Cimarron, Denver Cereal Volume 4 (9 page)

He gave her the Styrofoam container.

“
Ah shit, I forgot the
bread sticks in the car. I’ll go get them.”

He hopped to his feet.

“
That’s all right,” she
said. “Thank you for lunch. Did Aden…”

“
Aden, yes,” the man
nodded.

“
Aden what?” she
asked.

“
Oh, right.” He smiled at
Sandy. “You don’t know why I’m here.”

“
I don’t,” she
said.

“
I’m a lawyer,” he said. He
spoke in a rush of words. “I’m an associate at… Well I work for Max
Hargreaves. I’m his associate. Well, one of his associates. In this
economy, I’m lucky to be an associate anywhere but to work for Mr.
Hargreaves is… Well, I’m lucky.”

Sandy waited to see if the man was done
talking.

“
Do you know him? Max
Hargreaves. I mean, Mr. Hargreaves.”

“
I do. We went to the same
high school,” Sandy said. “Why does Max want me to have a
salad?”

“
Not Max,” the lawyer said.
“Aden. May I sit down?”

Sandy nodded. The lawyer collapsed into the
couch.

“
Can I get you some water?”
Sandy asked.

“
Oh, water, yes, that would
be nice,” he said. “I’ve been running around trying to get here on
time. I’m sure I look a mess or like a crazy person. I’ve never had
direct client contact before. Usually, I just do paperwork, but Mr.
Hargreaves asked me to come and…”

Entering the back room, Sandy didn’t hear
the rest. She took two bottles of water from her refrigerator. When
she returned, the young man was still talking. She held out the
bottle. He took it from her and drained it.

“
I’m sorry,” Sandy said. “I
only have forty-five minutes until the next client. I don’t have
time for Aden’s bullshit right now.”

“
I completely understand.”
The young lawyer seemed revived by his water. “You have been
through a lot. No question.”

“
Why are you
here?”

“
Oh, right,” the lawyer
opened his briefcase. “Mr. Norsen wanted me to bring you
lunch.”

“
Thank you for lunch,”
Sandy moved toward the door.

“
I have some papers for you
to sign,” the lawyer said. “I spent the morning setting up a new
bank account for you.”

“
I don’t need a new bank
account,” Sandy said. “I have a bank account.”

“
This is a joint account,”
the lawyer said. “With Mr. Norsen.”

“
I can’t afford to give Mr.
Norsen any more money.” Sandy’s voice rose in anger. She couldn’t
believe Aden wanted more from her. “Will you please
leave?”

“
I’ve really messed this
up,” the lawyer said. “Mr. Hargreaves is going to kill
me.”

“
I will kill you if you
don’t leave,” Sandy said.

“
Ok, wait,” the lawyer
said. “Just wait. Before you kill me, hear me out.”

Crossing her arms across her heart, Sandy
shrugged. The lawyer pulled a piece of paper out of his briefcase.
He began reading from the paper.

“
Mr. Norsen wants me to
read this to you.”

The lawyer looked up and Sandy nodded.

“
I realize that I have been
incredibly selfish. From the moment I couldn’t control my anger,
you have suffered the consequences of my actions. I see now the
predicament I put you in. I am deeply, humbly sorry. From this
moment forward, I will do everything in my power to make this right
for you, for me, and for our children.”

“
That’s pretty nice,
right?” the lawyer asked.

“
Same old bullshit,” Sandy
shrugged.

“
This morning, he put his
Park Hill house on the market,” the lawyer said. “He said he’s
moving wherever you decide to live.”

“
Doesn’t have anything to
do with me,” Sandy shrugged.

“
I set up this bank account
so you could access his money,” the lawyer said. “He wants to take
care of you and his children. There’s plenty of money in the
account now. I just need you to sign…”

“
I’ve taken care of our
money problems,” Sandy said. “We don’t need his money.”

“
I’ll leave these papers
with you,” the lawyer said. “Mr. Norsen set up the books for your
salon on Outright. It’s a website for small businesses. He said
it’s all set up. You just have to put the numbers in. If you’d like
him to do that, he said that he has time.”

“
I’m aware that he has
time,” Sandy said. “I, however, do not.”

“
Listen, I know that I’m a
mess,” the young man smiled at Sandy. “And I know that you’re
angry. But I want to tell you one last thing.”

“
What?”

“
Mr. Norsen loves you. And
even though he’s a fuck up and really aren’t we all?” The young man
flushed red with color. “He wants to make this right for you. You
don’t have to call him or talk to him or email him or even friend
him on Facebook. But that doesn’t change the fact that he loves
you.”

Sandy bit her lip to keep from tearing
up.

“
He hired me to take care
of you,” the lawyer said. “He’s going to get out really soon, only
eight more weeks. And when he does, he wants to talk to you. I
think what he really wants is to be your boyfriend… husband…
partner… again. And now that I have meet you, I can see
why.”

“
He told you to say all of
this bullshit?”

“
He told me all of this,”
the lawyer said. “When he was in a coma, he said he had dreams
about you and only you. You were the first thing he asked about
when he woke up.”

“
He asked where he was,”
Sandy said.

“
After that,” the lawyer
said. “I used the word ‘thing’. You were the first thing he asked
about. He loves you. And well, he should.”

“
Anything else?” Sandy
asked.

“
Here’s my card,” the
lawyer said. “Sign the papers and I’ll set everything
up.”

The lawyer was standing in the doorway when
he turned.

“
One more thing,” the
lawyer said.

He dug in his pocket for something and held
out his closed fist to her. Sandy held out her hand palm side up.
The lawyer dropped a pair of tear drop dangle diamond earrings into
her hand.

“
They match your engagement
ring,” the lawyer said. “Mr. Norsen had them and… There’s some
fancy blue box they go in but it was too big for my pocket and I
didn’t want to lose them. Sorry.”

Sandy stood in the late March sunbeam
staring at the diamonds in her hand.

“
Call me when you’ve signed
the papers or if you need anything or if the kids need
anything.”

When she looked up, the lawyer was gone. She
quickly closed and locked the door. She made a beeline to the
bathroom where she cried her eyes out. Through watery eyes, she put
on the diamond earrings. Four years ago, she’d seen these earrings
on a starlet in some gossip magazine. She’d been reading the
magazine at the gym while she rode the exercise bike. She
remembered saying to Aden, ‘Someday when I’m rich, I’m going to
have earrings just like this.’

Leaning back to look at herself in the
mirror, she touched the right earring. It spun around, casting
light around the room.

Aden loved her.

It was what she wanted. She wanted Aden or
Aden as he used to be before all this crap. But she couldn’t handle
the criminal, flakey Aden. It was too hard and too painful. She was
too tired. That’s what she’d told Valerie last night.

Sandy heard someone call her name. Her next
client had arrived.

“
Just a second,” Sandy
said.

She wiped away her tears and went to face
the rest of her day.

~~~~~~~~

Tuesday night — 8:35 P.M.

“
Hello,” Jacob said. His
tone was soft as he walked into the loft. “Jill?”

Jill came running out of her office. She
jumped into his arms.

“
That’s a nice
greeting.”

He kissed her lips then set her down to kiss
her further. Giggling, she stepped away. He shook his head at her
tease.

“
Long day at work!” she
said.

“
Dad’s out, Aden’s out,
Blane’s out,” Jacob said. “Just me and a big company. I had to get
a secretary to fill in for Blane. I’m so used to working with men.
It’s weird to have a woman help me.”

“
Should I be jealous?” Jill
asked.

“
Of what?”

“
Your new secretary? Is she
pretty?”

Knowing better than to answer the question,
Jacob smiled at Jill

“
You are
my
wife,” he
said.

“
Just seems like there’s so
much cheating around,” Jill said. “Valerie’s been on the phone with
one of her Hollywood friends all night. I just…”

“
I’ve run the company by
myself before,” Jacob said. “Hell, I ran it for six months while
Dad was wacko and Blane was crying in the basement. Aden was still
a site manager. I’ll get rid of the secretary if she concerns
you.”

“
So I should
worry?”

“
You should not worry,”
Jacob said. “I’m not a cheater. I don’t cheat on my taxes or my
friends and I’ve never cheated at hockey. I don’t handle my
commitments that way. I never have, never will.”

Jacob sat down on a chair at the dining room
table. Leaning his head on his hands, he closed his eyes.

“
I’m very tired,” he said.
“I need to get my heart checked. I don’t know if I’m worn out or
something’s wrong.”

“
I don’t think anything’s
wrong,” she said. “Let me…”

She went over to where he sat and he pulled
her onto his lap.

“
Nice ploy,” she
said.

“
This is very nice!” His
hands stroked her behind. “Did I miss Katy?”

“
She waited up for you,”
Jill said. “She can’t make it past eight.”

“
At some point in the
relatively near future, Aden, Blane and Dad will get back to work,”
Jacob said. “How you would you like to take a trip to Santa
Monica?”

“
Should I stop taking the
pill next month?”

“
I’d like that,” Jacob
said. “You?”

“
Can I get some help so I
can finish school?” Jill asked.

“
You’d have to kill Delphie
to keep her from helping,” Jacob said. “I mean, if she wasn’t
already dead.”

Jill smiled

“
In fact, that’s a great
idea,” Jacob said.

“
To kill
Delphie?”

“
She’s already dead,” Jacob
laughed. “No, she loves infants. We should get the gorgeous Mack
here. I bet that would wake Delphie up.”

“
He was here last night for
Delphie’s coming home party,” Jill said. “She didn’t even look at
him.”

“
The woman has completely
lost it,” Jacob shrugged. His fingers moved to unbutton her jeans.
“You are…”

He kissed her lips.

“
Do you want some
dinner?”

“
No, my new gorgeous
secretary made something for me,” Jacob said.

Jill punched him. She hopped off his
lap.

“
Don’t make fun of me. I’m
serious! Trevor cheated all the time and…”

Jacob jumped to his feet.

“
I’m not Trevor,” he
said.

Jill stood with her hands on her hips. She
stared at him. Shaking his head, he tried to pull her back into his
arms.

“
What’s wrong?” he
asked.

“
Oh, I don’t know.
Everything is so new and really great. School. Even this house. I
don’t want to lose it.”

He smiled.

“
Valerie’s friend was so
heart-broken. I remember what that’s like. I felt really bad for
her,” Jill said. “I never think of famous people as being fragile
like… me, I guess. And everybody just laughs at them. It’s like the
whole world is set up to steal happiness from people.”

“
Some people don’t build
lives. Instead, they spend their time being jealous of the lives
other people have built. Their only focus is to destroy what other
people have built and seize their happiness.”

“
Makes me sad and scared.
Will someone try to steal all of this from me?”

“
Will you let
them?”

She shook her head.

“
You and I, we are building
a life. Our friends are our friends because they’re building
lives.”

“
I’ve given my whole self,
my whole life to you. I’ve never done that. Ever.”

“
And I’ve given my whole
self and life to you,” he said. “If something happened, I’d lose
you and nothing’s worth that.”

“
It’s scary to love you… so
much.”

“
Scary for me
too.”

“
Let’s take a bath,” he
said. “I need to unwind.”

“
What about
dinner?”

“
I’m hungry for other
sustenance.”

She furrowed her brow at his lecherous
grin.

“
Fine,” he said. “What are
you offering for dinner?”

“
We have left-overs or I
can make you a sandwich or…”