Love is a Trial

Chapter Five

Sliding the notes, I had spent the last four hours making into a clear file, I realised that I should probably change out of the clothing I had spent longer than I should have in. I slid into a black pencil skirt and a white blouse, rather than jeans and a t-shirt. I was a lawyer after all, and had to look as professional as possible if I didn’t want to be walked over, you never knew how these popstars behaved. I debated putting my hair up as well, but I let it fall over my shoulders, the strawberry blonde colour reflecting in the light. It wasn’t like I wanted to look like an old maiden, especially not in front of him.

Luckily I had remained calm and held out my hand to Mr Evans in the most professional manner, even though standing to his left was Brad. Of course, it was.

“Mr Evans, I appreciate you taking your time to come and speak to me about your situation.” I spoke and gestured for them both to take a seat.

“Honestly, call me Tris, they all do” He smiled lazily at me and sat slouched in his seat.
I handed him a sheet of paper, “So as we know, you were the initiator of the fight and that previously Mr Mcvey had agreed to undergo counselling as a band, but as of last week he has decided to press charges.” I lifted my chin a little and looked him in the eye, “We cannot do anything for your case other than pursue the deal we previously made. In order to do this, you will have to talk with your bandmate.” I paused waiting for him to resist, and right I was.
“Addie, surely there is something else you can do?” Brad asked leaning forward on his knees. If he was feeling angry about the treehouse at all, he wasn’t showing it, but he never was that good at lying.
“I’m afraid Mr Simpson there is nothing we can do in knowing that Mr Evans did in fact assault Mr Mcvey. Unless there was any reason for us to believe that it may have been self-defence on your part? However, this is a hard stance to take as Mr Evans was the first to initiate the fight.” I cringed at my old nickname, but remain disconnected in my tone.
“Addie?? I thought it was Adelaide?” Mr Evans marvelled.
“It is Adelaide,” I straightened my shoulders and kept my eyes on Mr Evans, without a second glance to Brad, I addressed him, “I’m afraid, as I said before, the only way I can see this working out for Mr Evans is if he can somehow work it out with his bandmate. Or he is going to have to come to terms with the fact that he is going to be charged”
Mr Evans scoffed at this but quickly returned his attention to me, “What a Lawyer you are,” he said and just as he said it Brad knocked him over the head with his hand. I want to smile to myself; for fact that he still goes to bat for me even through all the pain I’ve caused. Brad’s eyes flicked to mine and then back to the papers, as if to avoid the fact that he is still trying to protect me. And boy did I hate it, and love it at the same time.
Mr Evans raised his eyebrows, “I think I could cut the tension with a knife,” He laughed and poked Brad in the sides, “So when did you meet him? At a signing? A meet and greet? Or a concert?”
I picked up my notes and started to put them away in my bag, “As I can see we are not going to get anything more done until you, Mr Evans, have a chance at speaking to Mr Mcvey, if this is impossible we can set up another meeting and decide where to go from there.”
He chuckled and remained unfazed, whereas Brad looked as uncomfortable as I felt on the inside. “Well Addie, I’ll try to remember you the next time we have a meet and greet,” He winked at me, “Even if Brad doesn’t want you, you are pretty cute.”
As soon as the words were out of his mouth Brad punched him in the arm, “Shut up Tris!”
I stood to my feet and hauled my bag over my shoulder, “You should be thanking me Mr Evans,” I said beginning to lose my professionalism, “In fact, if it weren’t for me you wouldn’t be in this little band.” I tilted my head and gave him a condescending grin.
Mr Evans frowned and Brad got to his feet, a worried look on his face, yet he made no attempt to move.
“Oh Didn’t Brad tell you about me? His Ex of quite a few things actually,” I started to count them off on my fingers, “Ex duet partner, ex-girlfriend, actually scratch that ex-fiancé.” With that I turned to march out of the room but turned back for one final jab, “If you can no longer see yourself working with me, feel free to get yourself another bloody lawyer.”

6 years earlier

“Yessss,” I squealed, jumping up from my seat beside the piano. Brad grinned and slid out from the piano stool, he wrapped me in his arms. “We finally did it,” I said as I ran my fingers through his hair.
“I had High Hopes for it,” Brad whispered in my ear and I chuckled pulling out of his grip, which only tightened around me, to look at his face.
“Now all we’ve got is 12 other songs to go,” I laughed and spun around the music room, excitement bubbling from inside of me. We had the idea for the song for weeks, but it had taken us a few days to get the duet right. We had come back to this same music room in our church, it had just the right feel we wanted for writing our song. There was only a small couch in the corner and a piano against the back wall, it was the view that had spoken to us, the view out to the rest of the world as he had said. There was this tree only just losing its red and orange leaves, to me it was like all the times we had to let go, but with the knowledge that in spring there was promise of new things, new beautiful things.
“We’ve got our whole lives ahead of us for that,” His smile was sweet but serious, and I stopped to watch him walk closer to me.
“What are you thinking?” I asked picking up the sheet music and reading over it.
“The rest of our lives.”
I laughed as one of the pages slipped from my grip and landed on the wooden floor, “That’s a silly thing to be thinking about, isn’t it?” I didn’t look up but noticed him crouch down to pick up the sheet.
“It’s not silly,” he said gently, and passed me the lost sheet.
I didn’t understand his quietness, it was so out of character, I flicked my eyes to his and he was staring intently at me.
“Stop it,” I grimaced and held the pages up to my face, “Don’t just stare at me, it so weird.”
From behind the pages I heard a soft chuckle, “It’s not my fault you’re so beautiful.”
“Oh my!” I squirmed and ran to the other side of the room, “Stop it,” I shivered and peeked out from behind the sheets and he was still standing there watching me with a small smile on his lips. If he was out of character before, it had vanished with his goofiness. I ignored him and kept reading over our song, our hard work, our pride and joy. I got to the end of the page and I frowned, “Oh no we didn’t put this in the lyrics, did we?” He sauntered over to me, “What?”
I held the paper so that he could see and pointed to the words.
“Will you marry me?” He asked, and his gaze returned to me.
“Yeah, I didn’t see that before?” I glanced at him.
“Will you marry me?” He posed again, but this time he was grinning at me, yet I still didn’t understand not until he was reaching for his back pocket.
My eyes widened as he opened the small velvet box, “For goodness sake Addie, will you marry me already?” Brad proclaimed
My eyes travelled over the length of his body and the ring and then stopped on his brown eyes, “Of course I bloody will!” I gushed and threw my arms around him, “Only a musician would propose on freaking sheet music,” He slid the small white diamond ring on my finger and that was when our lips met; he kissed me like the first time, and for all the ones to come. For our whole lives.
*
*
*
I HOPE THAT YOU LOVED THAT CUTE FLASHBACK😉 AND IF YOU DID DON'T FORGET TO COMMENT!!