The Home Court Advantage (7 page)

Unable to put it off any longer, I dug into my pile of case files for the next day. Luckily, with one exception, most of the cases seemed pretty straightforward. Unfortunately, the exception was a real winner. I sighed. Cameron and I worked quietly until eleven-thirty and then I took a break and stretched a little, turning toward him and starting a conversation.

“So how long are you going to be here with us, Cam?”

“Why? Trying to get rid of me?” he asked with a laugh.

“Are you kidding? I like having you here. It’s nice to have help and I’ve always enjoyed your company. Besides, you and Jess are just getting to know each other well. Didn’t you tell me just the other night that you found her really attractive and you might want to explore that more?” Okay, I was nudging. Cam stopped what he was doing and turned to face me.

“I did tell you that and I have been thinking about it,” he confirmed.

“So, why don’t you ask her out on a date or something?” I had moved on to pushing.

“Because I like her a lot. I would want it to be a success, so I’m waiting for the timing to be right. I still need to work through some things before starting a new relationship.”

“What …”

Then it dawned on me, Jess might have been right; the “some things” he had to work through might be his feelings about having me pop up out of the blue dating his cousin. Oh God, was I standing in the way of their happiness and ruining it for both of them? Some small part of my brain registered what was about to happen just in the nick of time. I flew out of my seat and bolted toward the door. “I’m having an allergy thing,” I said, my voice catching.

I made it to the ladies room and hurtled myself into a stall just as the first heavy hot tears started to fall. Oh fuck! This wasn’t happening. I could just
tell
that this was PMS! Even on the pill I always became an emotional basket case a week before my period. God, I hated freaking hormones! I assured myself that even if he needed some time to wrap his head around it, that didn’t mean he was broken-hearted or anything. He would work through it and they would get together and be happy. I needed to get a grip. Get the estrogen under control, Gabrielle! It’s all good. I took a few gulps of air and dried my eyes with toilet paper. I stepped out of the stall and looked in the mirror … at my red eyes and tear-streaked makeup. Shit. Okay, I needed to wash my face. I turned the water on full blast and started frantically pumping icky, thin pink soap into my hand. I heard someone coming through the door and I looked up into the mirror to see Kim, a friend and fellow PD, whose office was at the other end of the hall from ours. Kim was a gorgeous Halle Berry look-alike with short dark hair, beautiful mocha-colored skin, and amazing style and taste and here I stood looking like someone had just dragged me out of the river.

“Hey, Gab. You okay?”

“Allergy attack.”

“Oh, sorry, girl. Want some Claritin?”

“No, thanks. I took something already.” She went into a stall and at that moment my arm started to feel cold and wet. I looked down and saw that while I had been looking up at her, pink soap was running all over one sleeve of my suit jacket, and the other sleeve was sitting in the sink basin, which was rapidly filling with water. I yanked my arms away, managing to splatter pink goo all over my white blouse in the process. I grabbed some brown paper towel and wet it, attempting to scrub it off. Unfortunately, all that did was smear brown all over the pink. Needed more water! I started splashing water across the stain and immediately realized my mistake. Oh fuck! I looked like a contestant in a wet T-shirt contest and I had to interview clients in an hour!
In jail!
It would probably dry but what if it didn’t?!

Okay, think, Gabrielle! The air blow hand dryer! I went over and tried to turn the air blower upward but it wouldn’t move. Shit! I hit the button, bent my knees and squatted below the pipe. And that’s how Ellen Anderson,
the
Philadelphia Public Defender, one of the most highly respected attorneys on the East Coast, and my boss, found me as she walked in the door. Then I heard the stall door open and saw Kim’s startled expression in the mirror.

“Ms. Ginsberg? Are you all right?” Ellen sounded like she wasn’t quite sure if she should help me or get the hell out of there.

“Uh, I’m good! Thanks. I had an accident with the soap. And the paper towel. And the water.”

“Hygiene can be a complex thing,” she said, looking at me strangely and heading for a stall.

“Do you need another blouse, Gab?” Kim asked, looking like she was trying not to laugh. “I have an extra in case of emergency. I can bring it to you.”

I glanced up nervously at the stall where my boss was peeing and suddenly all I wanted to do was to get the hell out of there myself. “I’ll come with you to your office. Thanks.” I started following Kim and I was about to pass my office when I saw that Cameron had gone. Not wanting to go down the rest of the hall looking like that, I ducked in. “Can you bring it here?”

“Sure, I’ll be right back.”

I peeled off my sopping jacket and waited. Kim came back in a couple of minutes with another white blouse.

“Thank you so much!”

“No problem. I’ll close the door on the way out,” she said and left.

As soon as she was gone, I ripped off my wet blouse and quickly realized that my bra was wet too. I turned my back to the door and started fanning my chest in an effort to dry it a little. Movement caught my eye and I looked up and out the window to the building across from me, where a group of rather startled-looking businessmen stood gaping at me. I spun around in a panic just as the door opened and Cameron came back in looking down at a file. He looked up at me and then he looked down at my wet see-through bra. Oh, and by the way? I was cold. He dropped the file he was holding and his jaw nearly hit the floor with it.

“Oh,” he said, sounding stunned. “I had forgotten how nice those were.” He started slowly backing up toward the open door.

“Cameron!” I charged at him to push him out faster. “Close the fucking door, for Christ’s sake!” I hissed loudly. Just as Braden walked in. I stood there. In my bra. With my arms around Cameron. After telling him to close the door. Frozen in shock.

Braden looked at me with confusion. Then Braden looked at Cameron with fury. Cameron looked at Braden with horror.

“Not what it looks like!” Cameron sputtered backing up away from me frantically. Then Adam walked in and stopped short. His eyes immediately dropped and he openly admired my boobs for a long moment and said, “Hi, Gabrielle. Nice tits. I’m going to find Mark to help me save Cameron’s life.” Then he ducked out quickly.

“What. The
fuck
! Are you doing? With my girlfriend
now
Cameron?!” Braden’s voice was deadly.

Mark and Jess came through the door next.

“Holy shit!” Mark exclaimed, looking at me in shock. Then, seeing the look that Braden was giving Cameron, he flew into action. “Braden! It’s Gabrielle! I’m sure there’s some wacky explanation for this!” Jessica literally threw herself in front of Cameron as Adam came back in and quickly assessed the situation.

“Whoa! Braden! Down boy! You’ve found her dressed in garbage and BDSM gear. This is just par for the course, man!” He and Mark put themselves physically between Braden and Cameron then too. Finally, I snapped out of it and I grabbed Kim’s blouse and threw it on, buttoning up as well as I could with shaking hands.

“Braden! My blouse got wet and another PD lent me an extra one. I was changing when Cameron walked in. He was only in here for a few seconds and he was trying to leave but he was shocked and he was moving too slowly and so I was pushing him faster. I wanted him to close the door on the way
out
!”

I watched Braden take deep breaths and force himself to calm down. Cameron visibly relaxed then and let out a deep breath of his own. I hurried over to Braden and put my arms around him, hugging him tightly and rubbing his back. His muscles felt like piano wires and I could feel his heart beating fast.

“Braden, baby. Listen to me. You need to stop worrying. I love you and Cameron knows and respects that! He’s not going to try anything with me.”

“I do know and respect that! I really do! I would never touch her as long as you were together! I’ve only ever touched her once before! Well, a few times, but only one night, and it was eight years ago when I was nineteen years old!” Cameron said emphatically.

“You’ve slept with Gabrielle?” Adam asked. “You haven’t slept with her too, have you, Mark?”

“No!” Mark answered.

“Good, or I would have felt
really
left out,” Adam, who was apparently suicidal, added.

“It was when we were in college!” I seethed. “Before I even
knew
Braden.”

“Thanks for trying to protect me, by the way,” Cam said, looking at Jess. “Didn’t
you
wonder why Gabrielle was half naked with me?”

“It’s Gabrielle and so I just assumed that there was some nutty reason for it. I’ve learned not to question why she does anything. It’s better that way,” she answered with a smile, collapsing into her desk chair.

“Okay, I’m sorry!” Braden said finally. “You have to admit it was kind of weird!”

“Well, that was fun,” Adam quipped.

“Braden, man,” Mark said, “you’re planning to marry this woman.” He looked at me and his eyes dropped to my chest for one second before he shook his head and looked away. “You really need to get used to walking in on weird shit, dude!”

“Did you say ‘nice tits, Gabrielle’?” Braden asked Adam with a hint of menace.

“So, we came by to see if you wanted to have lunch together!” Adam said cheerfully while slowly backing away from Braden.

“That’s a great idea! I need to talk to everyone about something anyway,” I said grabbing my purse and bolting out the door. Luckily, they did follow me.

We all sat around a table at Reading Terminal Market eating our lunch and chatting much more calmly. Probably because we were all fully dressed and nobody was in mortal danger.

“Should I be brave and ask Gabrielle what she wanted to talk to us about?” Mark asked, taking a bite of his sushi.

“I wanted to tell you about a napkin that we found on the floor,” I explained.

“You wanted to talk to us about litter, honey?” Jess asked. She didn’t really sound surprised, for some reason.

“We found it right in front of Braden’s door after someone had pulled a false alarm and we had to leave the building. It wasn’t there when we left.”

“Somebody must have just dropped it when people were evacuating,” Adam said, eyeing up his corn dog a little suspiciously. A corn dog? Really, Adam?

“It was a cocktail napkin,” I explained. “How many firemen do you know who go out for cocktails before going on duty?”

“Maybe another resident dropped it,” Mark suggested.

“It was right in front of my door,” Braden admitted a little reluctantly.

“It was from a place called Club 51 and on the back someone had written 7161030.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Cam asked.

“I think it’s a date and time. This Friday at ten-thirty and I think we should go check it out!” I said excitedly.

“What do you mean ‘we’? Who do we look like? The Scooby Doo gang?” Adam asked, biting into his dubious looking food-like product.

“Oh trust me, man!” Mark broke in, “you haven’t lived until you’ve gone with Gabrielle on one of her little adventures. What should we dress up as
this time
?”

“Aliens,” I answered dryly. “The club has a conspiracy theme. The 51 refers to Area 51.” I took a bite of my veggie lasagna. All the adrenaline had given me a big appetite. I could probably eat a whole pan of this stuff.

“Uh oh! Conspiracies!” Adam said. “Maybe your litterbug read the article in the New York Times and is worried about the senator’s son dating the kingmaker’s daughter.”

“You know, even though you’re just being a wiseass, you may not be wrong,” I said thoughtfully. “Maybe it’s a message, and in more ways than one.”

“I think it’s a message that Braden should take you out on a date,” Jess said, playing around with her salad. “You two haven’t really gone out anywhere since the first time. Although, I’ll admit that it’s hard to top a kabob joint and a train station.”

“You want me to take you out?” Braden asked me. “Why didn’t you say so?”

“I hadn’t really given it much thought, but sure. That would be fun,” I said just before bending down to pick up my napkin and smacking my head on the table. Braden checked to make sure that I wasn’t bleeding. He was so sweet. He was always checking to make sure that I wasn’t injured too badly. That was true love.

“Personally, I think that if you want to marry her, you should at least court her
a little
,” Jess went on. She gave Braden a stern look before finally locating the elusive crouton she had obviously been searching for and popping it into her mouth.

“
Court
her? What is this, 1800?” Adam asked. “He banged her at a fundraiser. I think they’re a little beyond the ‘courting’ stage, Jane Austen.”

“I’m just saying that maybe it would be a good idea if they went out on a few dates before they got married,” Jess responded. “He should romance her. What kind of memories will she have otherwise?”