Baby Love Lite

by ANDREA SMITH

  “You see?" Gina whined after he'd left. "You see how he treats me? Why am I the bad guy in all this?”

  “Sit down, Gina,” I replied. “Let’s talk.”

  She sat down crossing her legs and arms. Her body language definitely told me that she wasn't going to be receptive.

  “First of all, I don’t think that you're the bad guy in this and neither does Trey. In fact, he thought the way you went about getting Libby to admit what she'd done was pretty clever. Tristan needed to know what she was about. So what happened this morning? Is Tristan actually angry with you?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t say angry is the word. I mean, it was really hard to tell because he was bleary-eyed like he hadn’t slept and kind of disheveled. He still looked hot," she giggled.

  “Well, he didn’t yell at you or anything; did he?”

  “No nothing like that. It's just when Rob was going over the figures with him it seemed like he was preoccupied and miserable.”

  “Well you of all people can understand that right? Seeing that video of Libby admitting that she wanted Trey had to be a shock for him. How were things left about the club?"

  “Tristan got copies of the financial information. He's flying back to Bristol tonight. He said he'd review everything and be in touch early next week.”

  “Once he comes to terms with the fact that this thing with Libby was nothing more than him acting out a mid-life crisis he'll shake it off. Trey says Tristan has the Midas touch when it comes to managing businesses.”

  “He looks like he probably has the Midas touch with a lot of things.” Gina was giggling like a school girl. I suspected she was crushing a bit on Tristan.

  “Hey,” I said, “That still doesn’t explain why you were so late in getting here.”

  She fidgeted a bit then said something about she had to go back to the condo to pack her stuff for her stay at our place with Preston. That was strange. Apparently it was none of my business. Perhaps Tristan had kept her longer than she cared to admit.

  “Maybe if he has to come back next to week to finalize the papers, he can stay here and have Thanksgiving dinner with Trey and me.”

  “You’re not going to Bristol?” she asked.

  “No. Trey’s parents alternate each year between their house and the Andrews. This year it’s the Andrews turn and Trey and I decided not to make the trip. Are you going to Becky’s for Thanksgiving this year?”

  “I can’t go this year on account of the club. That’s a very busy three-day weekend for us, so I'll be sticking around here.”

  “Well good. We'll expect you here for Thanksgiving then.”

  Trey emerged packed and ready. I filled Gina in on the last minute instructions concerning the baby. She'd picked Preston up out of the playpen and was holding her. I kissed my baby on the cheek and Trey did the same. I told Gina I'd call her later.

  Trey and I relaxed on the plane in first class. I hadn’t been away with Trey since our honeymoon when I was so stressed about leaving the baby. Today, I'd no such trepidations. I was excited about going to this oral argument or whatever it was called. I needed Trey to clarify it for me.

  “Trey, I know you’ve tried to explain this whole process to me but start with the basics, if you will, and explain why this Motion has to be heard by a panel of judges from different districts. I mean, I understand that your clients reside in different districts, but why so many judges on a panel need to decide?”

  Trey loved explaining the law to me; it was his life, his passion. I got that. I loved hearing him talk about it because it was complicated, subjective, and passionate - just like Trey.

  “Okay, baby, well first of all, I think you’ve already realized that multidistrict legislation or MDL as its commonly referred to is a special federal procedure to speed the process of handling complex cases having multiple litigants from different jurisdictions.” I nodded wanting him to get to the part that I didn’t already know.

  “So, in this particular case, we have a product liability issue with mass torts and multiple plaintiffs from different states. Some of those states, though neighboring, fall under different federal court jurisdiction. The purpose is to get the federal judges on this panel, which represents different federal court appellate jurisdictions, to agree that it's first of all the right thing to do; and secondly, to specify which federal jurisdiction should hear and rule on all of the pre-trial motions.”

  “Does this sort of thing happen a lot?” I asked.

  “I wouldn’t say that our firm runs into it that often, but it’s not all that rare either. The MDL statute came to be enacted in 1968. It was a belated response to a major price-fixing scandal that occurred at General Electric in 1961. As a result of GE’s activities in 1961, the federal courts were flooded with criminal and related civil litigation. The statute was put into place to consolidate pre-trial proceedings and discovery under one court for efficiency and timeliness.”

  “My husband seems to be an expert on this particular legal topic,” I said with pride in my voice. Trey smiled at my compliment.

  “Thanks, baby. Actually I did my senior thesis on that particular case involving GE's price-fixing and anti-trust violations for my entrance into law school. It was titled, "Edison’s Evil Empire: Conspiracy and Collusion". I got an ‘A’ on it,” he grinned.

  Trey continued to educate me on the procedures that take place during this hearing with time limits and the random calling of dockets. I think once again in his own way, he wanted to prepare me in case I couldn’t get close enough to Judge Tylar to see if he was related. I was hoping for some recognition on my part, though with all of the lies that Maggie had told over the years, even I couldn’t see how that would be possible.

  Once we were on the ground in Baton Rouge, an airport limo took us to our hotel which was located within walking distance of the federal court where we would be in the morning. Trey was busy on his Cell and laptop, so I called Gina to let her know that we'd arrived and asked how the baby was doing.

  “Everything's good, Ty. No worries here. Preston sure does like those green beans you made for her. I spooned in the whole jar and she still acted like she wanted more.”

  Really? The whole jar?

  “Gina, you probably should've only given her half of that jar with a half of jar of the fruit that I left in the fridge.”

  “I did give her a half jar of that fruit stuff. I think she'd have eaten it all, but I got tired of cleaning it off of myself when she kept hurling it at me with her fingers. It was quite a food fight we had going. I think I got most of it off the walls in the kitchen.”

  Holy shit!

  “Where's she now?”

  “She's playing in her playpen. I’m about ready to give her a bath and put her in her jammies. Do you want to say good-night to her?”

  “Yeah, put the phone up to her ear I want to see if she recognizes my voice.” I heard Gina talking to her as she took the phone away from her ear and put it near Preston’s.

  “Go ahead, Ty, the phone is next to her ear.”

  “Hi, Preston! How's Mommy’s baby doing, huh?”

  I could hear Gina’s voice in the background. “You should see her, Ty; she's grinning ear to ear and slobbering on my damn phone to boot.”

  “Mommy loves Preston. You be a good girl for Aunt Gina, okay?” I gave her loud kisses over the phone. Gina got back on.

  “That's so cute how she recognized your voice. She was smiling away at the phone!" It did my heart good to hear that. I missed my sweet baby.

  "Hey, Ty, we’ve got to cut this call short, Tristan's calling in. Have fun; don’t worry. Bye.”

  Tristan's calling in? Why the hell is Tristan calling her already?

  “That’s weird,” I mumbled aloud.

  “What’s weird, baby?” Trey asked looking up from his laptop. “Did your phone drop the call?”

  “No, Gina was in a rush to take Tristan’s call just now.”

  Trey glanced at his watch. “He’s probably just
now at the airport. Maybe he’s had an opportunity to look over the financials and wants to back out of the deal,” he chuckled.

  “I've a feeling that’s not the case,” I replied, stretching out across the king-sized bed. I propped my head up on my elbow, watching my gorgeous husband tapping the keys on his laptop.

  “Whatcha doing, Trey?” I asked coquettishly.

  He looked over at me and smiled. “Just give me a few minutes, baby, to finish typing up these notes and then we'll go get something to eat,” he said. “Do you have any preferences?”

  “I was actually in the mood for some protein,” I replied giving him a smile. Trey looked up quickly from his laptop, a sly grin spreading across his face. He stopped typing and stood up to stretch. He unbuckled his belt and kicked his shoes off, closing the distance between the desk and the bed.

  “What the hell; I can finish those notes later,” he grinned joining me.

  CHAPTER 27

  Trey set our alarm for 6:00 a.m. so that we could get to the courthouse in plenty of time. I'd finally nagged him into getting there early so that we could have seats in the courtroom as close to the judges’ bench as possible.

  He explained that during the wait most attorneys take care of other legal business through use of their cell phones or laptops remotely. They don't necessarily stay in the courtroom until their case is called. The remote activity is done out in the corridor. The judges frown on the distraction from beeping phones or hushed conversations within the courtroom. He also explained that entering and exiting the courtroom repeatedly is frowned upon as well.

  I told him once he got me seated he was free to go out in the corridor until his docket was called. I wanted to watch the proceedings. This was something new for me. Aside from that, I wanted to observe this Judge Tylar. I'd pulled a picture up of him when I did an internet search of his name. There was no obvious resemblance to me but the picture didn’t divulge a lot of detail. I guessed his age to be late forties; he seemed handsome enough for an older guy.

  I'd dressed conservatively in a black turtleneck sweater dress. I'd pulled my hair back into a ponytail. As I finished getting ready in the bathroom I removed the two blue velvet boxes from my carry-on bag. I put the pearl drop earring in my ears, and fastened the single tear-drop pearl necklace around my neck. Trey came into the bathroom asking me to tie his tie.

  “What'd you do all those years before I was in the picture?” I teased him.

  “I had girlfriends,” he replied snickering.

  I smacked him playfully on the shoulder. “There,” I said, straightening his tie and smoothing it out. “You look very handsome counselor. What judge could possibly refute your argument?”

  He leaned down and kissed my lips several times.

  “What’s with the earrings and necklace?” he murmured softly against my lips.

  “Is it too much?” I inquired looking up at him.

  “You’re too much, baby,” he replied kissing me again.

  “I know you think this whole thing with the names is weird and meaningless Trey; but at the very least, we get to spend some quality time together and I'm looking forward to seeing you in action.”

  “Baby, you see me in action on an almost nightly basis.”

  “I meant in the court room, counselor.”

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  Trey and I ate breakfast at the hotel. We decided to walk the few blocks from the hotel to the Russell B. Long Federal Building on Florida Street. It was a sunny and pleasant November day. I was excited about this excursion.

  Once at the courthouse, Trey went to the clerk’s office to sign in and confirm which court room was assigned for these oral arguments. Trey said it was on the third floor. We took the white ornate railed staircase instead of the elevator to the third floor. There were already plenty of attorneys milling around in the hallway, their cell phones up to their ears.

  We found the double doors to the court room and went inside. There was still ample sitting room available. I told Trey I wanted to sit as close as possible to the bench. The seating reminded me of church pews. We took a seat in the best available which was second row front.

  I hadn’t worn a coat because the weather was so pleasant. Trey took his suit jacket off and left it folded on the seat next to me. “I’m going out in the hall with my laptop. I’ll be back before court convenes,” he whispered.

  “Why are we whispering like we’re in church?” I asked him.

  “Courtroom protocol,” was his response.

  Trey returned about thirty minutes later and took his seat next to me. The courtroom had filled up significantly. I was glad I'd persuaded Trey to get here early. I couldn’t imagine it was easy getting up and arguing something in front of a panel of judges. Trey said there was a twenty-minute limit and that equal portions of that time had to be divided up between all parties.

  “Did you put your cell phone on vibrate?” he whispered to me.

  “Yes. Did you?”

  He rolled his eyes at me smiling, putting his suit jacket back on just as the bailiff came out instructing everyone to rise.

  The seven federal judges garbed in long, black robes filed out of a side door near the front and took their seats at the bench. Each judge had a nameplate in front of their seat. I quickly saw Judge Tylar. His seat was the third from the left.

  I nudged Trey and nodded toward Judge Tylar as he took his place by his chair. Once all of the judges were seated the judge that was the chairman told everyone to be seated.

  I saw the light that Trey had told me about. It was exactly like a traffic signal having a green, yellow and red light. Trey had explained that when the yellow light illuminated it meant there were thirty seconds left on the clock and the attorney speaking needed to wrap it up.

  We spent the next two-and-a-half hours listening to various oral arguments on cases involving anti-trust issues, conspiracy to commit treason; there was one Title VII class action case that involved a third-party administrator over employee health insurance for several major U.S. companies whose plaintiffs spanned seventeen states.

  Occasionally, one or two of the judges on the panel would ask questions of the attorney presenting. So far, Judge Tylar had remained quiet. He seemed bored with the whole thing.

  The oral argument taking place right now was boring the hell out of me. Something to do with a monopoly that involved aluminum recycling equipment.

  Trey’s docket number illuminated on the schedule board that was located on each wall of the courtroom. He'd be next up after this long-winded attorney speaking now finished. I could tell this lawyer was going to ride out his full twenty minutes. He'd yet to pause to take a breath. I watched as several minutes later the traffic light finally went to yellow.

  Thank God! Only thirty seconds more of this wind-bag, I thought to myself. The case totally sucked anyway. Opposing counsel on his case had waived appearance on oral argument. He or she probably figured they wouldn’t have gotten a word in edgewise.

  The light flashed to red and the attorney was still going strong. I looked over at Trey who was poised to rise from his seat as soon as the windbag finished. He looked over at me shrugging his shoulders. Finally, Judge Tylar used his gavel to rap on the bench. It did no good.

  “Mr. Louderdick, you've exceeded the maximum time allotted. This isn’t a filibuster,” Judge Tylar said firmly.

  “If the court permits,” Louderdick said unruffled, “There's much more to consider in my oral argument today than what time would allow, Your Honor.”

  The judge was obviously not happy glaring at the attorney.

  “I ask the court’s indulgence in allowing me a bit more time to outline the particular complexities on this matter, which very well might set legal precedent if remanded to the Ninth District--”

  “Bailiff,” Judge Tylar called out, “Please escort Mr. Louderdick from this court room immediately.”

  Oh my God! This is so cool.

  Mr. Louderdick was still not getting the
message even when approached by the bailiff that he needed to shut the hell up!

  “Your Honor, all I'm asking ---”

  I saw the disbelief on Judge Tylar’s face as he bellowed out to Louderdick once again. “One more word counselor and you'll be found in contempt of this court!”

  He slammed his gavel down and the courtroom was immediately hushed with total silence with the exception of the very loud, unfortunate giggle that escaped from me.

  Holy shit!

  Trey’s head snapped around to look at me in shock and disbelief. I put my hand up to cover my mouth in embarrassment lowering my gaze from Trey. I felt him leave our pew to approach the bench. I looked up and saw Judge Tylar studying me. I felt my cheeks flush warm with embarrassment. What if he instructed the bailiff to remove the ‘giggling idiot’ from the court room? He continued to stare at me but his stern expression had softened somewhat.

  The bailiff read Trey’s case number and the parties involved. It was noted that opposing counsel had waived appearance for oral argument but had filed papers stating their opposing position. Trey was instructed that he could use the full twenty minutes for his argument if he chose.

  “If it pleases the court, I won’t take the full twenty minutes in light of the over-run on the last argument,” Trey said to the panel.

  Several of the judges smiled at him, including Judge Tylar.

  “The court appreciates your sensitivity, Mr. Sinclair,” Judge Tylar responded. “You may begin your argument now to the issue.”

  I listened intently as Trey argued the merits of his Motion to the panel in his smooth and silky voice. He briefly summarized the fine points covered in his Memorandum in Support of his motion to consolidate the case to the Eleventh District Court for the purposes of pre-trial management.

  My eyes were glued on him as he spoke to the panel and made his argument interesting and factual citing a couple of case references.

  I continued to notice that Judge Tylar glanced at me several times throughout the ten minutes that Trey was on the floor. He wrapped it up and the next case was called to the floor. He took his seat next to me and I didn’t dare look at him acting as if I was totally enthralled with the next case up.