INNOCENT (Gabe's Trials)

Know your enemy

I hated fridays. Fridays meant early mornings, long trials, late nights in the office, chinese food on the run and watching reruns of Friends when I got home. This friday was going to be worse, judging by my friend's smile. She was going to make me recall the nightmare I'd been through, I just knew it.

"Would you just stop trying to put that thing on and look at me for a moment?" She asked, that cocky smile of hers never leaving her face. Finally deciding to put my robe aside for the moment I went to sit next to her on the couch.

"I'm looking at you. What do you want?" Lila took a hand to her heart in a wounded manner.

"I'm your best friend. I want to know how your date went!" Well, telling her about my date was going to be a little hard since I didn't want to remember about it myself. When I didn't answer, her eyes narrowed on me. "Well? Was it heavenly?" I knew this was her nice way of asking me if Phil really was a God in bed and that was as far from the truth as possible.

"I'm not talking to you about this." I said, standing up and grabbing my robe again. I couldn't tell her that her man's best friend was a disaster in the sack and that I wasn't going to see him again -ever.

"Why not?" She whined.

"Because that's personal. I don't hear you talking about your sex life with Kevin." And I didn't want to hear about it, truth to be told.

"That's because we don't have a sex life yet. Don't worry, though! You'll be the first to know. Now, spill the beans! How was he?" Hm, that was odd. My friend, like any normal woman, liked sex and her not having a sex life with the man she really liked was as wierd as me having one with a man I really didn't like.

"Let's just say that I'm gonna have lots of nightmares starring this man." I mumbled and pulled the robe over my head. A laugh went past my friend's lips a moment later, making me cringe.

"He was that bad?" I nodded and dropped my eyes to the floor. I felt ashamed of sleeping with such a poor excuse of a man. "What did he do to make it so bad? I mean, I don't understand how a man can ruin sex." Yeah, neither did I, until Phil made me understand.

"I have bruises, Lila, and not the good type. He was an animal, but not as in a tiger or a lion. No, he was more of a... chimp, maybe." Lila was laughing out loud by now and honestly, I didn't know if I could refrain from doing the same for much longer either.

"Oh my God, Jules! I'm sorry, I really thought that he would be good. I mean, you've seen him." Oh, I had seen him all right. "Didn't he at least try to... you know? Make it up to you?" Oh, dear God!

"Please, don't remind me of that too!" Lila was shaking with laughter and soon so was I.

"How were things between the two of you in the morning?" She asked, whiping a tear from her cheek.

"I had to ask him to leave." I moaned and covered my face with my hands.

"Ok, I'm officially not trying to hook you up anymore." Thank God!

My cell started ringing and I picked it up to check the caller's ID. Great! I was never going to get rid of him now.

"Who is it?" Lila asked when I didn't make a move to answer. I just shook my head at her. "It's him?" Another wave of laughter washed over her.

"Don't you have somewhere to be, anyway?" I asked when it became obvious that she wasn't planning to stop any time soon.

"Nope. I have no appointements today."

"Well that's too bad, because I need to be in the courtroom in ten." I had started out of the room when Lila stopped me.

"Jules!" I turned to look at her. "I'm really sorry about this! I didn't know he was such a disaster, I swear!" I noded at her and smiled. She couldn't have known and I wasn't blaming her.