Page 10 of Rejection Overruled

That day at the café was strange for me as I found myself noticing little things about her. Like the way she squinted one eye when concentrating, or how she twirled her pen when reading. She’d chew the inside of her bottom lip when she wasn’t sure about something and of course that ear to ear grin that reached her eyes whenever she won a point.

There it was again, me thinking about her. I leaned back in my leather bound office chair, closing my eyes. Taking a few breaths, I cleared my mind bit by bit and focused on the Dennison case before me. This was a technique I learned from my yoga instructor. I thanked God the day I decided to do yoga. It was one of the best decisions I could have made after the knee injury that prevented me from playing professional soccer.

My college coach had suggested yoga as a way to help me relax after a near nervous breakdown. All my youth, I’d trained for soccer. My family had sacrificed everything to move to Maryland in order for me to pursue this dream and then I shattered my knee in an accident.

My grades were average and I could no longer play sports. Therefore, I lost the scholarship from the University of Maryland. I couldn’t let my family down, so I worked to pay for my tuition. At first, I had no idea what I wanted to do until I met Gwen. She was a law student who I was smitten with. Gwen, the girl with the...

Something rudely interrupted my reminiscing into the past. It was the office line. With a snicker, I opened my eyes and reached for the receiver.

“This is Jamal Styles.”

“Mr. Dennison is here to see you, Mr. Styles,” my secretary informed me.

Ah, the Dennison case. The man was a multi-billionaire who was paying me five million dollars to strip his wife of everything. What a jerk, but I couldn’t pass up on that amount of money. It was not my job to defend the wife, even if her husband was unfair. It was her job to find herself a suitable attorney.

Dennison had cancelled her credit cards and left her bank account with only enough for the woman to eat. He claimed that she signed a prenuptial agreement that if they should divorce she’d walk away with only what she entered the marriage with. My suspicion was that he forged that contract.

“Send him in, Susan.”

A minute later, the man entered my office. His black beady eyes scanned the room before settling on my drink cabinet off to my left. His tie was askew and his face seemed stressed. Something was amiss.

“Mr. Dennison, we were due to meet in three days,” I reminded him. “What happened?”

I indicated the armchair across from my desk and he took it, his eyes never leaving the drink cabinet.

“Would you like something?” I asked. “Water, juice...?”

“Scotch – neat - if you have it,” he grunted.

“It’s ten in the morning, are you sure you should be drinking this stuff?” I asked, as I moved to pour his drink.

“I need a drink, Styles. That woman is driving me crazy.”

I poured the drink and brought it back to Dennison who downed it in one gulp. He then set the glass on my mahogany desk, leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed. I picked up the glass and returned it to the surface of the cabinet. I kept the alcohol in my office for this very reason, for people like him. As a health nut, my only strong drink was wine. Enough about me.

I settled my eyes on my new client and wondered what his wife was supposed to have done. Shaking my head, I returned to my desk, keeping my eyes on him. His forehead was severely puckered as he opened his eyes and leaned forward.

“You know what that woman has done, she’s gone and got herself a new lawyer, one with a 100% court win!”

That amused me and I casually leaned forward with an easy smile. “That’s impossible. No attorney in LA has a 100% court win, so relax.”

The man scowled at me. “For such bright fellow you sure haven’t done your homework. There is such a lawyer. The cases she hasn’t won have gone to arbitration and even then, she always gets what she wants.”

“A woman?” my heart skipped a beat as a weird feeling settled over me.

“Her name is Brooke Owens and she’s the best. You know Coleman and Glock?” When I nodded, he continued. “I understand she has a waiting list but somehow my penniless wife managed to get to the top of that list.”

I could kick myself for not checking out the competition. I’d been too preoccupied with jostling with her that I failed to do what any sensible opponent would do. So, she never lost a case, huh? There was always a first for everything.

“You know the worse part?” Dennison continued. “If I’d listened to you, this would have been done with and would have cost me so much less.”

“I hate to tell you that I told you so, so I won’t.”

The man withdrew a white envelop from his jacket and handed it to me. I opened the letter enclosed and read it. It was a subpoena for a court hearing in his divorce case. His wife wanted a trial and I knew that I was about to lose to Brooke Owens.

9 - Sophia

Being the best friend of a dominant personality like Brooke wasn’t easy. She knew, as well as everyone else, that I was the only one who would tolerate her shenanigans. Take for instance my grandfather’s mule, Ginny. Brooke knew the beast was somewhat crazy and spooked easily. But seeing that animal sprint through the fields and into the market at Somerset was hilarious.

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