Baby Love Lite (29 page)

“
You know, Ty, Tristan is a
gorgeous man and Libby is pretty enough, I guess, but it seems to
me that he's way too good for her.”

“
I totally agree. I think
his whole blindness to her is because he really wants marriage and
a family. I’d like to think that Trey and I might have played a
part in influencing him in that direction.”

Gina gave me a sidelong glance.

“
What?”

“
Does Tristan have a clue as
to how much you two fight?”

“
We don’t fight that much,
Gina. We just disagree at times but then we work it
out.”

“
I guess you’re right. It
seems to be working, whatever it is. See you tomorrow,
girlfriend.”

She dropped me at the curb and I went through
the lobby of our apartment building. Trey was stretched out on the
couch watching football when I got in. Preston was napping. I
kicked my boots off and curled up on the couch with Trey. He pulled
me close, wrapping his arms around me. I ended up falling asleep in
his arms. He woke me when the game was over asking me if I was
hungry.

“
I am, but I don’t feel like
cooking anything,” I whined.

We ordered a pizza to be delivered. Preston
was awake so I went ahead and bathed her while we waited for the
pizza. I dressed her in pajamas and put her in her playpen with her
favorite toys.

Trey brought our pizza into the living room
so he could watch the later games. He had a bottle of beer and had
poured a glass of wine for me. I dug into the pizza. I sipped on
the wine slowly as I had a one glass limit while still nursing.

“
Trey, can I ask you
something?”

“
Sure, baby,” he replied
wiping his mouth with a napkin as he grabbed another slice of
pizza.

“
Has Libby hit on
you?”

He paused with the slice of pizza in midair.
“What did Gina tell you?”

“
Never mind what Gina told
me. I want to hear your version of it.”

“
I should've told you
sooner; I’m sorry. Gina was eyeballing us all evening so I imagine
she just couldn’t wait to tell you.”

I was starting to get a sick feeling in the
pit of my stomach, but I needed to stay calm. I needed him to tell
me what he thought I already knew. I downed the rest of my
wine.

“
I’m waiting to hear your
version of this, Trey.”

“
The other night at the
club, Tristan got up to use the restroom. Libby was telling me a
joke that she'd heard at work. Naturally, it was one of those
X-rated jokes, but it was funny and I laughed. She was laughing too
and then she sort of leaned into me and put her hand on my crotch
and started feeling around.”

“
And you did nothing,” I
hissed as if that's what I was led to believe.

“
That’s a lie!” he shouted,
startling Preston from her play. She started to fuss so I went over
to pick her up. My heart was pounding. I sat back down with her in
my lap. She put her thumb in her mouth and leaned back against me
watching Trey.

“
Let’s keep our voices down,
Trey. No need to upset the baby,” I said calmly. “Go
on.”

“
If Gina told you that I did
nothing then she's lying,” he said calmly, smiling to act as if
everything was okay for Preston’s benefit. “I promptly lifted her
hand from my crotch and asked her what the hell she thought she was
doing. Her response was that she dreamed of doing both Tristan and
I together - in bed I mean.”

“
Yes, I gathered that much,”
I replied sweetly, bestowing a smile back to him. “Why haven’t you
told Tristan?”

“
I don’t know. I’m
conflicted. What if she tells him she was just kidding? What if she
tells him I made it up? That could do irreparable damage to Tristan
and my relationship. Of course, since Gina saw the whole thing and
saw fit to tell you her version of it then I suppose she'd be no
help in validating it with Tristan.”

I needed to come clean with Trey about Gina’s
involvement or he would dislike her that much more than he did.

“
Gina didn’t say anything to
me about her fondling your junk,” I stated, picking up another
slice of pizza as I balanced Preston on my lap.

“
What?”

“
Hey, you're the one that
jumped to that conclusion. The only thing that Gina told me was
that Libby was all over you and that you didn’t reciprocate. So,
I'll thank you very much to not make a snap judgment about my
BFF.”

Trey started to say something more but his
IPhone chimed. He pulled it from his pocket to answer. I finished
my slice of pizza as Trey took his call to the study. I took
Preston into the kitchen and got her settled into her high chair
for dinner. Trey came into the kitchen just as I was helping her
use the cup to drink. He had a serious look on his face. I hoped it
wasn't bad news.

“
That was the deputy D.A.
giving us a courtesy call. Your moth---Maggie's been extradited
back to Georgia. She'll be transported to the jail here,
tomorrow.”

“
What's that mean for us?” I
asked.

“
It means she'll be
arraigned, make her pleading against the charges, have legal
representation and the criminal litigation process starts for her
here.”

“
Will she be able to get out
on bond?”

“
That’s what I was
discussing with the Deputy D.A. just now. Nothing's for certain but
she'll be considered a major flight risk, so they're going to go
very high with her bond if she's granted one at all. Please don’t
worry, baby.”

“
That’s easy to say but we
know she had assistance from at least one person in the area, maybe
more. She's always been resourceful that way. At least you'll be
here with us." I smiled at him for reinforcement.

"I have to go to Baton Rouge this week,
baby.”

“
Why and for how
long?”

“
I have to make an oral
argument and present briefs in a class action suit Harmon and I are
handling in front of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict
Litigation. We're trying to consolidate cases that are pending in
another district court and lump them together under one federal
jurisdiction. It may be a couple of days.”

Then I recalled what this was about. This was
the case that had to go in front of the panel of seven federal
judges one having a name similar to mine. I'd meant to ask Trey
about that numerous times but had always seemed to get
side-tracked.

“
I want to go with you,” I
blurted.

“
Baby, if you don’t want to
be alone, why not have Gina come and stay here with you while I’m
gone?”

“
It’s not that. It’s about
one of the federal judges on that judicial panel. I remember seeing
his name when I was working at the firm the day Preston was taken.
I meant to ask you about him then but with all that’s happened, it
slipped my mind. His name is mine only backwards.”

Trey’s confusion was apparent.

“
His name is Preston James
Tylar. His C.V. states that he was appointed as a federal judge in
1990, the same year that I was born. He serves as an appellate
court judge in Baton Rouge when not serving on the
JPML.”

“
Tylar, I'm impressed with
your knowledge of this particular judge, but I still don’t
understand why you want to go with me.”

“
I know it sounds bizarre,
but something hit me when I saw his name that day at the firm when
I was entering the data in Harmon’s court calendar. I can’t
describe it but I just know that I have to see him.”

“
I've no issue taking you
with me but I’m not sure how much you'll be able to see. These
hearings are similar to state Supreme Court arguments where you get
so many minutes to state your case and pitch your argument.
Literally when the red light in the front by the judges illuminates
it means to shut up and go back to your seat.”

“
What times your hearing
scheduled? We can get there early to make sure we sit up
front.”

“
It doesn’t work that way,
baby. The dockets are called at random beginning at 8:00 a.m. each
morning so we may simply sit there or have to hang out in the
hallway until our docket gets called. It’s not like a court hearing
you’ve seen on television where the defendants sit up front at a
table facing the judges and the plaintiffs sit at the table on the
opposite side.”

“
Trey, just please humor me
on this one?”

“
Hey, you’ve got it, babe.
Just be prepared to be bored and perhaps disappointed. I think
you’re putting too much stock on the fact that some judge has a
name similar to yours only backwards.”

“
I’ll take the risk,” I
assured him.

“
What about Preston? We’ll
be there overnight.”

“
I’ll have Gina come stay
here with her and then Jean can watch her while Gina
works.”

“
Well, you better get that
lined up because we leave Tuesday on an afternoon flight. I’ll have
to make your reservation tonight.”

“
Thank you," I smiled up at
him. “I love you.”

Gina and I were chatting while we stocked the
upstairs bar and hung the clean glassware. I'd shared with her
Trey’s revelation as to what Libby had done Friday night. I also
let her know how I got him to spill the beans.

“
No shit? He probably hates
me more than ever now.”

“
No, I cleared that little
detail up with him and in fact told him that you hadn't seen her do
that but had merely commented that she seemed very flirtatious with
him but that he didn’t reciprocate.”

“
Is he going to tell
Tristan?”

“
I don’t think so. He feels
it might cause a major rift between him and Tristan.”

“
I can’t believe how many
skanks there are out there can you?”

“
Yeah,” I agreed. “Most of
them don’t give it a second thought about wanting to take your man,
either.”

“
You’re starting to think a
lot like me, girlfriend.”

We went back downstairs and finished up at
the main bar when we heard someone knocking on the front entrance
doors. It was Tristan.

Shit! He has the skank with him.

Gina let them in and they walked across the
dance floor to come and sit where I was on a chair dusting off one
of the hanging light fixtures. Libby had tight black leather jeans
on with a short cropped, black leather jacket and black leather
boots. All she needed was a black leather riding crop to accent her
outfit to perfection I thought. Tristan introduced Libby to
Gina.

“
We met Friday night,
Tristan, remember?” she said. “I swear, girls, since he's turned
forty his memory seems to be slipping. Thank God nothing else has
or I just might have to trade him in for a younger
model.”

She was perched on a bar stool and playfully
pulled him toward her for a kiss. Gina and I could read each
other’s minds. Right now we both wanted to puke.

Tristan asked me to give him the grand tour.
Libby said she'd stay at the bar and chit-chat with Gina. I saw
Gina roll her eyes as she turned back to the bar to answer her
phone.

I showed Tristan around the building. He'd no
idea that the place had such a well-equipped working kitchen for
not having a dinner menu. I explained the kind of crowd the
Sanctuary got were more of the after 10:00 p.m. type that weren’t
interested in eating dinner.

He checked out the wine lists, drink menus
and the Happy Hour menu that was in place on Monday through Friday
which did discount beer, mixed drinks, and appetizers. He asked me
if Gina would have any issue with his meeting with the accountant
to go over the books. It sounded like he was serious about buying
in.

“
Tristan,” I asked, “are you
interested in a partial share of this place or controlling
interest?”

“
Why do you ask?”

“
Trey seemed to think that
you wanted to buy me out, which in all honesty, I'd have no problem
with. It's already taking me away from Trey and the baby too much.
Gina on the other hand has pretty strong convictions about how she
wants to run this place. She’s already talked about changing the
name of it.”

“
Really? What does she want
to call it?”

“
The Shady Lady,” I replied,
smiling.

Tristan laughed appreciatively displaying his
dimple. "I can see the appeal of that. She’s a pretty feisty little
thing, isn’t she?”

“
You've no idea,” I
said.

God, he'd be so perfect for Gina!

“
How about this, I'll talk
one-on-one with Gina and let her know my interest in buying your
share out to see if she’s even amenable in partnering up with me.
If so, I'll request her permission to look at the books in advance.
I'll make suggestions to Gina. We'll see fairly quickly if we butt
heads or not.”

“
I can guarantee that you
and Gina
will
butt
heads. You'll never be bored, so enjoy it.”

We returned downstairs where Tristan talked
briefly to Gina. They arranged to meet at her accountant’s office
the following day. Tristan delayed his return for another day in
order to do this. I figured he was as good as her partner now,
which would free me back up and make Trey happy as well. Libby was
extremely quiet upon our return. She was sipping water and filing
her nails, pretty much ignoring the rest of us. Gina called her
accountant and a meeting was set for 10:00 a.m. the following
morning. She gave Tristan the name and address of her accountant
and they left. Gina locked the doors behind them. When she returned
to the bar she had a shit-eating grin going big time.