Chapter 11
Looking for Trouble…..
Fitz and his Stephen were having dinner at what had become their usual spot, The Vienna Towers. Stephen had scheduled the dinner to discuss the outrageous demands Mellie's attorney, David Rosen, had forwarded him in response to the more than fair settlement Fitz had offered her.
Her attorney David was an old friend and had brought the counter offer to Stephen in person. Stephen thought he had seemed embarrassed to be delivering the obviously outrageous brief. Poor bastard, Stephen thought. He could only imagine what it was like being Mellie's lawyer and being at the mercy of her whims. He hoped Rosen was billing her out the ass for the aggravation. Then again maybe not. Mellie's money was currently Fitz's money.
"She wants what?" he asked incredulously. He had known Mellie would be going for his nuts, but this was off the wall. Stephen repeated the atrocious amount of money she was demanding and Fitz felt his blood boil.
"If she thinks…" Fitz started. Stephen quickly interrupted. He didn't need Fitz going off halfcocked. He had everything in hand. Well almost everything.
"Calm down, Fitz" Stephen said "This is Mellie being Mellie. We knew she was going to come at us hard. Its too early in the process to be losing your shit" Mellie was a barracuda, she didn't leave her kill with any meat on the bones.
Fitz sighed feeling a headache coming on. He thought he had been prepared for Mellie to put him through the wringer; he was wrong.
"I know we've talked about this before, and you didn't want to go this route, but we need to consider letting my investigator loose on her. We need to find something to make her act reasonably. Otherwise…she can drag this out for months Fitz"
Fitz stared at Stephen. When they had first discussed filing for the divorce, Stephen had wanted to sic the firm's best investigator, Diego "Huck" Muñoz, to track down dirt on Mellie. If anyone could bring him the right information to deal a death blow to Mellie, it was Huck. He had done it before on countless divorce proceedings Stephen had handled.
Once they found something useable, they could use it to force Mellie's hand and bring her to the bargaining table in a more practical frame of mind.
Fitz had firmly refused. Stephen had been irate at the directive. A divorce arena was not a place you wanted to pull punches. Divorces were battlegrounds and honorable guy Fitz had no place in this war. He needed pissed off, incensed Fitz to have a fighting chance against Psycho Mellie.
"I didn't want to do this…the kids…" he said voicing his concerns. No matter his feelings for Mellie, she was still the mother of his children.
"We'll try and keep them out of this as much as possible." he told Fitz reassuringly. Sensing he was still hesitating Stephen presented a comprise "Tell you what; how about we let you vet the information before we use it to bring her to the bargaining table, deal?"
There was a pause, then Fitz nodded. Stephen felt a rush of adrenaline.
Good. Now I get to go in fully loaded to fight a barracuda named Mellie.
Glad that Fitz had agreed to the Investigator Stephen moved on to the next item of business.
"Fitz…I have to ask. You and this Olivia. How serious is it?" Stephen broached delicately "You need to know that Mellie and her people are going to use this woman against you. Has there been infidelity on your part?"
Fitz was quiet looking down at the stark white linen tablecloth; Stephen watched him fidget with the sterling sliver fork on the table.
"It's not infidelity" he said
"Good, that means we can..." Fitz interrupted Stephen. He needed to clarify.
"Stephen, it's not infidelity. Its love. Olivia is…Olivia is the love of my life" Fitz said. He looked over and saw the stunned look on his friend's face.
"If there was any infidelity it was only on my part. I cheated myself by not waiting for this amazing woman to show up in my life, Stephen" Fitz paused then continued.
"As for whether it serious…let's just say I need you to get me this divorce so…" Fitz faltered trying to put his words together without coming across as a besotted fool.
"I need to be divorced, so I can put a ring on the finger of the woman I should have married. The woman who should have been the mother of my children. The woman who's made me believe that I can actually be happy again" so much for not sounding like a besotted fool.
Uncomfortable with how much he had shared, he looked up from the fork and half smiled at Stephen.
"…And yes, I am sleeping with her. Every chance I fucking get" Stephen gasped and both men burst out laughing. Fitz was glad for the lightener mood in the conversation.
"Wow" Stephen said, amazed "Must be some woman"
Fitz smiled but said nothing in response.
The remainder of the dinner was lighthearted. They talked about their law school days and their sleepless nights fueled by enough coffee to keep a small country awake for days.
As the evening progressed they expressed regret at having neglected their friendship. They had been boys and they should have worked harder to stay in touch.
Two hours later they both decided to call it a night. Fitz reached for the check, but Stephen quickly stopped him "Trust me, once you see how much I bill you for my services, you will have no problem letting me pick up the check for the rest of your life" he joked as they made their way out of the restaurant through a dimly lit hallway that led to the elevator banks and the parking garage.
Fitz laughed and pounded him in the back. Hard.
Unprepared for the friendly thump, Stephen jerked forward and barreled right into a woman who was exiting the women's bathroom that was located in hallway near the exit.
He felt the soft body he had slammed into surrendering to gravity and start heading towards the floor. He instinctively reached out to catch her and unfortunately for him one of his hands found purchase on her butt while the other grabbed onto slim hips. He knew he should move his hand but he was afraid that releasing her would cause her to fall.
Deciding her safety was of more concern than her modesty. Stephen tightened his grasp on her and quickly used his strength to straighten her out and steady her on her feet.
"Watch the hands asshole" a pissed off voice hissed at him. He quickly withdrew his hands from their inappropriate position and began to apologize
"Jesus, I am so sorry…I didn't see you… "
"No shit "the woman said interrupting his attempt at contrition.
"Are you okay?" Fitz asked the woman from his position behind Stephen. He was concerned that the woman might have been injured. They still couldn't see her face as her hair had come cascading forward after the hit and now covered her from their curious gaze. They watched as she pushed her hair off her face and both reacted contemporaneously.
Fitz in recognition "Abby!"
Stephen in shock. Wow. Talk about gorgeous he thought.
Wait, did Fitz know this showstopper? Was this the famed Olivia? No, it couldn't, be he had called her Abby.
Fitz walked around Stephen to check on Abby.
"You okay, Abby?" he asked concerned placing a concerned arm around her.
"Hi Fitz" she said "I'm fine" she reassured him.
"I am really sorry about that I didn't see you there" Stephen said repeating his apology
"No harm, no foul" Abby said finally taking the time to look at Fitz's clumsy friend who had barreled into her.
Wow. Talk about hot.
"Abby I would like you to meet a friend of mine Stephen Finch; Stephen this is Olivia's best friend Abby…Oh my god, I don't think I ever found out your last name" Fitz said somewhat abashed
"Whelan. Abby Whelan." She said sticking out her hand to the hottie
"Nice to meet you Abby Whelan" Stephen said mesmerized by her. Stephen held onto her hand.
Abby smiled and waited; after a beat she spoke "think I can get my hand back, charm boy?" she asked
Stephen flustered and quickly released her hand.
"Thanks Stephen. I'm not trying to be uncharitable; I just think I might need to use it at some point during the course of the evening" she said a mischievous grin on her face.
Stephen blushed "Of course, I'm sorry…"
"Stop apologizing Stephen, its starting to grate" Abby said interrupting him, her mischievous smile still lit up her face.
Abby turned o Fitz "You headed up?" she asked Fitz. She had made the question deliberately vague as she didn't know who the hottie was or how much he knew about his boy's Fitz's business
"Yup" Fitz responded smiling. He liked Abby. Her fun, bold, brazen and unapologetic personality shone whenever she was in a room.
Abby turned her attention to Stephen "What about you, where you headed?" she asked boldly
"Um, home?" He answered as if questioning himself; As if he were unaware of his plans for the rest of the evening.
The bold, beautiful Ms. Whelan had him as flustered as a school boy with a crush on the teacher.
"Oh pooh!" Abby said. She looked at her watch. 11:30 pm on a Friday.
Yeah, there was no way she was letting hottie Stephen go off home. She had already taken a quick peek at his index finger and noticed he didn't have a wedding band on. She loved Liv to death but she wasn't built for the drama of loving a married man.
He could have a girlfriend, she thought. Only one way to find out!
"No way, It's still early on a Friday night dude!" she said to Stephen "Say goodnight to the sexy Governor and come join me at the bar for a drink. What do you like Stephen?" she asked bold as ever.
"I beg your pardon?" he said confused
Abby smiled. I beg your pardon! You had to love the British. So fucking polite!
"What do you want to drink? Do you drink? I can get you something non-alcoholic if you don't?" The questions were fired out à la Abby. Rapid paced without adequate time given to respond.
"Uh, Whiskey…neat" he said answering the only question he had managed to caught during her verbal assault.
"Now that's a man's drink, I like that Stephen; one whiskey neat coming up!" Without further ado she spun around elegantly and she strolled off toward the bar.
Stephen stood watching her disappear around the dimly lit hallway that led to the bar.
"What the hell was that?" Stephen asked looking like he just got hit by a Mac truck.
"That my friend was trouble; Fun, spontaneous trouble" Fitz responded smirking "So, man up and go have some fun!" Fitz prodded him
He laughed and walked off to the elevator banks, amused at the encounter he had just witnessed and happy that he was finally going to see his Livvie after a long day away from her. He couldn't wait to tell her about this new turn of events.
Stephen stood alone outside the women's bathroom gathering his thoughts, then took Fitz's advise and went off to the bar.
Looking for trouble.
Xxxx
