Sugar. Why not?

What's The Verdict?

Patrick's PoV

Well...that wasn't how I'd planned to confess my love. I wanted it to be better than that. More special. Preferably in a situation in which I could actually talk to her. Fuck! I guess I just couldn't stop myself.

Sofia seems as shocked as I am. Is that good shocked? Bad shocked? Hopefully the former one. I don't think I'm going to get to find out right now.

All I want to do is focus on her. To explain myself further. To apologise. Yet I can't do any of that right now when I'm supposed to be answering questions. I don't think I'm doing a very good job of keeping my emotions together...evidently.

"Mr Stump?" The defending attorney says as if I've completely ignored one of her questions. When I tear my eyes away from Sofia's lovely flushed face, it becomes clear that I have in fact missed something.

"Sorry, what did you say?"

"I said, was there any sign of Miss Zoya when you found Miss Westwood in the warehouse?"

"No, there was no sign of anyone apart from Miss Westwood" I state, so ready for this to be done. With the way the attorney is questioning us, it doesn't make Nadia look very guilty and I fucking hate it.

"So there was no sign of her at the scene and no CCTV of her at your building. Mr Stump are you sure you don't want to change your story?" She asks, once again trying to mess with me. Not gonna happen.

"I'm sure"

"Very well. I don't think I need to ask many more questions now. Maybe just one..." she muses, pacing back and forth in front of the stand. I know whatever she says it's going to piss me off. "You were previously accused of murder and more recently you were accused of assault by Miss Zoya herself. Both acts against women. Is that correct?"

It's hilarious to me that Nadia accused me of assault for removing her from my office. It's even more hilarious because she just about sexually assaulted me by propositioning me.

"It's correct that I was accused of murder. Those accusations were dropping. The woman in question overdosed. As for Miss Zoya...her accusations are false. I did not assault her. I escorted her from my office after she offered me sex" 

The attorney raises her eyebrows as if she didn't expect me to say most of that. I wonder which part shocked her.

"I thought there was no sexual encounters between the two of you? Are you taking that back?"

For fuck sake!

"There wasn't. Like I said, I removed her from my office after she offered me sex. I declined her offer. Therefore there were no sexual encounters"

To my joy, she looks exasperated and shakes her head.

"Very well Mr Stump, you make take your seat"

I'm relieved but I also feel like I should have said more. I feel like between Sofia and I, the attorney didn't really let us give our sides fully. Which makes sense I guess. She's trying to defend Nadia. What a shitty job to have.

Walking back to my seat in disappointment, I give Sofia another glance. Or a stare rather. In fact I almost trip up on someone's foot as I shuffle through the row.

I have no idea what's going to happen when we get out of here. Will she talk to me? Will she even acknowledge my presence? God I hope so. I can't go on like this. Without her there isn't anything that can make my life worth living. Before I met her I was lonely but I hadn't experienced anything to make me realise what I was really missing. So I was able to convince myself I was happy. Now I know what making her laugh feels like, what making her grin from ear to ear feels like. I'll never be the same again.