Away From the Spotlight (3 page)

“Let me surprise you.  Can you meet me here at around
six
tomorrow night?
”

“How about
seven?”
I countered.  “I have to work until about 5:30 and get here from
D
owntown
.
”

“You’ll have to tell me about it tomorrow.  I want to hear all about you.”

I got up to go and said, “See you tomorrow
then
.
”
  I waved at Will’s friends and
added
, “
I
t was nice meeting you
,
” although I doubt they heard a word I said. 
They did ma
nage to look up and wave
.

Will
stood
up
, grabbed my hands,
and kissed me on the cheek.
 
“Good night. 
I’ll see you tomorrow.  Promise?”

“Promise. 
S
even
.  H
ere.”
  I was disappointed to have to let go of his hands, but I did.

With that, I returned to
Rachael
and
attempted
to drag her from her admirers
.

I was driving and
therefore
was glad
that I
had been
so absorbed in conversation with Will that
I
had had very little
to drink.

“How was your evening?” I asked
Rachael
as she
climbed into my aging
black sports
car.
  When I had received
the
car at age
sixteen
, it had been impressive.  It wasn’t fast, but looked it.  Now,
almost
nine years later, with styles having changed and considering the worn look about it, it wasn’t so cool anymore.

“I didn’t meet anyone that interesting.”

“Out of all those guys
surrounding you
,
no one
was interesting?”

“Only interesting enough to flirt with, not to take home. How about you?  You were gone almost the whole time.”

“I met someone.  His name is Will.  He’s English, I think.”

“That would be different for you.”

She wasn’t wrong
.  I had
very
casually
dated a number of men I had met in the
various
pubs in Santa Monica
.  They were
from all over Europe
, but
not one of them had been English for some reason
.  There were
Scottish, Irish and Welsh
men
among them, but n
ever
English.
  I had commented on occasion on the fact that I never seemed to meet English men at the English pubs I frequented.

“I’m going to see him again tomorrow night.”

“What’s he like?”

“Drop
-
dead gorgeous, smart, funny and with excellent taste in music.  Just my type.  Well, better than my type, actually.  It’s hard to believe someone that perfect has any interest in
me
.”

“
P
lease
”
Rachael
said.  “
You get hit on every time we go out.”

“That’s overstating things
quite
a bit.”

“You seem oblivious to it half the time.
”

I guess I did ignore some of it.  When you spend time as part of a female minority in bars full of drunk men, it was hard not to think that some of them would have hit on me for no other reason than that I was female, regardless of how I acted
, what I said,
or what I looked like.  I therefore learned that getting hit on wasn’t necessarily a compliment and, the later it happened in the evening, the less of a compliment it was.

“Anyway, we’ll see what happens.  We’ll see if, when I tell him I’m in law school, he gets all weird about it.  It could be our first and last date.  I hope not though.  He really is amazing.”

This was another
one
of my problems. 
A high-powered career was generally considered attractive in a man, but not always in a woman. 
Admitting to being a law student
headed for
that
high-powered career
could sometimes be intimidating to men who weren’t confident in themselves and their careers.  Any insecurity on their part was not a result of anything I said or did because I certainly did not project any requirement in that regard on others. 
Although I could rationalize that,
when
ever
interest waned after this admission
, it was more about the other person than me, it still stung like rejection
.

After dropping off
Rachael
in East Hollywood, I
g
o
t home a
little after
1 a.m.  I was going to be
exhausted
in the morning, but
meeting
and spending time with
Will
was
well
worth it.

I was tired, but at least I had Trial Advocacy on Fridays, which was a lot more interesting than my other classes.  Most law school classes
deal with
theory as opposed to real world
practice. 
This class was
the
converse
. 
I
t was scary
though
in that they made you get up in front of the cla
ss every
Friday
and practice thing
s like
o
pening
s
tatements
,
d
irect
and
c
ross-
e
xamination
,
and
c
losing
a
rguments
. 
I thought it
was fun
nonetheless
and
,
the
refore, the
class did not drag on like most.
  Between my fatigue from insufficient sleep and my excitement at what m
ay lay
ahead t
hat night
, I could not have
with
stood a
dry
lecture.

After class, I had to go to work. 
My schedule was such that
I
clerked
three days a week
.  My firm was a relatively
small
one
of about
twenty-five
lawyers, half of wh
om
were litigators
and ha
lf
were corporate and real estate
transaction
al lawyers
, with one going back and forth between both disciplines.

The firm was fairly conservative, having spun off from a much larger and well-known firm that had imploded about a decade before.  The dark paneling, mahogany furniture
,
and green and burgundy hues reflected the
tenor of the firm.  It was a bit of an
O
ld
B
oy’s
C
lub.  I was soon to be one of only two female attorneys at the firm.

I was like the little sister to the
associate
s, all of whom were male, and all of whom had serious girlfriends
. 
T
here was none of the tension
I might have felt if any
one of them had been available.  Consequently, I was
never
really
shy with them.

I
t was
Rachael
,
though
,
who
was my real ally at the firm as she was one of two paralegals and performed somew
hat similar work to
that of
a law clerk.  She
was
also
the only other female
relatively
my age at the firm.

At work that day, I had to help one of the
associate
s with research for a Demurrer
to a Complaint
, which argues that plaintiff’s pleading fails to state a claim for which relief may be granted
.  It
was pretty straightforward so it didn
’
t tax my brain too much
.  It
also
had a little time pressure
which
forced me to focus
on it rather than my upcoming date
.

When I finished
my research
, it was time to go.  I entered my time
into the system,
and
then
grabbed my clothes and my makeup to go change
and freshen up
in the bathroom.  I changed into a little black lace spaghetti strap dress
,
a
black short jacket, and black heels – black again as usual.  I was overdressed for the
Royalist
, but I had no idea whether we were starting there or staying there.
  I
figured that i
t was better to be overdressed than underdressed.

I fixed my makeup, which had run a little over the course of the day, put
a
brush through my hair
trying to
smooth it a little
,
and brushed my teeth. 
On my way out of the
office
, I
ran into a couple of the
associate
s, one of who
m
whistled.

“Someone
’s got
a hot date
,
I guess,”
Max
, an
associate
about five years older than me
,
stated
while
leer
ing at me
.  “You tell him that, if he tries anything, he’s going to have to deal with
us
.”

Max
was one of my closer friends at the firm
.
  He w
as of medium height and somewhat studious looking with glasses.  He l
oved to give others a hard time and I was a favorite target of abuse.

The other associate with him, John,
was another close friend of mine. 
John was
two years older than me,
tall and narrow, with black hair, pale skin and dark eyes.  He was shy with a brooding look about him. 
He
just stared at me
a little wide-eyed
and said nothing.

“
Very
funny.  See you guys Monday.”
 
I left immediately to prevent
any
more teasing.

Despite Friday night traffic and my aging car, I made it across town, arriving at the
Royalist
about
fifteen
mi
nutes early.

I didn’t know what to expect and felt a little self-conscious as I was
anticipating
hav
ing
to stand around alone until
seven-
ish.  I needn’t have worried.  After showing my ID to the bouncer, I entered the pub where Will’s friend
,
Colin
,
was waiting to
escort
me to Will.  We walked through the pub, the restaurant and the
b
ack
b
ar to a private room on the other side of the far wall of the
b
ack
b
ar.  I thank
ed Colin and entered the room.

Will was the only person in
the
room, sitting at one of six tables in the middle of the room,
and
facing away from the windows.  When he heard me enter, he
stood
and crossed the room
quickly
to
greet
me. 
I was glad I
was dressed up
as he
wore
a trendy close-fitting black suit with a
white
v-neck
t
-
s
hirt underneath.