LOVING THE HEAD MAN (25 page)

       “And that would be your strategy?” Matt said with a sneer in his voice.

       “Yes,” Bree said.

       “Robert is representing the Vice President of the United States, correct?” Matt asked her.

       “The former vice president, yes,” Bree replied.

       “And your strategy is for a man of his esteem to, as you put it, ‘dig for dirt’ on the bitch?  That’s your strategy?”

       “Fight back is what I’m saying,” Bree said.  “Deidra’s proud.  She couldn’t survive in the court of public opinion, not that arrogance female.  She’ll drop that lawsuit in a heartbeat if she knew Robert wasn’t going to play the gentleman and simply accept her lies, and not only just accept them, but, if we do it your way, he would willingly pay her for them.  We have to fight back. And I mean hard and nasty.”

       Matt tossed his pen on the table and leaned back in frustration. 

       Wade took over.  “We can’t do that,” he said.

      
“Why not?”
Lee Clayton
asked,
which gave Bree immediate hope.  If Lee wasn’t dismissing her assertions out of hand the way Matt was
,
she stood a chance.

       “Because it wouldn’t be dignified, Lee,” Wade said, “and would be beneath the great and widely respected Robert Colgate.  That’s why.”

       Lee, however, wasn’t buying what Wade and Matt were selling.  “But allowing him to admit quilt in a sex harassment lawsuit,” Lee said, “isn’t beneath him?”

       Bree smiled.  She could not have said it better herself. 

       Matt, however, jumped back in.  “There’s more to it than that, Lee, and you know it,” he said.

       “No, I don’t know it,” Lee shot back.  “All I know is what I hear with my own two ears.  And I heard this young lady,
Brianna,
make what I consider to be a rationed, cogent argument.  What I hear you saying is pure bullshit.  It’s beneath Robert to fight back on a bogus lawsuit?  That’s bullshit, Wade.”

       “There’s also the question of the litigant,” Matt said.

       “What about the litigant?” Bree wanted to know.

       “We will not besmirch the reputation of the granddaughter of a former Supreme Court justice,” Matt said.

      
“Her reputation?”
Bree asked.  “What about Robert’s reputation?”

       “I say again,” Matt said.  “We will not besmirch the reputation of the granddaughter of a former Supreme Court justice.  We cannot and will not sink that low.  Not as long as Robert has me at the helm of his defense.  What I suggest,
Lee,
is that you focus on the VP’s criminal case, which is your expertise, and let me handle this civil matter.”

       Lee glanced at Bree with that
I tried
look in his piercing eyes. 

       “Let’s just stay the course,” Monty suggested, mainly to reassure and Bree and Lee.  “And let Matt do what he do for now.  But Robert needs to keep his focus on the VP which, I take it,” Monty said, directing this part of his comment to Robert, “he has offered his continued support?”

       “Yes,” Robert said.  “He phoned shortly after the story broke.  He says I have his full support and cooperation.”

       “For now,” Bree said.  “But if we don’t fight back and allow this story to keep dripping out, I guarantee you that support will be pulled.”

       “
You
guarantee it?” Matt asked, amazed.  “Who the hell are you?  I’m sorry, Robert, but this is beginning to become Kafkaesque.  The insane is taking over the asylum!  This slip of a girl is just out of law school and we’re supposed to sit up here and take direction from her?  I know she’s close to you, and near and dear to your heart, but she’s neither to me.  If she continues to question my strategy, I will pull out of this case and let her take it over!”

       “You will do exactly what I order you to do,” Robert said with a tongue lash Bree had never seen in him before.  She looked at Matt, expecting a comeback, or even a walk out.  But neither came.  He was a mighty attorney, but Robert still was his boss. 

       She looked back at Robert.  His
look, just that
quickly, had softened.

       “You continue to handle the civil case,” he said, “and we’ll see where we are after they officially file.”

       “They haven’t filed?” Bree asked, astonished.  Then, realizing how inexperienced she really was at matters of
law,
she didn’t bother for a response.  Robert, however, to his credit, Bree thought, did respond anyway.

       “They’ve made a public intent to file, but no, they haven’t officially yet.”

       She had more questions, but she held her tongue.  She would have to talk privately to Robert about this matter, especially since Matt and Wade made clear how they felt about her.  As far as they were concerned, she was simply Robert’s plaything, his piece on the side, with no more legal weight than a featherweight. 

       Since Robert’s decision to make their relationship public, referring to her as his woman instead of just his employee whenever the circumstance arose, she knew that working at Colgate would carry certain professional risks for her.  But it was still an eye opener.  She expected the haters to hate her, those who wanted what she had.  But she never dreamed in a million years that Robert’s own allies, great attorneys in their own right, would be against her, too.

***

And it only went downhill from there because later that night, while she was in the kitchen preparing dinner for
herself
and Robert, the front door was opened without a buzz from downstairs.  Assuming it was Robert, she wiped her hands on the apron she wore and hurried for the living room to greet him.  Only it wasn’t Robert who was coming around the foyer, but a young man not that much older than Bree, a blonde, blue-eyed young man.  And as soon as he saw Bree, this black woman in an apron, he made an assumption that would define their relationship for some time to come. 

       “Didn’t mean to startle you,” he said with a smile that could charm birds from trees.  “I’m Zack Colgate, Mr. Colgate’s son.  You must be the help,” he said, still smiling, still clever, and although Bree understood how he could have mistook her that way, it still stuck deep in her craw.

       “No,” she quickly recovered, “I’m Brianna Hudson. 
Your father’s girlfriend.”

       And it was obvious, by the smile that suddenly left his brilliantly lit-up face, whose craw was stuck now.

FOURTEEN

Awkward could not describe how both of them felt.  He, at first, just stood there, staring at her, as if he was certain there had to be some joke, some punch line that would explain this craziness.  When it was clear that Bree was dead serious, and there would be no punch lines from her, he managed to rediscover his smile and hurry toward her, his backpack bouncing at his side, his hand extended as he came.

       “Nice to meet you, Brianna,” he said as they shook.  “I hope I didn’t shock you.  He’s probably never even mentioned my name to you.”

       “Yes, he’s mentioned you,” Bree said.  But only after questioning from her friend Malcolm, she inwardly added.

       This, however, seemed to surprise Zack.  “Really?” he said, studying Bree.  “He usually doesn’t mention me to any of his females.  They’re usually quite surprised when I show up.”

       They were now within inches of each other.  He was barely an inch taller than Bree, and wasn’t nearly as big and muscular as his father.  In fact, there was very little resemblance. 
Which meant, of course, that he probably looked exactly like his mother, a woman Robert still described as “very beautiful.
”

       “Have a seat,” Bree said.  “What your father didn’t mention was that you were coming at all.  Or that you were even in town.”

       “That’s because I didn’t tell him,” Zack said as he sat in the flanking chair and tossed his book bag on the floor beside it.  “I never tell him when I’m coming, I just come over.  It makes me feel more at home that way.”

       To just barge in on his father made him feel at home?  It sounded odd to Bree, but that wasn’t her business.  “Would you like something to drink?”

       “No, I’m good.”

       “Why don’t you join me in the kitchen?  I’m still cooking dinner.”

       “Thanks,” Zack said as he stood again and followed Bree into the kitchen.  She was certainly younger than any girlfriend of his father’s he’d ever seen, and he’d seen dozens over the years, and this one was a black chick too?  He’d never known his father to date any African-American or Hispanic or Asian or any other race of female besides white. 
And not just white, but blonde and blue-eyed white.
  What, Zack wondered, was up with this? 

       He took a seat at the kitchen’s center island while Bree went back to checking on her baked chicken and steaming veggies. 

       “So, what school are you attending, Zack?” she asked him as she cooked, turning sideways from the stove to see him.

       “Oxnard,” he said and studied Bree’s reaction.  She simply nodded.  He smiled.  “It’s a community college in California.  Mom lives in Malibu, see, so I’m not that far from her.”

       “I see.”

       “I’m studying to be a dental hygienist.  And don’t
laugh,
Oxnard has one of the top five programs in the country.  Mom nearly had a heart attack when I told her.  She’s a Stanford grad and fully expected me to follow in her footsteps.  ‘Oxnard,’ she said.  ‘Are you on drugs?’  And when I told her my major, forget about it.  I thought she was going to have a seizure.”

       Bree smiled.  “What about your father?  Did he approve?”

      
“Oh, sure.
  I told Dad what I wanted to do and he said
good
for me.  He supports me without batting an eye, always, and I mean he pays everything for me.  I ask Mom for fifty dollars and she wants a list of what I plan to do with it.”