What The Heart Wants

Jackson began to apologize right away. “Listen, I’m sorry I came in and disrupted your day. I didn’t mean to cause either of you any trouble. I just need a lawyer to fight for me, and if you think that a public defender will be my best option, then I’ll take that route.”

“No, my associate Paula will take your case on,” Rebecca sneered. Her gut was telling her this was a bad idea, but Paula didn’t want to listen. This was going to be one of those times she would have let her friend learn something the hard way.

“Mr. Davis, is this okay with you?” Paula asked him.

“Yes, it is, and please, call me Jackson.”

“Very well, Jackson. If you have a few minutes, maybe we can grab a conference room so you can go into detail about the events that transpired over the weekend?” Paula suggested. As much as Jackson wanted to, there were a million things going through his mind that he needed to get done.

“How about you give me a call later this evening to set up a time and place for us to get together? I only came in now to inquire about the services of Ms. Cornish,” he revealed to Paula’s disappointment.

“Okay, I’ll call you later then.” Paula smiled trying to hide her sadness as she took down his contact information.

“Oh brother,” Rebecca mumbled under her breath. Jackson bid the ladies farewell and headed out the office. Paula swooned at the sight of him walking away. His arms looked strong enough to scoop her off her feet. Maybe Rebecca was right. She was too attached to this Jackson guy and she barely knew him.

After he’d left the office, Rebecca wrote down a bunch of case numbers and handed them to Paula on her way out of the office.

“What are these?” Paula glanced over the series of numbers.

“Those are his case files, honey,” she gloated. “I told you he wasn’t being honest. I know a con when I see one, especially being a known associate of Nicholas Derby. He’s a cute one, but a cute one with priors. Be careful, Paula. I don’t want him dragging you down into the gutter with him and his friends.”

Paula shook her head. “You know it’s possible that people change. And it’s another possibility that he’s an easy target because of these priors. Maybe the cops just needed someone to pin this case on.”

“Keep dreaming lover,” Rebecca laughed. “I love you to death, but this case should have been passed off to the court-appointed attorney. There’s still time to do it.”

“No,” Paula refused to give it up. “I told him I would take it, and I’m going to take it. Even with this extra load of sh*t you just dumped on me.”

“Oh I’m not finished,” Rebecca smiled sarcastically. “Mr. Garrett wants you on depositions for the pharma merger he’s cooking up. Nothing like a good ole monopoly buster to tackle with your charity work.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Paula realized the load of work she’d taken on was growing way beyond the scope she was used to.

“Oh, you mean why did I let you take on this unnecessary criminal defense case when we have a sh*t load of work to do for our multibillion dollar client’s merger? Hmm, wait a minute, oh wait, I told you to let the sh*t go, but you let that hunk of chocolate woo you into taking his case,” Rebecca snorted. “Sh*t, you made this bed and now you’re gonna lay the fu*k in it! I tried being your friend, but now I’m pulling rank here. Mr. Garrett’s case comes first, and if you slack in any way, that’s both of our asses on the line, so don’t let your puppy love for Mr. Almond Joy get in the way of us knocking this out the park! I know you’re a hard worker but get ready to have that stellar reputation of yours put to the test. And don’t you dare think for a minute that I’m going lessen your side of things because you chose to take this stupidity on!”

Rebecca didn’t wait for Paula to respond before she stormed out. Paula wanted to believe that Rebecca was jealous and co*k blocking, but the truth of the matter was she was looking out for her. The case numbers stared at her as she replayed the stupid argument she and Rebecca had with Jackson right outside the office. It didn’t make sense to her at the time, but her responsibilities were to the firm first. She couldn’t allow this Jackson thing to blow up in her face. Letting Rebecca be right about anything would mean never hearing the end of it.

First things first, Paula made her way down to the firm’s records room so she could get some research done for Jackson’s case before she got swamped with the merger’s files. The computer in there was much slower than the one at her desk, but at least she could work without Rebecca’s “I told you so” stare wearing her down.

Pulling up Jackson’s files was easy, but going through them compounded Paula’s headache. He’d been arrested six times already for car theft. He’d told them it was his business that was targeted for the raid, but deep down Paula believed he had something to do with the stolen property. She didn’t know what his role was as of yet, but she was determined to find out.

*****

Jackson sat across from Nick at the diner, in their usual booth. There was a clash of energy as Nick was still angry that he got arrested, but Jackson appeared to be floating on air.

“What’s got you so fu*king happy?” Nick grumbled as he picked at his food.

“You know the woman who smiled at us the other day?” Jackson’s eyes grew wide while images of Paula crossed his mind.

“Nah, man,” Nick could barely think straight after spending the last few nights in jail.

“Come on,” Jackson shoved him playfully. “You remember the one who was dressed real nice and smiled at me. Brown sugar.”

“Oh yeah,” Nick smiled. “How could I forget brown sugar? What about her?”

“She’s a lawyer,” Jackson smiled wider.

“How do you know that?” He stopped eating to look at his friend.

“Because she’s my lawyer,” Jackson revealed.

“Get the fu*k out of here! How did you swing that?” Nick inquired flabbergasted.

“Actually, I have you to thank for that,” Jackson admitted as he sipped his juice.

“Well you’re welcome then,” Nick chuckled. “At least one of us had a hot lawyer.”

“Yeah, speaking of hot lawyers, that Rebecca chick is a stone cold bi*ch man! Why the hell did you send me to her anyway? She don’t like brothers! She made that sh*t crystal fu*king clear. She ain’t want to take my case and tried to tell Brown Sugar not to take it either. Apparently they work together,” Jackson told him.

“Listen, we go way back,” Nick opened up. “I used to get her out of sh*t when we was in college. She was one of those dumb book-smart chicks. I liked her. I wanted to get with her. I wasn’t good enough for her. The guys she went for could run circles around her in the street. She couldn’t see game when it was being ran on her. There was a time when a bunch of guys was throwing a party and they were just gonna get the chicks drunk enough to fu*k em and leave em. I found out she was on the invite list and told her to stay away, but sure enough she showed up. She got plastered, and I had to carry her out of there over my shoulder. Four chicks got plowed that night. I didn’t last too much longer after that. You should know. I started pulling more jobs with you since I ain’t have to study as much. But we kept in touch. She was always thankful for me being there for her, but I already got a lawyer for this case. I only sent you to her because I know we need good lawyers on this.