Alaric

Saturday was one of the best days that I could actually remember and that was great, because Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I was knee deep in my case. I wasn’t leaving the office before eleven at night, which meant I was only able to talk to Eva for no more than fifteen minutes or so throughout the day. She was understanding of everything, because she was a lawyer as well, but the entire point was the fact that Friday and Saturday, we had moved into another realm of our relationship. It wasn’t so much that I was pursuing her, but the woman actually stepped to me and kissed me. It was small, but it was her initiating it, which meant she felt it too. I wasn’t giving up, either way, but she felt it and was doing something about it. That was progress that I would not take for granted.

By Thursday, things had calmed down. A jury had been selected, which was faster than we anticipated. The judge was on board and we would start the trial within the next few weeks, which meant the next two months. The courts were pushing everything because election season was coming soon, and with this whole thing happening, it was important to remain relevant and for some distance away from some of the bad press.

On Thursday, I wanted to surprise Eva at work with lunch from the restaurant that she loved. However, when I strode inside of her office, I saw a man in there staring at her while she belted out a hearty laugh. Instant jealousy clouded my mind, as I did not know who the man was, and I didn’t like how he was trying to move in. He was definitely trying to move in because I had stared at her in the exact same way, when she laughed. Well, she was beautiful for one, but she also did not express that bit of emotion often enough.

“Am I interrupting?” I came in with eyes only for the man sitting across from her.

He turned and immediately stood up, which let me know that he knew damn well who I was.

“Hi. This is Travis, my colleague.” She told him. “This is Alaric and he started the pro-bono work for the firm. He initiated the project that we’re working now.”

That was it?

My eyes landed on her and she was oblivious to it, just giving us her professional smile like all was peaches and cream in the world. It was not. It was hatred and jealousy.

I nodded my head at the guy and placed the food on Eva’s desk.

“Well, okay, Eva.” He nodded. “I’ll touch base with you later on that consult.”

“Sure thing,” she called back.

“Shut the door when you leave,” I instructed.

Travis eyed me, then did what I asked him to do.

Like I fucking thought.

“Hey,” Eva said with a smile. “This is a nice surprise.”

Surprise is right, I thought as I started to unload the hot food. Figuring if I keep my mouth shut, this will help ebb my temper.

“What’s wrong?” Eva asked. “You seem tense.”

No go on keeping my mouth shut, so I just said it. Damn the consequences.

“Who is that guy? He’s interested in you; do you know that?” I blurted. “He knows that you’re taken, but you didn’t introduce me to him in the way I should have been.”

This did not bode well with Eva, because the look on her face went beyond understanding. Nope, it went glacial, as those eyes narrowed on me.

“Excuse me?” She hissed with her fork in mid-air. “What did you just say to me?”

I stopped what I was doing and turned towards her. Taking my eyes off the hot food in front of me, my eyes met hers.

“When I walk in the room, you’re falling out laughing at that asshole. He knows who I am because he straightened up and had the look of being caught. Which means, he was somehow, even in his own mind, wrong as fuck. Then I’m introduced as that guy who started the pro-bono thing. I’m that guy but I’m more than that. You’re mine and fucks like him need to know that.”

Yeah, we were about to go toe-to-toe, based off the look on Eva’s beautiful but conflicted face. Standing up, so we were on the same level, I braced for her backlash. She’d probably kick me out of her office or tell me that she was an independent woman and caveman shit didn’t work for her. I didn’t care, I’d fight through it all. My eyes remained on her until she sat down, put her plastic fork in my food, turned it a few times and ate the Lo Mein with a long hum.

When she finished, she looked at me again and said, “I never took you for the jealous type, Alaric.”

Then her ass smiled, like the cat that caught the canary. She kept eating my food, then some of hers. I blinked several times, then sat down to eat as well.

“I am,” I told her in a slight huff.

Hell, I was ready for war and she was hungry.

“I love this place,” she hummed again.

My mind was officially blown. This enigma of a woman was sitting before me, eating while I was in essence having a temper tantrum. That’s how she made me feel.

Ha.

Here I was the district attorney and made my career on reading people and this creature before me, just shattered all that I thought.

“Do you want me to tell him, we’re dating?” She asked.

Oh, this woman.

I eyed her and then ate some of her food. She made it seem so trivial, and on purpose I’m sure.

“Do you want to tell him?” I countered.

“Well, no. I work here and I’d rather not let the people I work with know my personal business. For example, that I’m a part of a bike club. It’s no one’s business, but if you, Alaric, want me to draw the line with Travis, I will.” Eva shared this and kept on eating.

My anger was gone and what remained was frustration. She was right and I was a caveman.

“I’ve missed you.” I threw in my white towel. “It’s been four days.”

At this, Eva laughed, stood to her feet and slowly walked around the desk to sit on my lap.

“You’re a piece of work,” she laughed before planting a kiss on my lips. “Miss you too.”

Damn.

I was no longer frustrated. Yes, I was back in my heavenly bliss with my lady in my lap, showing me that she did, in fact, miss me. This lasted for five minutes and our lunch time for ten more. We made plans for Friday and Saturday again, and this time I planned to take her an amusement park and test her skills with those crazy ass rides.

Eva’s and my weekends pretty much looked like that for the past three months. If it wasn’t sailing, we picked an adventure. Flying kites on jet skis, taking her on helicopter rides over the city of Philadelphia, traveling to New York for a Broadway show, a camping trip where I taught her how to build a tent and filet a fish. Hell, we even went into to Amish town to learn how to make a rocking chair. Our next adventure included the tandem jump out of the plane. Preferably in Maryland, while watching the wild horses.

She was adventurous, challenging and I loved every second. Fuck, so did she. Her face would light up when she saw each time, making me realize that I wanted it to always be that way. Occasionally, I would join the Lady Guardians on their community activities, but I never brought the media or promoted it in any way. I respected this ideal about Justice and made me want to follow suit.

We had two more months to go for the pro-bono division with R.W.E. and lately with the trial coming up, Eva had been running it with periodic check-ins with Scott and me. Her caseload grew, but so did her win rate and satisfaction because my girl would rather help those that needed it most than the entitled of the world. One day, she called me that and we had a really large discussion about it, what it actually meant for her.

“Entitled in your mind is a bad thing, so I don’t like it when you refer to me in that way,” I told her as we were walking in the breakfast aisle.

She looked at me, nice and long before responding. We were shopping for a Siamese cat at the local pet store, for Eva.

“Entitled brats is a bad thing,” she answered carefully. “I don’t think you’re bad, but you do possess a certain amount of entitlement. Don’t you think?”

Pissed that we were in a pet store looking for a feline, I moved in closer, because I knew this very conversation could be a deal breaker for all that we’ve been building.

“Okay, I’m a man,” I said and continued my list. “I’m am not a person of color. I’m educated, makeover six-figures, younger, have a large social network, own property, have investments and I have a beautiful girlfriend. These are the areas that I considered entitle me, but the only thing that makes me different from you is color and sex. So, you are also entitled, but I don’t see how you view yourself as bad.”

Yeah, this was not the conversation when buying a feline.

Eva’s eyes flashed then her mouth opened and shut. Then she turned and began to make her way down the aisle, leaving me there.

“Eva,” I hissed in a warning tone.

She jerked around with her eyes blazing then snapped back, “You don’t think color and sex have more social capital than all the rest of those things you mentioned?”

Shit.

I caught up to heard and lowered my voice before saying, “I’m not dense, Eva. I know that I have certain privileges, but the point that I am making is, so do you. What do you do to balance this, is by putting yourself in a position to help those that don’t have as much. That’s why you’re with the stick-up-the-ass firm now pressuring them about more pro-bono work. That is also why I am helping you do that work, because I want to do the same. There is nothing that I can do as a white man. I am he. What I can do, Eva, is what I do. Help others, have a voice for those that don’t and use the law to defend those that have been wronged. Period.”

“I’m not blaming you for being a white man, Alaric.” Eva clarified. “I’ve never thought you were wrong or did anything that warranted you were taking advantage of your privilege. However, I won’t sit here and say that I don’t feel some type of way about why the company is not called Reid, Wilson & Wyatt. We came at the same time, I have more billable hours, recurring clients, but he’s an Italian man and looks good in a suit. He’s also what people think when the word, partner, is mentioned in relation to a firm. So, yeah.” She nodded. “That pisses me off, but I deal with it, like every fucking thing else. Again, I’m not blaming you, but that also doesn’t mean that I’m going to just ignore the privilege that you have, as well as myself.”

“So, you do recognize that you have privilege?” I asked, since that didn’t seem to be a part of the conversation.

“Of course, I do,” she exclaimed. “I own three guns, know how to disable a man twice my weight, well-versed in hand-to-hand combat, studied abroad with a Jujitsu master, lead a motorcycle club, work for a tight-ass law firm, make a ton of money and my parents didn’t make over thirty-five thousand dollars collectively in a year. I own that, Alaric. I also earned it by working harder than anyone else in my class to get it because it wasn’t given to me. Just like my last name is not apart of my organization, is why I still put in more billable hours than most.”

With that, she turned towards the door and finished. “I’m not in the mood to buy a cat, and I don’t think we should discuss this right now.”

I agreed wholeheartedly.

Later, that night, I contemplated on going to my house for the evening but chose to stay. Eva had gone to bed earlier than usual, which meant she was either sick or pissed. She was pissed, but I still stayed. Climbing into bed beside her, my heart constricted because I wasn’t falling for her, I had fell. This notion of us being different was never really a topic, until now, which made me think of what was happening in her life or mine for this to be happening. My trial was about to be public, and she was about to finish the initiative at her job. Her club was fine, as far as I knew, but the only way to find out was to ask.

She wasn't sleeping, I knew, so I said into the atmosphere.

“What’s happening?”

She sighed loudly and turned to her back before saying, “I’m sorry about earlier. Sometimes I get so sick of grinning and bearing shit that I shouldn’t have to. I work to make things fair when life isn’t fair. Maybe it’s a mid-life crisis, or I’m just tired. I don’t know why these things are bothering me, right now.”

“Is it because of me?” I had to ask, though I didn’t want to really know the answer.

“Ohhhh, no,” she quickly replied. “No, Alaric. You’re great. Well, you’ve been oddly enough wonderful. I just think I’m at an uncomfortable place in life and …”

“Maybe you need to make some moves.” I finished for her.

She paused before answered and then said, “Yeah. I’m thinking so.”

“I can relate to that feeling.” I continued. “When I felt like that with my parents. Like I wasn’t appreciated or that state of being uncomfortable, I moved. Started making a life for myself, so I wasn’t under the cloak of anyone or anything else. No one could take credit for my success or failures, for that matter. If I fucked up, it was on me, but if I blew up, that was on me too. Maybe it’s time to make some more changes. You did it with the Lady Guardians and that’s going well. You gave me a chance and I’m falling for you more every day. Maybe, Eva. It’s time to do the work you really want to do?”

She turned to face me on the bed, with her head on the pillow and tears in her eyes.

Fuck, what did I say?

“I-I think you’re right.” She stuttered.

Shit, right about what? What did I say?

“Yeah, you’re right. This has made me realize, this is not what I want. Like this season is up for me and it’s time to move on.” She was blurting out a bunch of words that didn’t seem good for me.

“Wait, what? Sweetheart let’s not get ahead…” she cut me off.

“No, Alaric. Shit, you are absolutely right. It’s time for this to be over.” Evan popped up out of bed and began to pace, as I stared at her in horror.

“How did you get that out of what I said. No, Eva,” I argued and hopped out of bed myself. “No.”

“No, you are absolutely-fucking-right.” She nodded with a wide smile. “It’s time to go.”

Then the woman went into the closet and I ran after her to plead my case.

“Eva, I’m not going…” I began, but stopped when I saw her pulling down suits.

Her suits.

“Wait, you are leaving?” I asked. “It’s your house.”

She finally focused and turned to me with a smile. “Why are you so damn silly? I’m not leaving my house. I’m leaving my firm. It’s time to go and start my own, so I can do what I want to do. What Eva wants to do. Not beg anyone for a pro-bono division, so they can put me over it and reap the benefits. They should have one, but the state shouldn’t have to come in and give them money to have one. I don’t want to have to defend corporations who are in the wrong.” She eyed me and said, “Now, you want to talk about privileged. These folks are beyond. I’m going to start my own, not have to do double the work just to be taken seriously and double that work, just to get my name on somebody else’s firm. Fuck that. I’m going to start my own. You’re a genius, Alaric Hunt.”

Oh.

Crisis-averted.

She wasn’t leaving me.

Going through my closet, I pulled out the suit that I was going to wear on my first date with Eva. Glad that I didn’t because if she thought I was an entitled, rich snob, she would have turned away and never given me a chance. There is no doubt that I would have kept on pressing her to go out with me, but bringing out the big designer, might not have worked in my favor.

For the sake of this trial, well, we just received notification that it would be televised even outside of the state. That meant, I needed my power suits. The verdict and process, according to Carter, my supervisor, had a lot to do with my future. Being a District Attorney was great, but staying one, well, that was the hard part.

This case was a key component of my next steps and the types of cases I would be allowed to take on. Thus far, I had a winning streak, because I worked hard and took on clients and cases that could be won.

This case was another one that fits that category, plus, the message was to let women know that it was not okay to make false accusations about sexual harassment. The fact that I had proof was icing on the cake. It was illegally obtained, but I had ways around that.

Eva knew that I had a big trial coming up, so we didn’t see each other the night before. However, after a couple of hours before the debut, I called just to hear her voice.

“Hey sweetheart,” I greeted her.

“Hey, how are you?” She asked with giddiness about her.

“I’m good. Getting ready for the big trial.” I shared. “Just wanted to hear your voice before I go under.”

Eva laughed at my words, before she said, “Sounds like you’re going out of the country with the way you’re describing this. Trials can be taxing, but I know you’re prepared and ready to take it on. You got this. I have faith in you.”

Holy shit.

This thing between us was growing faster than I ever thought. Leaps and bounds had been made since I started trying to get to know her by going to the club. We were at the point of finishing each other sentences. Even friends of mine, wanted to meet who had all of a sudden taken over my evenings and weekends. According to my old college roommate, Zach, I hadn’t been this preoccupied since I dated my college sweetheart, who dumped me for a golf player.

Of all the fake sports.

“I’ll see you tonight. Leave the light on, so I can put you properly to sleep.” I teased.

“Oh yeah,” her voice lowered. “You still looking for that rematch?”

Shit.

“You won’t let me live that down, huh?” I was laughing through my words. “It just felt good and it had been awhile. Damn. I need that rematch, but not tonight. Tonight, I just want to hold you.”

There was a scoff over the line, then Eva shared, “You better do more than hold me.”

That statement had me laughing out loud, which was perfect for my pre-game trial.

“Fine, we fuck, we cum, then I’ll hold you.” I kept chuckling. “Gotta go, but light on, okay.”

“Okay. Good luck. You got this. See you tonight.” She said before disconnecting.

**_**_**

She didn’t see me that night, nor the next or the next.