Christian
I saw her walking across the road as I hit the doorway of the courthouse. I wanted to catch up to her. To see how she was doing. To find out what was going on with her and why she wasn’t sleeping. I wanted to talk with her and take her into my arms. To hold her and tell her that I listened and digested every single word she said in that courtroom.
I wanted to tell her how much I loved her, and how I couldn’t get my mind off her even after everything that had happened.
“Christian!”
My lawyer’s voice caught me off guard as I watched Stella cross the road. He had a huge smile on his face and was coming in for a congratulatory hug, but all I wanted to tell him to do was fuck off. If Stella drove away without me getting to talk to her, I wasn’t sure if I could ever forgive myself. I wasn’t sure if she would take my phone calls after ignoring her and I wasn’t sure if she would answer her door if I came knocking.
“You have the company back. The papers are already signed by the judge. All I need to do is officially process them so we can be done with this nightmare,” he said.
“Yeah, yeah, thanks. Thank you so much for all your help,” I said.
“What do you think you’ll do with Stella? If it were up to me, I’d fire her and hire someone better just to stick it to her,” my lawyer said.
“I have no intentions of doing that to her. If she wants to stay, I’ll welcome her with open arms. If she doesn’t, I don’t think anyone could blame her,” I said.
“You know, for a man who just won his company back, you sure as hell don’t look like it,” he said.
“That’s because I don’t feel like I’ve won.”
I turned around to find her. I darted my head in every direction, trying to see where she could have gone. I looked for her swinging cast or her sleek black hair. I looked for those green eyes that might have been watching me from afar.
But, when I caught sight of her car, the only part of it I could see were the taillights before she rounded the corner and disappeared.
“Shit!” I exclaimed.
“Don’t tell me you don’t want the company anymore. Mr. Gunn, I don’t know if I could take it.”
“The company isn’t the issue,” I said. “I’m sorry. Thank you so much for helping me win the business back. Bill me for your time, and send it to my office. But, as the owner of this company again, I have a lot of things I need to address.”
“No, no. I completely understand. Congratulations on your win, Christian,” he said.
“You, too.”
I raced to my car and cranked it up before I whipped out of the parking space. I followed the path I saw Stella’s car take, hoping if I drove far enough, I would see her sitting at a stoplight or something. I turned down every side road searching for her car while I ventured to all the places in town I thought she might go. I pulled into every doctor’s office and every coffee shop. I drove by every bakery and surveyed every park bench I could see from the road. I didn’t know what the hell I expected to find, but I was hoping someone would throw me a bone.
That somehow, she would just be sitting somewhere I could find her.
But, when I didn’t, my mind set itself to autopilot. While I drove down the road, I thought back to the courtroom and all she had said. I thought about how desperate her eyes looked. I recalled the haggard form that had replaced a body she had once stood tall in. The shine in her hair wasn’t from her apple cinnamon conditioner, but from the days she had gone without showering.
I felt my eyes water as I remembered back to some of the things she’d said. How she had called me a genius and told the judge the company grew better under my leadership than it ever did with her father. I recognized that same sparkle in her eye. The last time I’d felt her.
The last time I’d kissed her.
When I came to, I was pulling into Todd’s coffee shop. I sat there and wiped the tears from my eyes before I took a deep breath. I knew the moment I walked in Todd would want to talk about the case, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to talk about it without telling him everything.
The whole story.
Just as I went to get out of the car, the passenger side door opened. Todd slipped in and thrust a coffee over to me, and I grabbed it without even looking at him. I just kept staring at the entrance to his coffee shop while he kept his gaze trained on me, then he finally decided to break the silence.
“Start from the beginning,” he said.
“I had this speech all planned out for the trial. My lawyer kept reassuring me we would get the company back, and I was out for blood. I was ready to sink my teeth into Stella and not let go until she bled out from her jugular,” I said.
“Well, shit. What the fuck happened?” Todd asked.
“She finally got to the courtroom, and she looked like hell, that’s what happened. Her hair was slightly greasy, and she had on no makeup. Her clothes were wrinkled and her eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep. She looked like a fucking mess, Todd.”