Page 1 of Joint Custody

Chapter 1

Mario

Iwasrunninglate.After tossing my jacket into the back of my black BMW and straightening the cuffs of my crisp white shirt, I grabbed the little gift box out of the glove compartment with the key to Chris’s little sister’s graduation party and tucked it into the pocket of my sleek gray trousers.

“Hell of a party.” I nodded toward the soft music, no dancing, and a bunch of guests who were way too serious as I came up to him sitting there with a beer in hand.

“Oh, you know my parents. Real party animals.” Chris grinned. “Glad you could make it. I was beginning to worry.”

“You know me. You can always count on me,” I said, handing him the little gift box.

“Yeah, she’s gonna love it. And the place is furnished and everything? Ready for her to move in?” he asked me.

“What do you take me for? You know I plan everything to the T.” I squeezed his shoulder.

“Yeah, I also know plans fall apart.” He tipped his beer bottle.

“Ouch!” He was referring to my failed marriage. “Too soon,” I joked.

“Yeah, you mean eight years too soon?” he countered. “You remember my graduation party? My parents were so proud. Bless them. It was less of a party and more of a networking event, and after talking to lawyer after lawyer, all I wanted to do was leave the damn snoozefest and go to a real party,” he said.

“And we did. We got so hammered. Shit. Those were the days when I was throwing back beers like it was water and still got up for work the next morning, quick as fuck on my feet.” I shuffled my feet in a little dance and spun around. “Now, pfft, forget that.” Taking off my sunglasses, I tucked them into my shirt pocket. “But you seem to be doing fine. By the looks of it, I’m guessing this isn’t your first beer since you’ve got here,” I said, taking notice of how laid back he was.

He smiled and tipped the bottle to his lips. “Nope.”

He turned to stare off into the distance as I checked my phone to see if I had any emails that needed an immediate response. Chris clicked his tongue. “Look at her. I can just imagine how much pressure Mom’s piling on to her as she’s introduced to yet another suit. And Dad’s just there endorsing whatever Mom’s saying. By the way, thanks for agreeing to be there for her tomorrow.”

“Yeah, you know, anything for you. But you know the hiring decision is up to Jared. It’s his firm,” I said without looking up from my phone.

“Yeah, I love the man, but he can be an asshole. I guess it is his company on the line, so who he hires is of utmost importance. Although, agreeing to interview her is already a big deal to begin with. I was hoping that having him here today would get him comfortable enough with her, to see her as more than just his best friend’s little sister. Where is the asshole anyway?” Chris asked.

“And here I was thinking that you actually wanted to hang out. But it was just business.” I smiled. “You know him, all work, no play.”

“Look who’s talking. And what are you talking about? You and I hang out all the time,” he said.

“Yeah, in the offices, as your general counsel whenever there’s a problem or a deal we need to go over. We never get to kick it after work anymore now that you’re a family man, which I still can’t believe, by the way,” I said with pride.

“I know, right? We always thought it would be you first,” he said. “Ant man!” Chris yelled at a displaced Anthony, no doubt looking for a way to get out of this party and go home with the chick at the bar.

“Yeah, well, as you said, plans don’t always work out,” I reminded him.

“I don’t know why you don’t come over to the dark side, Mario. It’s too late for Chris now,” Anthony joked as he approached us, and Chris jumped out of his seat to greet him.

“Doesn’t look like the dark side is working out so well for you. Left the blonde hanging. Lost your shot.” I nodded at him.

“Look around, Mario, there’s plenty of fish in the sea, if only you’d do more than just dip your toes in.” He winked, and I groaned while laughing.

“You’re disgusting,” Chris said. “And I was just messing around. I’ve missed you guys, and of course I wanted us to hang out, it’s been too long, I was just hoping to ease the burden off my little sister’s back by introducing her to my best friends who also happen to be the most trustworthy lawyers I know.” He smiled.

“Aw, sweet.” I smiled back at him. “So, law school graduate at twenty-one, huh?” I asked.

Before this week, I didn’t even know he had a little sister, to be honest. Even though we’ve been best friends since we were in law school together. When he bought the apartment from me, I didn’t think much of it. He finally told me who it was for about a week ago. We barely got time anymore to talk about our personal lives. And it wasn’t because I wasn’t interested in my best friend’s life that I missed the fact that he had a little sister; she was fifteen years younger than he was, which made her sixteen years younger than me, and I met him in college. I wouldn’t even have noticed if she was at his law graduation party or not.

“Yup. Pretty impressive, huh?” he said before him and Anthony played catch-up until Chris interrupted their conversation to yell, “Sis!” from across the sophisticated garden.

I was excited to meet his genius little sister because, yeah, he was right, that was quite the impressive achievement. I was twenty-one so long ago, the world was a lot different. We still had those chunky white computers. Or if you were fancy, maybe you got one with a more rounded monitor, a little smaller than the rest but still chunky with a splash of blue or some other fun color.

The laptops were way heavier, and I was pretty sure most of the social media sites that existed around that time had gone extinct. I couldn’t have even remembered the names of some of them if I wanted to. And the height of cellphone technology was the fact that your screen had color and couldmaybelog on to the internet with enough data. Flip phones? Hell yeah.

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