A Pact For Life (20 page)

“Seriously,” Cale said through his laughter. “That's... that's... you are a treasure for all mankind, and I feel lucky to even be in your presence.”

Jesus gave a little thankful wave in what had been his oddest compliment of the night. He took out a cigarette, lit it, and blew out a train engines' level of steam. “Thanks man. Gotta be unique, ya know?”

One of the elves said, “With all the girls that have been hanging around you, I'd say unique is working.”

Jesus walked over to the railing where the girls stood next to Cale and said, “Well thank you very much.” He rubbed his right hand on his scraggly beard and smiled at the elves. When he focused in on Cale, there was a sharp change in his expression. It went from, 'hey ladies' to 'oh shit' and he asked, “Wait, are you Cale Dawkins!?”

“Who?” One of the girls asked.

“Yeah, do I know you?” Cale responded.

“Oh dude, oh dude, I can't believe this. Holllllllyyyyyyyy shit!” Jesus said and reached out to shake Cale's hand. “I go to the Denver Art Institute. We studied your work earlier this year. The instructor said you lived in Denver, but I never thought I would see you just walking the streets. C'mon, I gotta buy you a drink.”

One of the elves asked, “So, you're like a famous painter or something?”

“Sculptor,” Jesus corrected. “Cale, you gotta come inside. I really wanna show you some of my own sculptures. I have them saved in my phone.”

Through Cale's ear buds, the music still played. It was loud enough to be distinctive – The National's All the Wine. A song that always drove him to walk. His legs begged to move, and he knew if he really wanted to get Diana back, he needed to step back from the railing and get going.

“I'm sorry guys, but I promised my girlfriend I would go over to her place, and I'm already running late, so I'll have to pass. Ladies...Jesus...” Cale tipped his imaginary hat and started down the sidewalk over pleads for him to stay. His ear buds went back into his ears as his head went back to the stars.

THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS

Prearbitration in the divorce between Dr. Andrew Finnegan and Kristen Finnegan-Felts was underway inside a boardroom that belonged to Kristen's lawyers. The battle lines had been drawn from the moment Peter Shacksworth, a junior partner representing Kristen introduced himself. The senior partners thought Peter would be able to handle the case without any assistance. Diana took this as one of the worst insults she ever endured, and from that point on, she was out for blood.

“My client's offer is more than generous...” Diana paused for a second and stared down Kristen, a fellow redhead but someone who fell in the trophy wife category rather than awardless single. Diana shifted her focus back to Peter and said, “It is a token of goodwill toward Ms. Felts. We all know that if this goes to court, she will end up with nothing.”

“What makes you think that?” Peter asked.

“Adultery. Ms. Felts was the cause of the marriage dissolving. She's at fault, so she gets nothing.”

Kristen sprung up and shouted, “You don't fuc...”

Peter grabbed her arm and interrupted with a painful, forced laugh. “Ms. Felts sought out companionship due to years of Mr. Finnegans' mental abuse. This abuse, I might add, was the true reason why the marriage failed. If anyone is to blame, it is him and him alone.”

Kristen tearfully tried to speak out. “He kept calling me stu...”

Once again, Peter awkwardly laughed which made Diana smile and glance at the transcriptionist recording the session. Under the table, she tapped Andrew's leg to signify their good luck. This contact made Andrew look up at Diana and blush. Throughout the meeting, he had followed her directions perfectly – only speak when spoken to, a calm response to every answer, and every accusation deferred to Diana.

Peter read the asset schedule showing their marital property and said, “How about this, Kristen gets the house in Vail and $200,000 a year in alimony for the next ten years.”

“Tell me why a single woman who was previously earning $35,000 a year before quitting her job deserves that much money?”

“There is a certain type of lifestyle that she expects to keep. She should not have to lower her standards of living post-marriage.”

Diana knew it was time to end the meeting. It was going nowhere, and Kristen needed to be scared. “We reject your offer, and I believe, unless you have any other requests, that we have nothing more to discuss today. You've gotten our offer, and if it's still not good enough for you, we can meet again in arbitration. Oh, and please use the 'standards of living' line in front of the arbitrator. It's brilliant.”

Following the meeting, Andrew and Diana met Jamie for lunch at a deli next to her office.

“Diana was amazing in there, Jamie. The other lawyer's face looked like yours when I hid that walkie-talkie above your bedroom window and pretended to be grandma's ghost. I'm telling you, this guy was out of his league compared to Diana.”

“It's what I do,” Diana admitted. “You were the real star in there. I thought Kristen was going to jump across the table and attack you when you answered there is no hope for reconciliation.”

“It wouldn't be the first time she's done that, eh?” Jamie asked his brother.

“Stop it, Diana doesn't want to hear any of that stuff. Anyway, shouldn't you be over there talking to those deli girls?” Andrew cocked his head over to the counter where two girls were busy slicing meats and cheeses.

“Geez, you could've just said you wanted to be alone.” Jamie said as he got up and left the table. Walking toward the girls, he muttered back, “But they are pretty cute. Good eye, brother.”

Alone for the first time since before the meeting, both Diana and Andrew were at a loss for words. After a nervous silence, Andrew settled on discussing the divorce. “So what is the next step in this process? Do we just sit around and wait for arbitration?”

“Since you're the filing spouse, I'll be the one to arrange for the arbitrator. They are in pretty high demand so it will be a month or so before we can have the hearing. We shouldn't need to meet again until that time... I mean, unless you any other legal help.”

“Hah, let's hope I won't need any.” Andrew cleared his throat and said. “This might sound odd, but if it's alright with you, would you like to get together occasionally? I mean, as friends. It's just so rare to meet someone so similar. I understand if you don't want to. I wouldn't want to cause any problems with your boyfriend.”

I'm single, let's go out!
Diana screamed in her head, but, “I'm sure he won't mind,” is what came out of her mouth.

As the initial thrill of Andrew's request wore off, Diana started to regret this agreement to meet outside of work. For one, he was a client, and even the most casual of John Grisham readers would agree it was a breach of professional ethics. Secondly, she realized she was setting herself up to be rejected. Once she told him she was single, everything would change. Andrew wouldn't want to date her while she was pregnant, and after her daughter is born, he wouldn't want to help raise someone else's child.

If she was looking for a quick hookup, it would be completely different. She didn't want a fling though. She was not young enough, nor bitter or carefree enough for just a fling. She wanted 'till death do us part'.

Jamie came back to the table and slumped down in his chair. “They are both married. Seriously, they can't be older than twenty-one, what is wrong with them? It was probably their first boyfriends too. Why do people do that?”

Both Diana and Andrew shrugged since they had no experience on the subject. For them, high school and college consisted of studying, internships, and residencies, not dating and parties. Those things didn't come for them until they were true professionals, and even then, their parties were conventions and charity events, not football games and keggers.

Jamie realized that Diana and his brother had less dating experience than the sandwich girls, and so he decided to change the subject to something more appropriate. “Andrew, when are we leaving for Kansas?”

“Next Monday. Hopefully this trip will be easier with you than it was with Kristen.”

“At least the music will be better.”

Andrew laughed and said, “Coming home last year, I almost threw her Beyonce CD out the window when we crossed back into Colorado. I rode the next three hours with my headphones on, but at least I got to hear NPR rather than that ring song for the 500th time.”

“I love Morning Edition.” Diana blurted out with the only NPR program she was familiar with.

Diana's purse began to rattle from the inside. The source of the vibration was her phone. She pulled it out and saw a reminder reading:

Partner's Meeting

Conference Room A

15 minutes

Dismiss / Snooze

“Oh crap, I forgot about this meeting.” Diana said and stood up. “It's a meaningless thing, all we do is go over the financial position of the firm.”

“Why don't you stay here and skip it?” Andrew asked.

Diana thought about the repercussions of skipping the meeting, which were nothing except having to get briefed on it later. She wanted to stay there with Andrew, but like a compulsive eater hearing the ice cream truck blasting its music, she couldn't disobey her gut feeling. “I'm really sorry, Andrew, this is one of those meetings that I can't miss. You know how it is.”

“If it's anything like my partner meetings, then I feel sorry for you. It's okay though, we'll catch up after Christmas.”

Diana nodded in agreement and said her goodbyes. When she opened the door to leave, Andrew shouted to her, “Hey Diana! Merry Christmas!”

She felt a smile involuntarily form on her face as she replied back, “Merry Christmas to you, too.”

At the Young house, Christmas and its Eve were deemed successful if all of the family members still talked to each other at the end of the night. In Diana's thirty-three years alive, this success only happened a handful of times. Safe to say, the holiday spirit stopped at the wreath hanging from the front door.

Diana was starting to run out of excuses to tell her family for why Cale wasn't around, and decided it was time to tell them the truth. For the sake of getting her point across, she decided to tell each family member separately, that way, the arguments could be kept to a minimum and the message focused. She approached it like a race, starting with an easy downhill sprint symbolizing her brother, then a casual flat jog representing her sister, followed by the true test of her endurance, the Mount Everest of her mom, and finally an easy sprint to the finish line being her dad.

Diana walked into Jack's room, which was 15 degrees hotter than the rest of the house thanks to a computer, Xbox, aquarium, and TV all running at once. Jack was sitting cross legged on the floor playing a video game, but paused it as soon as Diana walked in.

“Hey Diana,” Jack said in his typical quiet way.

“Oh, you can keep playing. I just wanted to tell you that I'm through with Cale. He won't be here for Christmas tomorrow.”