Authors note
So I wasn't actually going to continue this beyond the last chapter but I obviously changed my mind. Read it and hope you enjoy. PS. This is actually my first shot at fan fiction. Also thanks for reviews.
He was late, ok late was an understatement. He was supposed to be at this partner meeting about forty minutes ago, he wouldn't be surprised if they were about to wrap up. It's not technically his fault though, it was his sisters. They came to visit for a couple of day and ended up staying the week. They finally left yesterday afternoon. He was trying his best not to snap at them and he's pretty proud of himself for his self control, but there were times he couldn't stand them. He loves them to death of course, but the whole week they had been badgering him about finding someone to settle down with. Actually when he thinks about it, he's not sure that they had even one conversation that didn't come around to giving him the third degree about his relationships. Or as they put it lack of relationships. They had depressed him with all the talks about commitment; by the time they left the only thing he wanted to do was drink.
He did try to get out there and find someone to take his mind off work but things had just been so busy. For the last four months things have been hectic. He was stressed enough by competing with a cocky start up firm; he didn't need his sisters adding to that stress. When they left yesterday he had just sat there watched baseball, got drunk and thought about things (he hadn't had time to do that for four months now). Thought about her was a more accurate statement.
He was proud of himself; he had left her alone like he promised he would. He hadn't spoken to her once since that night, except when they had a case against each other. They tried to keep it civil in court, but sometimes there competitive nature came out and the judge had to bang his gravel to stop them screaming at each other. He thought he saw her staring at him a couple of times during trial but he just brushed that off as his imagination. But asides from court and negotiations, they never spoke.
He had to stop thinking about this. These thoughts were the reason he was late. The more he thought about them last night, the more upset he got, and that caused him to get absolutely smashed and stay up to two in the morning wandering around his apartment trying to picture her face. He wasn't proud of that, but the liquor made him do stupid things. Anyway that was the chain of events that led to him being late, but of course if Diane asked he would just say that he slept in (which was technically true although the cause was a hangover) or got stuck in traffic. If he told her the real reason she would probably slap him and tell him to hurry up and move on. He was trying but it wasn't an easy thing to do.
He tried to enter the partner meeting unnoticed but obviously didn't achieve his goal. "Oh look who's finally decided to grace us with his presence. Because we all have time to sit around and wait for you all morning, will." David lee was his usually cheery self as he greeted him to the meeting.
"Sorry for the delay, I got held up in traffic." He replied as he took his seat.
Diane rolled her eyes at his excuse and David replied in a sarcastic tone "oh yes, very creative."
"Ok, now that Wills here we can finally vote on the matters." Diane called for the attention of everyone to vote on the matter of how to deal with all the ways Alicia and Cary were screwing them. He wouldn't lie, there firm was doing very well. They had taken a little under half of Lockhart/Gardner's client base and it had left the firm struggling a bit. He had a suspicion that the clients that were taken from them that weren't either Cary's or Alicia's clients when they worked here were poached by Cary, not Alicia. Even though she left him he still thinks she respected him enough not to poach his personal clients. A couple of his had left but when he talked to them they said they had been contacted and persuaded to leave by a Cary Agos, they never mentioned Alicia. That was a particular act that wasn't helping him forget her.
It took another twenty minutes for the meeting to end and after that he stayed behind to talk to Diane when she signalled him to stay back. "What's up?" He asked when it was just them.
"I'm supposed to go to court in an hour but something came up with Kurt, can you fill in for me?" She asked while checking her watch.
"Sure, what case?"
"The carter case, our clients sued." The Carter case, great. That was Alicia's case, he asked Diane to take it three and half months ago so that he didn't have to face Alicia in court so soon. Not that it mattered now any way, they have been in at least three cases together now.
"Ok I'll take it for you. What's going on with you and Kurt, wedding dramas?" They had set the date a couple of weeks ago and ever since then she's been busy running around planning the weeding. The wedding was in six months and he was incredibly happy for her.
"You have no idea, where going cake tasting today."
"Sounds like loads of fun, wish I could come with you." He put on his best puppy dog face and she laughed.
"I'll bring you back a sample. Have fun in court." And with that she left to meet her fiancé. After prepping a bit for court he headed over to the court house, but he was distracted the whole drive by thoughts of how happy Diane was. He wondered if Alicia was that happy when she was engaged. He can't remember if she was. All he can remember was being insanely jealous when she told him she was marrying Peter.
Court was dull not much happened, just normal proceedings. The judge just scheduled for them to reappear in court tomorrow, he stood up and turned around to leave and was met by Alicia's eyes. He hadn't purposely looked at her she was just in his line of sight. He expected her to look away or act busy like she usually did when their eyes met, but she didn't, she just kept staring at him. He doesn't know how long they stared at each other for but when she stood up and he looked around the room for a second he realised basically everyone had left, the last couple of people were shuffling out now.
She walked over to his side of the court and stood near him, but she left a distance between them. It was probably her attempt not to make it awkward. She gave him a small smile and said "hi Will."
That was it? Four months and all she said was hi? She could've at least got straight to the point if she planned to go back to ignoring him after this brief encounter. But he would play along never the less. "Hey" he replied back lamely.
"Been awhile since we talked outside of court, well we're still technically in a court room but court isn't in session at the moment and were not talking about the law or arguing over a client, by the way when I yelled at you that time I wasn't angry with you I was just stressed, but I'm sorry if it seemed that way you know." She finally finished her long sentence to take a breath. She was babbling, which meant she was nervous. It was cute. When he didn't respond right way she looked down embarrassed and fiddled with her hands. Oh yeah she was defiantly nervous, she could never keep her hands still when she was.
"Yeah it has been awhile. And don't worry, court is court, tempers are bound to flare." He said this mainly to let her out of her misery with thinking she had embarrassed herself by coming to talk to him. It worked; she put her hands by her sides and looked up at him with a smile. She was about to say something else when her daughters voice interrupted her. She fished in her hand bag for her phone. God he hated that ring tone, it had ruined so many of their moments and interrupted a lot of their 'lunches'. Although he never got mad when it rang and she untangled herself from him when they were making love to answer the phone, it was her daughter after all.
Alicia stepped away from him to take the call and when she hung up and returned she looked disappointed. "I'm sorry but I have to go, my daughters decided to take a stand at school again for one of her causes and I have to go sort it out." She sounded annoyed, like this was a regular occurrence. But the way she was talking to him, like she used to before everything happened, it was odd. What's even odder is that he found he was happy about it, like she was letting him in on a part of her life again. Ok, way to get ahead of yourself Will.
"Ok, I hope it goes well then and she doesn't get into trouble." He was trying to sound considerate and casual at the same time. Turns out it's actually not that easy.
"It was nice to talk to you again." She smiled at him again and walked off toward the hallway. With her hand on the door handle she turned to his surprise and said "I mean really Will, it was very nice to talk to you again. I'm sorry for-, well I guess I'm just sorry for everything." Then she rushed out of the courtroom leaving him very surprised and very confused.
What the hell was that!? She been ignoring him for four months and all of a sudden she wants to talk to him again. Maybe this was just a onetime thing, spur of the moment. She probably just did that on impulse. But what was the apology? She sounded sincere, actually she sounded like she was about to cry now that he thinks about it. He had no idea how to feel in this moment. Should he feel happy that she's started to talk to him again, or mad because she just confused the hell out of him? He decided that this one brief encounter wasn't enough to let hope rise to the surface. She was probably just lonely and sleep deprived, being the boss at a law firm would do that to you. Yes, that was it, she was just feeling overwhelmed by the effects running a firm can have on you and wanted to talk to someone who had been through the same thing. Or at Least that's what he was telling himself. This was ridiculous; she had had a casual conversation with him not made a grand proclamation of love. And yet here he was like a school girl trying to decipher what her words had meant.
Just then his phone vibrated in his pocket. He was needed back at the firm; this analysis of Alicia would have to wait till later. Although he doubted if he would be able to stop thinking about her all day now. Why was she never clear with what she wanted from him? It doesn't matter; he wasn't going to act on it. Not when he had no idea where her thoughts were at. If she was trying to befriend him again, then she would have to come to him and apologise for everything that had happened. This time he wasn't giving her an easy way out, if she wanted him in her life again, she was going to have to make an effort. He was sick of just backing down and letting Alicia have her own way. He was sick of chasing after her, if she wanted him she could come and get him.