Making it Up to Adrienne Part 2
An irate Adrienne Walters stormed into the apartment she shared with her sister.
"That cracks my crystal!" she said to the air. "That kind of stuff really cracks my crystal."
"What cracks your crystal?" called her sister.
Adrienne flounced into Irene's room, where her sister was putting stuff in her purse.
"Where are you off to, big sis?" Adrienne asked.
"Gordon and I are meeting with the caterer." Irene answered, looking down at the sparkling jewel on her left hand. She then looked up at Adrienne's tense face and set jawline. "Something's cracking your crystal all right, kid sister. But what?"
"Discrimination." the younger Walters woman spat out the word, and then proceeded to tell Irene all about her humiliating experience at the Two Of Hearts dating service.
"It was the burger-joint job and those track-team boys all over again." said Adrienne miserably.
"I don't believe it." Irene fumed. "The place has an excellent reputation. In fact, that's the dating service that set me up with Gordon."
"Well, all they set me up with was a dose of the same humiliation and embarrassment I've been getting all my life."
Irene hugged her sister.
"Good for you for standing up to those skinny witches, Adrienne." she said. "But where are you going to get a lawyer?"
"Isn't your fiancé a lawyer?"
Irene laughed.
"Sorry, Adie-bug Ladybug." she said, calling her sister by the affectionate nickname she'd had for her since childhood. "Gordon only does real estate law."
Adrienne cleared her throat.
"Well, doesn't his sister's boyfriend's roommate's business partner have a brother-in-law who's a lawyer?"
Irene shook her head.
"Yes, but he just does divorce law." She made a face at the mention of divorce. Then, her face brightened. "Hey! Adrienne! I just thought of something. Gordon has a friend from high school, Theodore, who's a lawyer, and he does discrimination cases. I'll ask Gordon for his number."
A week later . . .
In his elegantly appointed office, Theodore Aloysius Huxtable, attorney at law, tidied up his desk, awaiting his client. His law partner and friend since college, Howard Barker, was telling him about his latest case, involving a dispute between neighbors, one of whom had a teen son who threw a noisy party.
"What a bunch of young Neanderthals." Theo remarked.
"You're a fine one to talk, Theodore." ribbed Howard, remembering a particularly riotous bash his friend threw in their youth. Suddenly the door swung open.
"Wow!" cried out Howard. "That feminina is fine! No wonder she's a model. We are talking large and lovely!"
Theo looked up at Ms. Large and Lovely and experienced a spark of feeling he hadn't felt since he first laid eyes on his late wife Justine. It was nothing he could explain.
Unlike Howard, he normally didn't have a penchant for plus-size women, but something drew him to the imposing beauty with the creamy coffee-with milk complexion, the topaz eyes and the glistening cherry-punch lips. His eyes traveled over her rounded, curvy contours. This woman was spectacular. There was also something familiar about her. Something he couldn't quite place, but something familiar.
"You're right, Howard." he murmured to the other lawyer. "She is fine. Not the type I usually go for, but she is fine. But I can't help thinking I've seen her someplace before."
"Of course you've seen her before, Theo." said an excited Howard. "She's Adrienne Walters."
"I know she's Adrienne Walters." Theo answered calmly. "She has an appointment with me."
Howard elbowed his friend.
"No, Theo." he said impatiently. "I mean, she's Adrienne Walters, the famous plus model."
"Oh, that." said Theo. "I wouldn't know. I don't read fashion magazines."
"Well, you've probably seen her in a magazine or on a billboard or something." insisted Howard. "That's why she looks familiar to you."
"No." replied Theo. "I think I've seen her in person. I just can't put my finger on where, or when."
Howard departed for his own office, and Theo got down to business.
