What The Heart Wants

Chapter 3

Rebecca’s phone rang just before she was going to attempt to convince Paula to hand Jackson’s case off to someone else. Paula knew that tone in her voice when she heard it. But she didn’t care. After yelling to the poor sap over the phone, Rebecca joined the conversation once again.

“Let me sit down. Let’s go over this to see if we can really help you here,” Rebecca suggested. After taking a breath and a few sips of her coffee, she searched through her notes to see if she could find the information she’d gotten from Nick. Nicholas Derby was an old friend of hers that she hung onto after college. He’d flunked out, but whenever she needed some muscle, he was there. She owed him a myriad of favors, mostly accrued from her days of partying around campus. Jackson was brought up in their conversations in the past, but she’d ever had the pleasure of meeting him until today.

“Okay, I found it.” Rebecca pulled out a notepad with some notes scribbled on it. She’d gotten a call early this morning and bailed him out of jail, but he told her not to worry about him and to just get his friend off. Rebecca stared Jackson up and down before going back to her notepad. The silence was thick as she ran through a list of excuses to get him out of the office. She didn’t like the vibe she felt, but wasn’t sure if it was substantial or if she was jealous he wasn’t connecting with her like he was with Paula.

“So, tell me again what’s going on? I want to make sure I refer you to the right attorney,” Rebecca stated. Paula sucked her teeth and rolled her eyes. Deliberate ignorance to her offer to take the case on wasn’t out of Rebecca’s character, but it was still annoying watching her draw out the process.

Jackson could sense the tension growing between the women but wasn’t quite sure if he was the cause of it. He decided to ignore it as his need for a lawyer greatly outweighed whatever energy was going on between them. He leaned forward to explain what he wanted. “I was arrested on Saturday. It was because one of my properties that I lend out to a friend of mine happened to be the target of a raid. They found stolen property, and even though I rent it out, the police want me to take the fall for the actions of my tenant.” Jackson didn’t want to lie, but he wasn’t sure if either of them would take his case if they knew the truth.

“Sounds easy enough.” Rebecca wrote down a few more notes. “And Nick told you I would work this case pro bono? I mean, if you want a lawyer to work this for free, and the case seems easy enough, a public defender can do this in their sleep.”

“I don’t want a public defender.” Jackson slammed his hands on the desk getting both of the ladies’ attention. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. He hated being given the runaround. “Listen, I don’t need some inexperienced hack who requires me to know the law to win my own case. I’m willing to pay whatever your going rate is. All I want is an attorney who will care enough to fight this case for me. I don’t want to lose my business, and I don’t want to lose my warehouse. I have the money, so stop treating me like a charity case!”

“No one said that you were a charity case, Mr. Davis,” Rebecca snarled. “I was just trying to get you to understand that there are other options available to you other than monopolizing the time of me or my partner here.”

“If this case is so open and shut like you say it is than I won’t monopolize your time,” Jackson reasoned.

Paula stepped in to calm the situation. “Listen, Mr. Davis, can you excuse us for a moment? I would like to have a word with my associate here.”

Jackson nodded as he stood and left the office. Paula smiled as she closed the door behind him.

“What the fu*k is your problem, Becs?” She threw her hands in the air.

“My problem?” Rebecca’s face twisted in confusion. “We don’t handle cases like his! We don’t do criminal defense of felons! You know he’s lying, right? I know Nick, and Nick doesn’t have a single friend that does legitimate business. If he got arrested for this bullsh*t, then he’s guilty! I don’t want to ruin my winning streak with this case anyway. Why are you so gung ho about taking it on?”

“I can’t believe you! You’re willing to let this black man go to jail just to preserve your winning streak? And how are you judging him based off of his association with your friend?! Aren’t you Nick’s friend?”

“Yes, but that’s different,” Rebecca shouted.

“How? You just said Nick doesn’t have a single friend that does legitimate business. Last time I checked you were a damn good lawyer. So, that means either you’re a bad lawyer who needs to be disbarred for unethical behavior or you’re a sh*t friend who made a promise you’re not willing to keep. Are you trying to say that you’re the only friend this guy Nick has that’s on the up and up?” Paula demanded, trying to get to the bottom of Rebecca’s reluctance to take on this case.

“I’m not saying that, but this just doesn’t feel like a good case.” Rebecca shook her head. “He’s lying. I can’t represent someone who lies to me without blinking an eye.”

“Have you thought that maybe he would be honest with you if you were actually on as his attorney? Why should he tell you the truth now? Why wouldn’t he wait until you were guaranteed to represent him? Why did you blatantly ignore my suggestion to take him on?” Paula’s anger was growing.

Rebecca sighed as she rubbed her head. “This wasn’t supposed to turn into a fight. I thought I was helping you by getting him to go away. You’re obviously distracted by his good looks. You’re not seeing what’s right in front of you. And more importantly, you haven’t recovered fully from this weekend. Don’t use your fragile state of heart to open up to this con artist and help a sinking ship!”

“I’m far from fu*king fragile! I’m a damn good lawyer, and you’re not appreciating that at all! So the fu*k what if I think he looks good? It’s not going to distract me from doing my job. We have a pro bono quota to meet every month anyway, so why not?”

“See! He said he would pay and you’re not even going to charge him. You’re emotionally invested in this guy you don’t even know. You want fight this battle of his and you’re going to get hurt because he’s not into you like that,” Rebecca blurted out.

“Well sh*t, tell me how you really feel.” Paula wanted to cry the angrier she got. Her head was still throbbing and this conversation wasn’t making it any better. Staring at Rebecca’s annoyed face only made her more defiant. “Well, it’s a good thing you’re not the boss of me. If you’re not going to take him on, I will. He came into this office looking for help, and I will not sit by and watch another black man get buried by this system.”

“Don’t preach,” Rebecca scoffed. “He deserves to be buried. I know he’s guilty.”

“And I don’t care. Besides, I don’t know what the truth is and none of us will find out until we take him on as a client. If you don’t want the case then fine! Don’t take it, but don’t use what I’ve been going through as an excuse for me not to take it,” Paula told her.

Rebecca glared at Paula. “And you don’t use it as an excuse to take it on. But you’re right. I’m not the boss of you. You can do what you want to meet your quota. I don’t care. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you. This is going to blow up in your face.”

“We’ll see.” Paula sucked her teeth as she went to the door. Jackson was sitting outside of the office quietly waiting to see what their decision would be. “Mr. Davis, you can come back inside.”