Free Some Came Desperate: A Love Saga by Katherine Cachitorie

had to anyone before in her life, and it disturbed her.  Who was this man, she wondered, that could just look at her and throw her so off guard?  Yet when that same man got to the double doors of the exit and turned and looked back at her, looking weary and impatient as if he was giving her this one last chance to make her case, take it or leave it, she took it.  This wasn’t about her.  But Shay.  And with Shay in mind she girted up her backpack, waved goodbye to Anna in case something did happen to her, and ran to follow him.
     
     

 
    SIX
     
    The Trailwinds restaurant was loud and ruckus inside, with a sports bar kind of festive atmosphere, and the line of patrons waiting to be seated was a long one.  But as soon as Nick Perry entered, with Mark and Simone behind him, the maitre d, despite the line, despite the fact that Nick had admitted to him that he had forgotten to make a reservation, couldn’t seat him fast enough.  Simone felt odd, jumping in front of all of those people who’d been apparently waiting patiently for quite some time, but it didn’t seem to faze Nick at all.  He was accustomed to special treatment.  He was accustomed to disregarding the rightful order and bullying his way ahead.  Since Simone was usually among the ones being bullied, she wasn’t pleased about it one bit.
           But she didn’t exactly complain about it, either.  She was no fool - what was her complaining going to change?  Nick Perry would suddenly give up his privileged life and join the ranks of the average Joes - even though the average Joes didn’t want to be average either?  Besides, she wasn’t there to point out the mammoth unfairness of social injustice, but for one reason and one reason only: to see if this supposedly great attorney could live up to his reputation and win a case even his associate said was unwinnable.  And that was why, as soon as they were seated and had ordered drinks, she wasted no time in making her pitch.
           To her dismay, however, Nick didn’t say a word, but allowed Mark Grier to handle all of the questioning.  Nick, instead, lit a cigarette, leaned back, and kept his eyes on Simone.  A few times she tried to look at him while responding to Mark, hoping to engage him, too, but his stare was so intense, so compatible with making hasty judgments about her rather than attempting to understand her plight, that she quickly looked away.  He didn’t understand, she concluded.
           She didn’t understand, Nick concluded, as he watched her, as he saw an anxiousness in her that made her appear too desperate for any good lawyer to touch with a ten-foot pole.  And she was a big talker, too, one who didn’t seem to know any speed but fast.  He looked at that fast-moving mouth of hers, a small, cute mouth with thin lips that upturned at the tips, but her voice was just too loud and forceful.  She was a fighter, a woman who wanted her baby sister back bad, and Nick wondered why.  What was the story behind that story?  Guilt?  Shame?  She’d never tell.  He’d already figured that out.  She was too proud, too hot-headed to ever reveal any vulnerability.  Yet that was all Nick saw when he looked at her.  Vulnerability.  A feisty, determined young lady in so much pain that he almost could feel it himself. 
           He could also tell, by the way she kept shifting her little body around on her seat, that she viewed Mark’s reasonableness as nothing more than unnecessary verbiage in the way of what she just knew was a doable plan.  He stared at her beautiful green eyes, eyes that were so intense, eyes that seemed so uncompromisingly determined that he began to wonder if she was going to be all right.  She had no balance, it seemed to him, one of those do or die females who often ended up bitter with life itself because they couldn’t get it done.  With every response Mark had, responses that totally shot down all of her weak-at-best