Justice in Love

Ch. 4 Dating

When I went home, I downed a couple glasses of wine. I needed to get some sort of buzz, so I moved on to vodka.

Jen came in. "Hey. How was court?"

"You wouldn't believe it if I told you," I spoke, making a plate of pasta and taking it to the table.

Jen always made dinner. She got off work at 2 and came home. She'd clean the house and make dinner, which I was grateful for. I didn't know what I'd do without her.

"Try me," she smiled.

I told her about Reed and the trial and how everything was such a damn mess. I told her about the time in my office, then the resuming court. I told her about the end of the day in my office and how bittersweet it was.

Reed and I didn't know our future. We didn't know if we'd be apart or together. We just knew that we had those few moments of intimacy. If he went to jail, we'd have those moments. We didn't kiss. We didn't do anything, but sit there. That's all we did. There was something so novel about it. It just-It felt right.

When I finished, she spoke, "Oh, girl, you got it bad."

I nodded. "I know."

"This sucks. The first guy you actually like ends up getting arrested and going to trial because he was protecting you. Wow. This court system is really jacked up."

"Tell me about it," I sighed, taking a bite of my pasta.

She ate quietly.

My mind drifted to Reed. I wondered what he was doing, what he was thinking. Was he back at the prison? Was he in the courthouse jail? Would he be okay during the night? It was stupid he couldn't go home. He wasn't a damn flight risk. Whoever did his hearing must've had it out for him.

After dinner, I just went to bed. My day had been so emotionally exhausting, I needed some rest.

***

The next morning, I woke early and showered. I dressed in a white button down and black pencil skirt. But I felt suffocated. I changed my top, putting on a lower cut black tank top blouse instead. I put on a my makeup and curled my hair. Then, I slipped my blazer and heels on and went to the kitchen.

Jen handed me my coffee. "Think there'll be a verdict this morning?"

I shrugged.

"Well, good luck."

"Thanks. Have a nice day."

"You, too."

I sighed and left.

My walk to work seemed longer than usual. I didn't know why. Maybe because my feet felt like cinder blocks. Maybe because I had a bad feeling in my gut. Maybe because I'd never hated the courthouse until that day. I had no idea how the verdict was going to go and that terrified me.

When I got to work, I went to my chambers and removed my blazer. I slipped my robe on and sat down. I looked at some papers. I had a bunch of petty theft cases for the day. I didn't want to do them, but I did them.

I sat through all of those stupid cases. Only a couple of them actually had some sort of merit. The rest dragged, as did my day.