CHAPTER 5
The next day was the exam. The night before we had ordered pizza and quizzed Phoenix until he started flubbing up so much I suggested we just stop the cramming and let him relax. He had mouthed the words "thank you" to me as he munched on pizza and leaned back on the couch to mindlessly watch TV with the rest of us, but he seemed tenser than I would have liked him to be.
He doesn't honestly think with all his experience and his crazy-ass luck he's not going to pass does he?
He kept looking over at me like maybe he wanted to talk but he never said anything and I got so absorbed in the disaster movie we were watching that I entirely forgot to ask him what was on his mind.
~xxxx~
The next morning, I didn't bother to get dressed but just stumbled down the stairs in my early morning haze still wearing my pajamas. There had been a time when being around everybody in my pjs would have made me feel awkward, but that seemed like a very long time ago. We'd all been through so much together that even though it had really only been about a year since my life collided with the Wrights' world I found myself in a completely different mindset than I had been before the faithful day I met Trucy.
She and Phoenix had changed my world both personally and professionally in ways I had never anticipated. Yet somehow I felt like I'd always known Trucy, like somehow she'd always been a part of my life. The same goes for Phoenix, too, in an odd sort of a way. They were my adopted family even though I had no legal documentation to prove it and though I complain about Trucy's bossiness and nagging and Maya's messiness and Phoenix's inability to communicate I love them all.
And so I sacrificed precious extra hours of sleep dragging myself out from under Vera's super comfy comforter to drag myself to the office to see Phoenix off on the big day. See, the bar exam doesn't start till nine am, but the Bar Association feels the need to have everyone show up at least an hour early to get checked in. As though it takes that long to look at photo ids. Honestly, I'm convinced the entire process is a form of psychological torture that the Bar Association members find amusing. I mean why else would they seat you and make you stare at the backside of the exam booklet for almost an hour prior to letting you turn the damned thing over and start?
I remember when I took the test I just wanted to start, get done, and then go get drunk and that seems to be pretty much the universal plan of all those taking the exam, as when I was done I found a lot of other wanna-be attorneys all chugging down pints at the same bar I was at. Somehow after you get some booze in your system you aren't quite as obsessed over those questions you feel you should have been smart enough to know the answer to.
I remember one question about paternity law that I agonized over for way too long convinced that none of the answers provided were the correct one.
Poor Phoenix. I think I'd rather gouge out my eyeballs than have to take that test again. Not that I'll admit that to Vera. She's so upset.
Downstairs, it only seemed to be Trucy and Maya up. They were making coffee and tea and munching on donuts.
"The man of the hour still in bed?" I glanced at my watch. If he was he would need to hustle to get showered, dressed, and to the bus in time.
"No, he's on the phone in his room."
"Oh." I said. I was rather sure Phoenix wasn't in the habit of taking phone calls this early in the morning and I knew Vera had called and talked to him the previous night, no doubt apologizing for the millionth time about his loss of badge and having to retake the exam.
"Vera again?" I sighed. Phoenix had told her he refused to listen to another apology from her and he and I kept lying to her telling her that the exam wasn't that bad, that we were just whiners and that it was no big deal to retake the exam.
Maya smiled at me and shook her head. "No, thank goodness. No, it's Edgeworth. They've been talking for almost an hour." My mind boggled. I don't think I've ever talked to another man for an hour, definitely not on the phone.
"Doesn't that bother you?" I asked.
Maya shook her head and glanced toward the closed bedroom door. "Not at all. I think it's sweet how much they care about each other. Phoenix is so excited Edgey is moving back here."
I shrugged.
I just don't get those two. Phoenix and I are really close, but we're not like that.
"Polly, it's kind of like you and Klavier." Trucy butted in to the conversation in that authoritative way of hers. "You guys are rivals and fight like crazy, but I think if push came to shove you'd do anything for one another."
"No, I wouldn't!" I grimaced. "And he needs to quit flirting with me." I said angrily stuffing too much donut in my mouth. "It's pissing me off."
Maya and Trucy started cracking up. I wasn't sure if they were laughing because they knew he did flirt with me or if they thought I was crazy, but the man does it. He always has and he probably always will. I swear. And I'm not even convinced he's gay. He's just…I don't know…Klavier. The man has a gift for flirting. He can somehow hit on both me and Ema in the same sentence.And I believe it pisses both of us off almost equally…
Though I fear Ema gets turned on by it. She's a weird chick.
Phoenix emerged from his hovel of a bedroom smiling. Obviously, Edgeworth knew what to say.
"Feeling confident?" I asked him.
"Not at all, but Edgeworth told me if I don't pass it's your fault and he'll sic Franny and her whip on you."
"I think Polly might like that a bit too much." Trucy teased between bites of her jelly donut.
"Guys, I'm not into Franziska. Honestly, the woman kind of scares me."
Phoenix leaned toward my ear and in a low voice said, "Franny scares all men. That's what makes her so hot. You don't need to be embarrassed."
I must have blushed scarlet. There is no denying Franziska is hot, but I was serious when I said she frightened me. I'm man enough to admit it. So, don't go starting any rumors about me and Franziska. I don't need Edgeworth freaking out on me. Ace attorneys seem to be universally overprotective of their significant others to the point of caveman territorialism, myself included.
~xxxx~
The day was almost unbearably tense at the office. It was probably as bad as at the testing facility. By afternoon we were all loosing it. Trucy paced around and kept popping The Amazing Mr. Hat out, Maya sat eating a bag of chips with her leg involuntarily jiggling as she tried to pretend to watch TV and I resisted the urge to call Vera for the fourth time that day.
But finally I just did it.
"Hey!"
"Polly, now's not really a good time." Vera said kindly but hurriedly. Obviously, I was interrupting something.
"I know, but he's still not back yet."
"Well, how long has it been? I mean I don't even know what time it is there…"
"I'm sorry. I just don't know what we'll do if he doesn't pass."
"Polly, Mr. Phoenix is going to pass and Maya will tell him tonight about the baby and everything will be great. You'll see. Now try to relax. I gotta go. Olivier needs me to look at something."
"Yeah, Ok."
"I'll call you tonight. I promise. I love you."
"Love you, too."
I was so focused on Phoenix and Maya's predicament that I didn't even consciously realize until after I'd hung up what Vera and I had said to one another. I found myself glancing back at my phone wishing it had a transcriptionist built in because I really wanted to make sure I hadn't imagined her choice of words. Had Vera just said she loved me, all natural and calm like before we broke up? I wanted to dance, but I had to remind myself that Trucy tells me she loves me like twelve times a day and that doesn't mean she's in love with me.
Thank God. That's all I need right now my underage best friend crushing on me.
But still her choice of words gave me hope, because Vera was not a chatterbox like Maya. Vera was always precise with her words choosing them like she would the proper brush or pencil to create a work of art.
I drummed my fingers on my desk picturing Vera's lips mouthing the words "I love you" and a plan began to formulate in my head. If Phoenix became a practicing attorney again maybe it'd be ok for me to take a few days off to go visit Vera. I could surprise her, tell her how sorry I was for being a big ole jerk, and we could get back together and I would no longer be haunted by images of her in the arms of some burly rugby playing Interpol agent who knows all about art and cuisine and chooses his words carefully enough to not say dumb things like "if you do this I'm not your boyfriend anymore."
Ah, yes, Apollo. You could learn a thing or two from Vera, such as sometimes you should think before you speak, you damn hothead.
I closed my eyes and imagined me and Vera in Generic European Oasis walking down quaint cobblestone streets hand in hand, riding gondolas, touring gardens and ruins of ancient cities before returning to my room to enjoy room service and a romantic evening just the two of us.
Phoenix, you better pass. Maya and the baby need you to and now I do, too. Cause I'm going to Europe! Hot diggity!
So moved was I by my ridiculous vision of my own personal Roman Holiday that I leapt from my office chair resulting in Maya almost choking on one of her potato chips.
"Polly, what's wrong with you?" Trucy said eyeing me suspiciously.
"Nothin'…I just felt the need to get up and do something."
"Unhuh." She said knowing I was lying. "Well then you can help me get your apartment decorated for the party."
