Four
Present Day.
After Courtney had handed her case over to Branson and told him all of the details about it, she headed home. There was nothing else she could do there, and anyway she needed to make some plans for what she was supposed to do for the next two weeks.
She dialled the number of her best friend Bridgette and crossed her fingers in the hopes that she wasn't busy, at least not for the whole two weeks.
"Hello?" Bridgette answered. Courtney could hear the sounds of Bridgette's three sons in the background and immediately knew this was a bad idea.
"Bridgette! It's Courtney," she said. "What are you doing for the next two weeks?"
"Doing my usual motherly duties," Bridgette replied. There was a pause as she yelled something to her children. "Can't you see mommy's on the phone? Sorry Court, you were saying?"
"Never mind, you're clearly too busy," Courtney said with a sigh. "Maybe another time." She hung up the phone and called Heather.
"Hey what's up?" Heather answered.
"I have two weeks off work and nothing to do with myself," Courtney told her outright. "Please help me or I'll go insane."
Heather laughed. "I'm busy all of this week," she said. Courtney groaned. "But I've got nothing on next week. I can get Alejandro to look after the kids. What did you have in mind? Do you finally want to go to Hawaii with me?"
Courtney grinned. "Hawaii sounds perfect. Thank you so much for this, I really need it." She hung up feeling slightly better, but was still unsure of what she was going to do for the entire first week of her leave.
Her husband arrived home on time for the first time in a long time, and he was surprised to see her there, since she almost always worked until the evening.
"You're home early," he stated, giving her a peck on the cheek as she washed the dishes.
"I've been given two weeks off," she told him.
"But you were in the middle of a case," Robert reminded her, as if she'd forgotten.
"Marion gave it to Branson," Courtney said gritting her teeth, still annoyed about it. Robert groaned.
"I thought I fired that guy before I left."
"Marion hired him again. Anyway I'm going to Hawaii with Heather next week so don't stress when I'm not here when you get home from work on Sunday."
"Not to worry, I'm leaving in an hour myself," he told her. She dropped the plate she was washing in the sink.
"Excuse me?" she demanded. "Were you going to tell me or were you just going to leave me a note for when I got home?"
"I didn't find out myself until today, why do you think I'm home on time for once?" Robert replied.
"Well I guess you'd better go pack then," Courtney snapped, returning to the dishes. "I wouldn't want you to be late. How long is it for?"
"Two weeks, hopefully less. There's a conference in New York and then I'm meeting with an important client," he said. Courtney scowled.
"And is the important client some bimbo I don't know about?" she asked snarkily.
"Is that what this is about?" Robert asked. "You think I've been going behind your back and that's why you're upset every time I come home?"
"Aren't you? It's not like you have an overwhelming number of cases, you couldn't possibly need to stay late so often!" Courtney yelled.
"You have no idea the kind of responsibility I have at work," Robert argued. "You don't understand the pressure I've been under. And now I've wasted time arguing this with you when I should've been packing. I'll see you when I get back from my trip." He stormed off to pack and Courtney leaned on the sink and closed her eyes. He never answered her question, and that was answer enough. She took a deep breath, trying to fight back tears. Why did she let it get to her so much? She was better than this.
Determined not to have him leave on a bad note, Courtney waited for her husband to come downstairs and plastered on a smile.
"I'm sorry for accusing you of sleeping around," she said sweetly. "Of course you're busy at work, it can't be easy being the boss of everything."
Robert smiled at her. "Thank you Courtney, it's nice to see that you understand," he replied. He kissed her head and picked up his bags.
"Wait," Courtney stopped him. She grabbed his arm and pulled him towards her into a deep kiss. Robert dropped his bags and wrapped his arms around her. This was the most intimate moment they'd had in weeks, and while Courtney wanted it to last much longer, Robert pulled away. He brushed her cheek with his thumb and gave her a small smile.
"I have to go," he said. Courtney nodded.
"I know," she whispered. "I love you."
"I love you too." Robert picked up his bags and with one last glance at Courtney, left for the airport.
Past.
"So, how was your date?" Bridgette asked with a wink as they sat on the grass at recess.
"It wasn't a date," Courtney replied, rolling her eyes. "It was a friendly hang. And it was fine, I guess. My parents weren't pleased when I got home though. I'm grounded for the rest of the month."
"Right, because that makes such a big difference to how they usually treat you," Heather scoffed. "We haven't hung out outside of school since last year. And as much as I love Bridgette's company she just can't find it in her overly nice heart to bitch about people." Bridgette glared at Heather but she didn't respond since she knew it was true.
"I'm sorry, okay? I can't help that my parents expect me home to study all the time. I hardly even get to practise the violin anymore and I'm lucky they still let me take lessons," Courtney complained.
"Lucky it was just a friendly hang then, and not a date," Bridgette commented. "As if your parents would let you have a boyfriend, they barely let you have regular friends."
Courtney sighed. "Tell me about it." She noticed Duncan walking past and quickly jumped up. "I'll be right back," she told her friends, before hurrying over to him.
"Hey," Courtney said when she caught up to him.
"Hi," Duncan replied icily.
"I wanted to apologise for last night," she told him quickly. "I didn't mean to get upset with you, you just kind of brought up a whole lot of issues I wasn't really ready to face and I..."
"You don't need to apologise," Duncan said, walking faster.
"Well I am, and it's not something I do often so if you could just accept it so I don't feel like a complete idiot like I usually do when I talk to you..."
Duncan stopped walking and turned to face her. "Fine. Apology accepted. Will you leave me alone now?" he snapped.
"What is your problem?" Courtney wondered, getting angry. "I'm trying to be nice to you, I'm trying to be friends I thought that's what you wanted."
"That's not what I wanted. We aren't friends and we never will be. You clearly don't like me in the way that I like you and I don't see that changing anytime soon. You don't even want to be seen with me in public, how can we have any kind of relationship other than the one we already had?" Duncan demanded.
"You mean the one where you constantly tease me? Anyway who told you that? I'm being seen with you in public now aren't I? And I did last night. You don't know what I want," Courtney spat. "And I didn't think you'd be the kind of person to give up so easily before finding out."
"You don't even know what you want, how am I supposed to?" Duncan asked exasperatedly. Courtney bit her lip in thought while he waited for an answer.
"Yes I do," she told him adamantly. "I want you to take me to the dance next Friday. I want you to pick me up at six o'clock so we can get a meal at Lazy Joe's beforehand. I want you to wear a purple tie to match my dress and I want you to tell me I look beautiful, and make sure it's believable. Do you think you can manage that?"
Duncan smirked. "Whatever you say, princess," he said, his mood obviously having lifted. Courtney nodded at him in approval and walked back to her friends.
"What was that all about?" Bridgette asked when Courtney returned.
"We're going to the dance together," she said with a smile. Her friend's mouths dropped.
"But you hate him!" Heather protested, clearly not happy with the match. "What about your crush on Justin? Duncan is SO beneath you!"
"Hey!" Bridgette interrupted. "Duncan is a good guy, he's one of Geoff's best friends. He can't help the fact that his family isn't well-off like Justin's."
"Look, yes Justin is attractive but that's about as far as it goes," Courtney told Heather. "He's so self-centred and I don't know why I ever liked him. At least Duncan has a personality. And maybe you and my parents don't approve but why should that matter to me? We had a fun time last night and I want to see where it goes. I'm intrigued to say the least."
"Well this is just great," Heather huffed, folding her arms. "Who am I supposed to go to the dance with? I can't go alone!"
"What about Trent?" Bridgette suggested. "He's pretty cool and attractive."
"Yeah plus he's way too nice to say no if you asked him," Courtney laughed, causing Bridgette to glare at her. "What? Everyone knows that Trent is a loser. By choice."
"You see? This is what I need from you, Bridgette," Heather said.
"Fine, I won't try and help you," Bridgette fumed. "Have fun at the dance alone. Or worse, don't go at all. See if I care."
"Okay Courtney, you're up. Help me find a boy toy for this one night of total lameness that I have to endure or I'll seem like a gigantic loser for not showing up at all," Heather ordered. Bridgette stood up and put her hands on her hips.
"Okay I was lying, I'll still help you," Bridgette said. "But if we can't find someone by the end of the day promise you'll ask Trent."
Courtney and Heather both rolled their eyes. "Fine," Heather agreed.
"Great! Let's go find you a date!"
Hey everyone, thanks for reading the story so far! If you like it, please follow and favourite, and leave me a review so I know what you think. I'm really enjoying writing this story and I'd love to know if y'all are enjoying reading it. Sometimes it's hard to find motivation to write but a little encouragement goes a long way, even if it's as simple as "This is good", or whatever. Thanks again for reading xx