Not What I Expected

Part 12

It was Tuesday morning, three days since he had seen Nicole and Ryan was conflicted. He felt awful for making things much more difficult for Nicole, but on the other hand he had loved every moment of having her in his arms again. The feel of her arms wrapped around his neck, her body pressed up against his, her soft lips warm against his, he loved every feeling that she instilled in him. No matter what he did, he couldn't get what happened on Friday night out of his mind.

Now here he stood on the steps of the Vancouver courthouse ready to begin day two of the Jansen trial and he couldn't get his mind in the game. Every time he saw Chad he began to seethe with anger and every time Chad got up to speak during the first day of trial he wanted to get up and knock him around. Today Ryan's judgment was clouded and he was distracted by Nicole.

As he stood there looking up at the sky, something caught his eye. A red car pulled up to the side of the road and a beautiful, blond haired girl got out of the passenger's side and leaned against the car. Ryan's eyes narrowed when none other than Mr. Sanders himself got out of the driver's side and walked around to where the blond was standing. Ryan watched as the son of a bitch wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her passionately. Maybe a little too passionately for the public eye, Ryan had thought, but who was he to judge.

Ryan didn't know what to do or how to react, but he knew that he certainly couldn't confront Chad about it because he was pretty sure that Chad had no idea that Ryan knew he was married to Nicole. Chad probably didn't even know that Nicole and Ryan were in contact again. He also didn't know how to approach this with Nicole or even if he should approach her about it. How anyone could do that and treat their spouse so disrespectfully was beyond him.

"Good morning Mr. Wilson," Chad said in a professional tone, "I wonder what today will have in store for us?"

"Another successful day for my client, I suppose," Ryan mumbled, still reeling at the thought of seeing Chad with another woman while his wife was working to take care of their child on her own, "But I can't be sure at this point now, can I?'

"Rough night Ryan?" Chad asked him, clearly a little caught off guard by Ryan's response.

"I guess you could say that," Ryan replied, trying to regain his composure, "I'm sorry about that Chad. I guess my mind is on other things right now."

Nothing else was said as they made their way into the courthouse and Ryan turned quickly to see the blond woman getting into the driver's side and pulling back onto the road. It was clear that Chad was living with the woman. What a coward for not being to tell his wife what he is really up to.

Ryan tried to push the thoughts from his mind and get in the game. It was time to get to work and focus on winning this trial for his clients. He would worry about what he saw this morning, later.

Beth was sitting at the table in the lunch room at the office eating her left over spaghetti when her cell phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket and looked down, not recognizing the number that appeared on the screen.

"Hello?" she questioned when she finally answered.

"Hey, is this Beth?" a man said on the other end.

"Yes, may I ask who is calling?" Beth asked politely.

"Hey Beth, its Ryan," Ryan replied, "I'm sorry if I caught you at a bad time."

Beth's eyes got wide. She wasn't expecting to hear from Ryan. Although she knew that Nicole had been spending time with Ryan and Nicole had told her all about what happened Friday night, she wasn't expecting to hear from him directly.

"Ryan...hi," Beth replied, "To what do I owe the pleasure of your call?"

"Well, I have something I have to talk to you about," Ryan stated, sounding a little flustered and confused, "I'm assuming you have patients all afternoon?"