Matt and C.J. finally made their way back to L.A. After 2 weeks in the Caymans that concluded with a wedding most of their friends had anticipated for years, they then set off for parts unknown on their honeymoon. No one back home knew where they went and they decided to keep that to themselves. With the press trying to follow their every move and had now become more intrusive in their lives, this was just one thing they wanted to keep private.
Arriving back at the penthouse after another 2 weeks away, they knew it was time to resume their lives, albeit with a new relationship between them. A stack of messages awaited them and Uncle Roy had tried to cull as many as he could, but a couple definitely needed their personal attention. Murray had kept most of the business end in check and had begun to rely more on some new hires in the legal department, but still anxiously awaited C.J.'s return for a couple of matters. Still, a month had passed with both away.
Matt and C.J. arrived bright and early the Monday morning they decided to start back at work. They kissed in the elevator ride up, but simply held hands as they came out when Matt took those messages from Chris, who was waiting at her desk with an "its about time" look on her face.
"Most of these are congratulatory messages on the wedding, but there is one from a Maxwell Longman who says he needs to see you pronto. He said he was your tutor or something in college? I think he said chemistry, but I'm not sure. He wants to hire you." She explained.
"Maxwell Longman, hum….oh yeah, Organic Chemistry. I hated that class, I mean why does a business major have to take something like that anyway?" Matt asked as he thought back.
C.J. smiled, "Well, I wasn't particularly fond of College Algebra either, but if I wanted my degree, I had to take it. A high school teacher once told me that the required classes everyone has to take are like a sample platter at a restaurant. They want you try a little bit of everything before you make a final decision."
Matt looked at her skeptical, "Yeah well, I took to Organic Chemistry about the same way I took to sushi that one client tried to get me to taste that time. I didn't get it…you know back where we came from we called that stuff bait."
C.J. and Chris chuckled, "So I take it, that wasn't your strongest class, hence the tutor?" C.J. inquired.
"Yeah, you know he had a way of explaining all those molecules and elements and stuff. He used football terms I could understand….he talked about atoms playing defense and how some were stronger than others and how some would go on the offense. I tell ya, I don't know how I could have passed that class without him." Matt reminisced.
C.J. squeezed his hand and pulled him down just far enough to give him a little kiss on the lips before saying, "Well, I better get to my office and check on those forms Murray said he left there for me. Let me know when we have something to research."
He squeezed her hand back and then let her go, thanked Chris for the message and walked up to the phone on the wet bar. He dialed the number on the message.
"This is Hippocrat Pharmaceutical Labs, how may I direct your call?" he heard from a female voice.
"Could you connect me with Maxwell Longman?" Matt asked.
He was met with silence for a couple of seconds and then the voice said, "I'm sorry, but it appears Mr. Longman is out of his office at the moment. He is probably at the hospital in the lab. Do you want to leave a message?"
Matt grabbed a pencil, "Yes, tell him that Matt Houston called. I'm running late today so I wanted to tell him I'd meet him at 1 instead of noon for lunch at Methodist Central Hospital that was all."
"Oh, he's not at Methodist, he's at Woodland Memorial," the lady said.
"I'm sorry, I must have gotten my hospitals mixed up, thank you for correcting me. Have a good day." Matt said as he wrote that down.
"You're welcome, have a nice day." She said as she hung up.
Matt poured himself a cup of coffee and then one for C.J. with two sugars and two creams. He smiled as he stirred it in for her, thinking about how normal all of this felt being back at the office. He had made her coffee before and knew exactly how she took it, but today he was bringing it to his wife and the thought of that warmed his insides. He loved doing things for her, even if it was something as simple as getting her a cup of coffee.
He carried both into her office, stopping for just a second as he watched her reading over legal papers and working. Then he sat the cup down beside her on the desk and she looked up at him and smiled.
"Why thank you, Mr. Houston, for anticipating my caffeine needs." She said as she picked up the cup and took a drink.
"You are more than welcome Mrs. Houston…I thoroughly enjoy taking care of all your needs." He said as he waggled his eyebrows.
C.J. started to blush just a little bit and then asked him, "So did you get ahold of our potential client yet?"
"No, not yet. He was out of his office and working in a lab at Woodland Memorial. I think I'll head over there and see if I can find out what's going on. Wanna come with me?"
C.J. looked at the stack of papers on the desk. She was torn, she really wanted to go with Matt. Even though they had literally spent almost every waking hour together for the past 4 weeks, she couldn't get enough of him. However, there was this mountain of paper she just needed to get through and when she was done with it, that would free up her time to work more closely with Matt on this new case. C.J. had always been one to get work done first and play second. So, despite the fact that all she wanted to do was go with him now, she knew it would probably be best if she finished the work and then helped him with Baby once they had the case. So reluctantly she said, "I should probably stay and finish these papers. Then we can get some research done on this case, if we have one, and together we get that done fast. The sooner we get that done, the sooner we get focus on some of those other needs we were talking about." She winked back at him.
He leaned over and gave her one nice slow open mouth kiss and slowly pulled away as he said, "that sounds like a plan. I love you. I'll be back as soon as I can."
"I love you," she said back. As he left the room she thought about how nice it was to kiss him, to hold his hand, to have his arms around her. It seemed like the two of them always touching each other in some way and it warmed her insides to think about it. "Back to work" she told herself. The sooner she was done with this the sooner she would be with Matt again.