Cupid's Test (5 page)

“Are you sure that I can’t drive in to see you?” He asked as he did every night. “You know Monday I have to be in the city for work anyway. We could meet up for dinner. I’ll need to see your beautiful face. I am not looking forward to Monday.”

“Still having trouble?” She asked worried about him and his investment.

“Yeah, I thought I had a solution but it was declined so I’m back to the drawing board on it. I just don’t know what they want. I’m trying my hardest but I can’t do everything they say it is just too darn expensive!” He ran a hand through his hair trying to calm down. “I’m sorry, I didn’t call to complain.”

“Hey if you can’t complain to me who can you complain to?” She asked trying to make him smile. She wished she could see if it worked. “I guess we can meet up on Monday. I’d love to see you. I think I’ll need it too. This case is getting under my skin.” She s
ighed. “What time?”

“I don’t know what time I’ll be done, it’s late but maybe seven? What is your favorite restaurant?”

“I don’t have one I never go out. Just pick one I’m sure it will be great. Why don’t we meet there since we both will be busy? I might still be in my business suit.”

“I don’t mind. You have no idea how much I’m looking forward to Monday now.” He laughed. “I guess I’m just easy to please. I’ve got to go…”

“Haha, you have to fill up on gas again don’t you.” She laughed as she always did.

“Shut up, maybe your right maybe I should trade in the SUV but I am not getting something like your little car. It’s made of tinfoil. You’d never make it in a crash.” He shuddered at that thought.
“Could I talk you into a getting a different car?”

“I’m fine in my car, don’t you worry about me
. Go fill up your gas tank, go home and find a good car to trade it in for.”

“Good night beautiful, see you Monday.”

“Night Jay.” She answered smiling.

Monday came quickly for Jay. He was excited and dreading it.  “Carl, do we have everything we need?”
Jay asked as he walked out of his office. “I don’t want to forget anything and make it look like we are trying to get out of this. I want it done as quickly and easily as possible.”

“I
t’s all right here. Do you really think this is the best way to go? They already turned down your first proposal. Stupid woman won’t take any deal. It’s her way or no way.” Carl followed him down the hall. Jay shrugged, he felt bad that Carl had to deal with the other lawyer all the time but his lawyer told him not to talk to her. He didn’t even know what her name was or what she looked like.

“
What do they expect? This company was failing before I bought it and I spent most of my money on buying it. They can’t keep it closed and expect me to have the funds to fix it. This is pretty much the last thing I can offer before I’ll have to sell it and who is going to buy it after all this? No one is going to want this mess.”

“If they’d just meet us halfway…” Carl sighed. “I hope for you
r sake that they accept this one. Even this is stretching it for you I know.” They got to the parking lot and Carl stopped. “What is this?”

“I got a
new car. I had to fill up on gas in that SUV like three times a day. I decided that this would be better for me.” He climbed into the smaller SUV.

“It’s a hybrid. Who ever heard of a guy that owns an oil rig owing a hybrid? It’s that girl you met isn’t it? Are you going to see her today or something? You said she was a bit of a green freak.”

“Wanting to take care of your environment doesn’t make you a freak. Some of the people are extreme and take it way too far but Lilly’s not one of them.” Jamison said backing out of his spot.

“Sorry didn’t mean to insult her. You’ve been different ever since you’ve come back. You were all for fighting this thing till
the very end. Now that you’ve come back you’ve been working overtime to figure out how to make this work, now this car? She really did a number on you didn’t she?” Carl was grinning at him. He had noticed how often his friend was on the phone talking to the woman. “I thought you were a little too excited to get into town today.” He joked watching Jay’s face.

“If you must know yes, I’m going to see her tonight and yes she did make an impact on me. It’s not a bad thing to care about the environment. I just am not going to go overboard about it. Small changes can help too.” He responded feeling like he was explaining himself. He hated doing that, he was a grown man if
he wanted to change he could. It wasn’t anyone else’s concern. “Ok let’s go over all the stuff that they turned down and their reasons for it so we can be prepared to counter it to the judge.”

After going to the
ir lawyer’s office in the city and going over everything again Jay and Carl were finally ready to head to the court house. Jay never had reason to be in the place before and was surprised by how many people were there. “They have more than one courtroom in here you know.” Carl laughed walking off to find which courtroom they were in.

“Jay?”

He knew that voice right away. Turning around he was already grinning by the time he spotted Lilly. She looked great in the knee length gray skirt with a white blouse and gray jacket over it. Her legs looked great in her modest high heels. “Hey Lilly, what are you doing here?” He hugged her and gave her a quick kiss which he wished could have lasted longer.

“I’m a lawyer I’m always here, what are you doing here? I thought yo
u were going to try to fix your company today.” She was more than excited to see him. She hadn’t realized how much she had missed him. She hoped she didn’t seem desperate.

“I am
, we have this court thing.” He looked past Lilly to find Carl walking back toward him. “Hey Carl, you get to meet her. Carl this is Lilly.”

Lilly turned around and stopped short.

“Jamison what are you doing with her?” Jay was surprised Carl never spoke to him like that. He hardly ever spoke to anyone like that. “That’s her, the lawyer that wouldn’t take your proposal.”

“Your name is Jamison?” She asked turning to look at him. Her mouth was still open in shock.

“Oh don’t act like you didn’t know. What did you do, find out he was on vacation and ‘happen’ to go on vacation in same place? You were up there just to change his mind to make him more like you weren’t you? No wonder he came back changed and wanting to work this thing out. You didn’t even tell him who you were? You are one sneaky-“

“What the hell is going on?” Jay finally cut in stopping his friend come calling Lilly something that he didn’t want to hear.

“Let’s get in there Jay, don’t even talk to her all she’s going to say is lies.” Carl grabbed his arm and started to pull him away.

Jay let him looking back at Lilly. She looked really upset like she hadn’t planned this.
Even if she did follow him up there how could she have known that a storm would come through on their vacation? She couldn’t have planned that he would go to her cabin for shelter that had been his choice. Then again it was too weird that they would both be in the same place at the same time. She never wanted to tell him what she did for a job, but he never told her what his business was either. He sat in his chair behind the desk with Carl on his right and his lawyer on his left fighting with himself. He only snapped out of it when Carl elbowed him so he could rise for the judge entering.

The rest of the day was kind of a blur for him. After all the preparing he did he couldn’t pull his mind away from Lilly and whether or not she deceived him. How could he trust her? Would he ever learn the truth
? If the truth was she didn’t know was he going to believe that? She did change him but she never seemed like she was trying too. She was surprised every time he said he had changed something new in his life the last week to try to be more environmentally friendly. Finally when lunch came around he wanted to say something to her but she was gone before he could talk to her.

“That seems a little fishy if she really cared for you wouldn’t she want to talk to you?”

“What are you two talking about?” Rex their lawyer asked as they walked out of the court room.

“Oh we need to tell you about this.”
Carl said as they walked out of the court house. He directed them down the street to a small dinner. Jay let Carl do the talking, the man knew all about the week. Jay couldn’t add anything except personal things and he wasn’t going to tell either man about that.

“We might be able to get the judge to call this off then and force them to get a new lawyer. It woul
d buy you some time.” The Rex suggested. “I don’t know if she actually knew it was you or not but she could get in big trouble if you were able to prove that she did know you.”

“I don’t want to do that, I never said my full name, she probably thought Jay was it. It’s my own fault I didn’
t push her on what she did. She’s such a green person I didn’t want to tell her I owned an oil rig I figured she wouldn’t be able to get past it. I don’t want a new lawyer over there either I want this done and over with we need to get my rig up and running, I don’t have the funds to keep putting this off. This is the last thing I can do before I’ll have to try to sell it.”

“Why don’t I go talk to her see if I
can use this to our advantage? You know, give us a good deal or we are going to let the cat out of the bag about you two?” Rex started to stand.

“No I don’t want you to do that either. I want it settled in court like it would have been i
f this never happened. If it ever got out that we had been together before the deal people would be able to talk about it. I want it done the right way.” Jay put his head in his hands.

“You don’t
think you’ll be able to still be with her after this do you? She played you I know it. I’m able to think with my brain not the part of the anatomy your thinking with.” Carl said annoyed.

“I am not thinking with that, I’m thinking with my head. I want this to be done correctly I don’t want any green freaks to be able to protest my rig and stop work again. I’m tired of this crap and I want it fixed if that means working with her that’s fine I’ll just have to work through it.” He
stood and walked out of the diner before anyone could say anything else. He was almost back to the court house before he saw her in front of him. Right away he turned and started back the way he had come.

“Jay, wait!” She called running to catch up with him. He paused but kept walk
ing though at a slower pace than before. “I really didn’t know it was you, I’ve only worked with that little brat that’s your second in charge.” Lilly said after catching up with him.

Despite himself he chuckled at that. He had never heard Carl called a ‘little brat’ and they had known each other a long time. “I don’t know if we should be talking, I don’t want this to drag on anymore than it has to. Believe it or not I do need that rig going again.”

“I don’t know how to fix this.” She said. She sounded so sad Jay stopped and looked down at her.

“Maybe you should have just told me what you did for a living the 8 times I asked you, why did you keep avoiding the question? It’s almost like you did know who I was and didn’t want me to know who you were.”
He was so upset. It felt like he had been played he just wished that it wasn’t true.

“I didn’t want you to think I was the green freak you always talk
ed about. I thought you would think I was one if you knew what I did. Why didn’t you tell me that the company you had was an oil rig?”

“I didn’t think you would give me a chance if I told you that.” He an
swered shrugging. It makes sense that she would be wary of telling him about her job. Still how did she not know what he looked like? They didn’t get pictures of the CEO of the company they were suing? “We shouldn’t be talking.” He said turning around again and heading back to the court house.

“Are we having dinner tonight?” She called after him knowing that she really shouldn’t because she was against him in the case but she couldn’t help it. She still cared for him and she knew that she could move past this, she just hoped that he could.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He answered not looking back.

By the end of the day Jay had a massive headache and no decision on if they could start up the rig or not. The judge had heard both sides and took all the information and was going to give them an answer in a few days.
He went out to the parking lot to find the new SUV he had gotten and wanted to punch something. How could he have been so stupid as to change his life because of one stupid woman? She hadn’t tried to talk to him as he left and he was glad that she didn’t. Carl walked up and quietly got into the vehicle. Sighing Jay did as well and headed home to wait on the results.

It was a long two days. Lilly tried to call him twice once that night and once the next day. They got the results the following day.
The judge mostly sided with Lilly, though they could start production again he had to start making changes on the rig right away. Every month they had to update Lilly’s office with the changes and have inspections every three months until everything was changed over to the new regulations.

It was going to be hard but he and Carl worked for the next week going over finances until t
hey thought they could do what was asked of them. The first changes were going to be the smallest and cheapest changes, and as production brought in money they could move up to the bigger more expensive stuff. Only time would tell if they would be able to stick to the tight schedule that the judge had put on them.