Legal Affairs - Violation: Legal Affairs Serial Romance (6 page)

At the end of the
day, Matt will stroll into my office and ask what I want to eat. I’ll
hem and haw, and finally decide on something. He’ll then leave,
and I’ll pack up to head home. About an hour later, Matt shows
up at my apartment with food and then well… you can guess what
happens after that.

As if on cue, my
doorbell rings and I open it up. There stands Matt, holding a bag of
Chinese food and a bouquet of flowers.

I’m stunned,
my jaw dropping open.

I mean, I was
expecting Matt and the Chinese food, and I had been sitting here for
the last ten minutes hoping he’d get me an extra egg roll, but
never in a million years did I think he’d bring me flowers.
This was way better than an extra egg roll.

Before I can say
anything, I hear from behind Matt, “Yum! Chinese! And I’m
starving. Oh hey, nice flowers.”

Macy steps around
Matt, who is still standing in the doorway, and walks into the
apartment. I move back so Matt can come in. “Matt… this
is my roommate, Macy. Macy… this is Matt.”

“Hey,”
Macy says, as she looks him up and down like he’s a slab of
meat. “Dayum, Mac. He is H-O-T. If you ever get tired of
hitting that, let me know. I’ll take him for a test drive.”

I roll my eyes as
Matt just stares at Macy as if she were a circus attraction, which
sometimes… she might as well be.

She saunters up to
him and takes the food out of his hands. “Nice to meet you, and
thanks for the food. I’m starving.”

Matt raises his
eyebrows and shoots me a bewildered look. I call out into the
kitchen, “That’s Matt’s and my dinner.”

She yells back. “I’m
willing to share. Come on in and let’s eat.”

“I’m
sorry,” I lean over and whisper to Matt, taking the flowers
from him. “We can make up some plates and go eat in my bedroom
if you want.”

I get a wide-eyed
stare, and then he starts walking toward the kitchen as if in a
trance… strangely hypnotized by Macy’s own brand of
weirdness. “No way,” he says in wonder. “I want to
get to know this roommate of yours a little bit better.”

Giggling, I follow
him in and make myself busy putting the flowers in water. I didn’t
even get a chance to thank him properly, but I can do that later. I
know just the thing that will make him very, very happy.

We all three settle
in to eat, and actually have a pretty good time. The thing with Macy
is that she always likes to shock you when she first meets you. Then,
after that, she settles right down into a charming conversationalist.
She has no problem keeping Matt amused, and I use the time to watch
him interact on a personal level and away from the office.

He laughs so easy,
his eyes crinkling at the corners and his dimples making periodic
appearances. He reaches over to me every once and a while, rubbing my
leg softly just so he can have contact with me. The secret smile we
share doesn’t have to be so secret here, and it graces both of
our faces when we look at each other.

I wish it could
always be this way between us.

“So, Matt…
where do you live?” Macy asks.

“I live over
in Chelsea,” he says as he takes a bite of egg roll.

“That’s
closer to your office—how come you two just don’t go
there after work? I mean, it’s not like you do anything but eat
and screw like bunnies.”

That’s a good
question, so I turn to Matt with a smile and playfully punch him on
the shoulder. “Yeah, how come you never take me to your place?”

Matt doesn’t
miss a beat. “Because I never invite the women I’m just
fu—”

He stops abruptly,
sudden realization of what he was about to say hitting him. He looks
quickly to me, guilt lying heavy on his face.

I’m not going
to lie… it hurt to hear him say that.

“You mean, you
don’t invite the women you’re just fucking over to your
place,” I clarify, trying to keep my voice light and
unaffected.

Macy cautiously
rises from her chair. “I think I’m going to head to bed
now and give you two a little space.”

I don’t bother
looking at her as she leaves, and Matt’s eyes never waver from
mine. When she’s gone, he says, “I’m sorry…
that was crude. But it’s the truth. I told you I don’t do
relationships, Mac. I always—”

Holding my hand up,
I stop him. “No, what you said was honest and you’re
right… you’ve been very clear about things with me. If
there’s one thing I appreciate about you, is that you always
give me honesty.”

I try to give him a
warm smile, to let him know my feelings aren’t hurt, but deep
down… they are. But in fairness to Matt, he’s never led
me to believe this would ever be anything more.

“Do you want
me to go?” Matt asks softly.

“No,” I
assure him with a half smile. “Stay. Finish eating and let’s
go shake the apartment’s foundation.”

“Okay,”
he says, giving me a tentative smile of his own.

We finish dinner and
hit the bed… hard.

Nothing has changed
in that respect. He touches me, and I melt for him. I grasp onto him,
and he shudders. We still have that sizzling hot chemistry between
us, and for the first time, I am beginning to truly accept…
that is truly all there is.

For the last
eighteen hours, I haven’t thought of Matt.

There are too many
other things on my mind. Far more important than Matt.

I glance around the
hospital room, taking in the gray paint on the walls, the gray floor,
the gray tone to my mother’s skin.

Nope. Haven’t
thought of Matt once in that time. All I can think about is my
mother’s broken body… her broken brain that has swollen
so much they had to cut a hole in her skull to relieve the pressure.

Matt had left my
apartment around nine PM the night before and I immediately fell into
an exhausted sleep, so deep I apparently didn’t even hear my
cell phone when the hospital called.

Macy shook me awake,
the look on her face so terrible that I almost vomited knowing
something horrific had happened. She pulled me into a warm hug and
told me she had bad news.

Then she proceeded
to destroy my world when she told me my mom had been in a terrible
car accident and was in critical condition in my hometown of
Nashville. She watched me apprehensively, waiting for me to melt
down, but that never even crossed my mind.

Instead, I sprang
into action, booting up my laptop and looking for a late evening
flight out. There was none until the next morning, and I knew I could
make the thirteen-hour drive faster. I hastily packed a suitcase,
having no clue what I really put in there, all the while Macy paced
nervously, wringing her hands.

She begged me not to
drive, and I shut her down with a glare.

She begged to come
with me, but I told her I didn’t need her. My gut didn’t
even clench up when I saw the look of hurt and worry pass over her
face. I’m not sure why I told her that, other than to say I
probably wasn’t thinking straight, because I would never
intentionally hurt her.

Within twenty
minutes, I was heading to the parking garage that housed my car,
which I hardly ever drove because it just wasn’t needed in the
city, and prayed that the fact I hadn’t had the oil changed in
over a year wouldn’t hurt my chances of making it to Nashville.
I had merely told Macy before I left to please call my office in the
morning and tell them I wouldn’t be in and had no clue when I’d
be back.

She tried to give me
a hug before I left, but I was icy cold with the knowledge that my
mom could be dead before I made it home, and I didn’t spare her
another glance as I left the apartment.

I fueled myself up
on coffee the entire trip and never got stopped once for speeding. I
drove straight to the hospital, praying for the best and expecting
the worse. Mom’s doctor had called me with an update just as I
was hitting the Virginia border.

He made me feel
hopeless.

It was hopeless…
pretty much.

My mom… my
champion… the one that has been there for me through thick and
thin, was essentially brain dead. The doctor droned on and on about
what all the tests had shown, and while they wanted to get one more
neurosurgeon to evaluate her, they wanted to prepare me for the
worst. They told me she was on life support and was not in any pain,
but that I would have some decisions to make.

Decisions.

I know what they
mean by that. I look at the respirator attached to my mom, watch the
way it’s breathing for her, and I follow the electrical cord
from the base of the unit to the wall plug. They want me to make the
decision to unplug her.

But how can I just
unplug my mom from this life? I’m not sure I can, and I don’t
have anyone else to help me with this decision. My dad, God rest his
soul, died four years ago from a heart attack at the tender age of
forty-six. I’m an only child. It’s just been my mom and
me since then, and I’ve always been the one leaning on her.

Now she’s
leaning on me… needing me to do what’s right by her.

Tears well up in my
eyes and start leaking out. I let them slip slowly down my face,
making no move to wipe them away. It does no good because they’ll
just start up again.

It’s all I’ve
been doing since I got to the hospital five hours ago… staring
at my mom from across the room, and weeping.

I’m a
fucking rock in the storm
, my sarcastic voice says, and more
tears slip down my cheeks. I check my cell phone and see missed calls
from both Macy and Matt, both of whom left voice mails that I have no
desire to listen to. I assume Matt probably wants to know when I’m
coming back or something. I shoot off a quick text to Macy to let her
know I’ll call her tonight.

A nurse comes in,
giving me a sad smile. She checks my mom’s vitals and switches
out a saline bag on her IV. All the while, the ventilator rasps and
the monitor issues a soft beep every few seconds.

When the nurse
leaves, I stand from the chair and stretch, grimacing over the
popping bones in my vertebrae. Glancing at my watch, I note it’s
almost four PM, and I know the doctor will be in some time this
evening to discuss options.

As if I really have
an option.

My stomach growls,
and I realize it’s been more than twenty-four hours since I’ve
eaten… unless you count the gallons of coffee that I drank on
the way here.

I walk up to the
edge of my mom’s bed and look down at her. Taking her hand
gently in mine, I bring it up to rub against my wet cheek.

“Oh, Mom,”
I whisper. “What am I supposed to do?”

She doesn’t
answer, but I don’t expect her to. I watch her heart monitor,
and there’s no change. Nothing about my touch or my voice will
rouse her from her coma. No amount of love for me is going to pull
her from those dark depths.

The tears start
pouring now in earnest, because the clock is ticking and the doctor
will want my decision in a few hours. I call upon God, but he gives
me no answer. I wrack my brain for every conversation I may have ever
had with my mom about dying with dignity. For the life of me, I have
no clue what her wishes were when it came to this sort of thing,
although I can’t imagine she’d want to live life this
way.

I am so lost and I
don’t see a clear path anywhere, so I do nothing but hunch over
my mom and quietly cry.

“Mac?”

My body goes still,
and my breath freezes in my lungs.

It’s not
possible.

Turning away from my
mom, I let my gaze follow the voice. Standing in the doorway is a
man, but my eyes are so tear-filled that he’s just a hazy
apparition. I blink once, pushing the liquid away, and my vision
clears.

And there Matt
Connover stands, looking at me with sympathy. He opens his arms up,
and there is no other choice in my mind but to walk into them.

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Stay tuned for upcoming volumes that will be releasing. There are only six volumes in this series.

Legal Affairs – Objection

releasing January 10, 2014

Legal Affairs – Stipulation

releasing January 24, 2014

Legal Affairs – Violation

releasing February 7, 2014

Legal Affairs – Mitigation

releasing February 21, 2014

Legal Affairs – Reparation

releasing March 7, 2014

Legal Affairs – Affirmation

releasing March 21, 2014

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