Free Illusion of Luck by Robert Burton Robinson Page B

planned to. But he would attend the honeymoon .

    Chapter 13

    Sandy jumped into fourth position of the
reception line. And when it came his turn, he took Cynthia in his
arms and kissed her on the lips for a long second. Then he gave
Greg a huge bear hug. Leave it to Sandy to act inappropriately,
thought Greg. But they wouldn’t hold it against him. It was just
Sandy being Sandy. Besides, nothing was going to spoil Greg and
Cynthia’s perfect day.
    Sandy made a quick pass through the food
line and then joined Rebecca at her table with a full plate of
sandwiches.
    “ You’ve got some red
lipstick on your face,” said Rebecca.
    “ Where?”
    Rebecca picked up a napkin and wiped it off.
She was surprised when she noticed Sandy blushing. He likes me,
she thought.
    He wasn’t really embarrassed
by the lipstick was on his face. But when Rebecca touched him—it was
like turning on a red light bulb. Sandy hated it when he
spontaneously broadcasted his feelings. He wasn’t ready for her to
know he was attracted to her. But it was too late now. He could see
it in her eyes—she knew. He wanted to grab her. But then he
remembered what she had said earlier and held back. He wasn’t quite
ready to take a chance on losing appendages. “So, what do you do
for living?”
    “ I’m a lawyer.”
    “ That’s interesting. Most
lawyers refer to themselves as attorneys .”
    “ Same thing.”
    “ But don’t attorneys think
of themselves more highly than lawyers do?”
    “ Probably. But, to me, it’s
like ‘the lady’s room.’ I’d just as soon call it ‘the bathroom’ or
‘the can.’”
    “ So, instead of regurgitate,
for example, you’d say vomit.”
    “ Or hurl…or
barf.”
    “ What kind of law do you
practice?”
    “ Divorce.”
    “ Hope you’re not like my
ex-wife’s lawyer. She’ll drag a poor guy into court, strip him
naked, cut off his balls and hand them to the wife.”
    “ Yeah, well, sometimes
the poor guy has it coming.”
    “ Really? What kind of man
deserves that ?”
    “ The kind who’s drilling his
hot young secretary until he gets caught. And when the wife files
for divorce, he tries to leave her penniless.”
    “ And that’s where you step
in and save the day?”
    “ I do my best.”
    “ How do you prove the
husband cheated?”
    “ You do a little private eye
work.”
    “ You do it yourself or you
hire somebody?”
    “ I don’t trust anybody else
to do it. Besides, most of the women I represent can’t pay much, so
I really can’t afford any extra expenses.”
    “ Wow. A real-life private
eye— and a
divorce lawyer. So, you live here in Coreyville?”
    “ Oh, no. I live in
Sherman.”
    “ Hey, that’s just up the
road from where I live—in Dallas. And just for the record: I never
cheated on my wife. I was just a big pain in the butt, according to her and
her lawyer. But she knew that when she married me.
Actually, I think she might have been cheating.
But none of that matters now. It’s history.”
    “ What kind of work do you do?”
    “ I’m a music professor at a
junior college in Dallas—technically, an associate music
professor.”
    “ Your students must love
you.”
    “ Yeah, they do. But what
made you say that?”
    “ You’re sort of outrageous,
bigger than life—a little crazy. I would think college students
like that.”
    “ But that’s just who I am.
I’m not gonna try to be what anybody think a college
professor should be.”
    “ Good for you.”
    “ On the other hand, I’ve
nearly been fired a few times.”
    “ For what?”
    “ Well, for example, one time
I was talking to my class about various musical instruments, and I
said that almost anything could be made into an instrument. When
one of my students challenged me, I decided to do a little
experiment. I told the class to go out to any room in the building,
and for each one of them to bring back an item. Then I would prove
it could be used as a musical instrument. So, they did.”
    “ Doesn’t