intentional tort, the lawyer hadn’t elaborated what, if any lies, she had told. They could have been engaged. She wondered if they were still together when she had first met Vehn at the Halloween party and on their first date.
What if he hadn't broken up with her until after all that had happened?
Then she really would be what the media accused her of being, “the other woman”. She could very well be the cause of that break-up, so getting excited over the prospect of getting back together with Vehn wasn't an option for her. Besides, she was set in her determination to consult with Dr. Z before doing anything.
Her thumb found its way to the sugar skull, unconsciously rubbing the tattoo as if to draw moral support from the permanent ink. She needed to forget about the envelope for now and not screw up the mood she was rocking.
She'd found a little bit of a reprieve from her sadness by managing to stay mostly focused on her work, and then Dylan had made her grand, very unexpected, very appreciated entrance. And let’s not forget the relief she'd felt knowing Mr. Petersen had already been assigned to the clean-up detail. She had Vehn to thank for that.
Or did she?
She felt in her soul that Vehn wasn't completely heartless, so maybe he felt he owed it to her to fix this mess because of possible lies he had told to her about the extent of his involvement with Regina. They had been an exclusive couple for a solid year, and she wondered why the breakup.
The girl was obviously taking it hard, because she had tried to off herself, or that could be just a ruse to gain publicity for her nearly non-existent celebrity. She would most likely drop off the map if she was no longer known as Vehn’s girlfriend.
The possibilities were endless and just made Callie’s head hurt. She just wasn’t ready to jump both feet into the trust bucket again until she had some answers.
Pulling herself from her ruminating, she focused on Dylan and Evana’s conversation as they chatted around her. Dylan was currently leaning forward to see around Callie where she was parked, in the middle of the back seat.
“Do you think they are serious or do you think I have a chance to hit that?”