Chapter 16
“So, you want to ride to the courthouse together?” Christopher asked Monday morning as they made breakfast together. They had to be there at ten and had a couple of hours before they had to leave.
Before she could answer his cell phone rang, and he excused himself and went into the living room to take the call. He came back in and gave her a sheepish smile. “Sorry, but that was my lawyer, he wants to meet with me before we go into the courthouse.”
“Okay. I was going to suggest we drive separately. When are you leaving?”
“I should probably leave right after our appointment, but how about I take you out to lunch afterward and leave from there?”
“I could do that, but only if you let me pay. You’ve paid for everything this weekend, let me return the favor.”
“It’s not my style, but I think if I want to have lunch with you, I better let you pay. So yes, I’ll agree for you to pay.” He smiled as he put the French toast on the plate and put it on the table. They ate in silence for a while, then he sighed. “I’m curious as to why the judge wants to see us.”
“Me too.” Wanda sighed and was just pushing her food around on her plate. She finally pushed it away and sighed. “What time do you have to meet your lawyer?”
“He said nine thirty outside the courthouse. That gives me two hours. Want to fool around?” He grinned and raised his brows at her, which caused her to laugh.
“No, you nut.” She threw her napkin at him, and said, “Since you don’t have anything to do, you can clean up.”
“Hey, I cooked.”
“And I thank you for that, but I need to check my e-mail and see what Trish has to say about that gallery showing that was this last weekend.”
“Oh. Go ahead.” Christopher watched her walk away and had to adjust the front of his suit pants to make room for his growing erection.
Damn, she was one beautiful and sexy woman.
In less than fifteen minutes the kitchen was put back to order, and the dishwasher was running.
He went down the hall to make sure he had everything packed, on his way out of his room that he never used while there.
He looked into one place and saw Wanda sitting behind a desk looking at her computer.
He was instantly concerned by the expression on her face.
“Are you okay?”
Wanda looked up and stared at Christopher in shock. She heard him, but didn’t really hear him. Waving him in, she could only point to her computer screen. She watched as Christopher read the e-mail from her assistant, Trish, and frowned at her.
“I don’t know if I understand.”
“Trish sells my pottery in several small, rustic shops throughout the northwest. She’s based out of Seattle.
She told me that a new gallery was opening in the area and they came to Trish asking if any artists would be willing to submit some of their work.
She asked if she could submit some of my stuff.
Sure, I have nothing to lose, so I told her to go ahead.
This is what she sent to the gallery.” She pulled a file and pulled out three sheets of paper.
“That’s the inventory and the prices that Trish set for them.”
“Wait, but Trish’s e-mail says everything sold. Are you’re telling me that everything on this list.” He actually shook the three pieces of paper in the air. “Everything is sold, at these prices?”
“Yes.” She reached for the papers that just finished coming out of the printer and began looking over them.
“These are orders from people that were at the gallery opening that were unable to purchase anything that night. In addition to my weekly internet orders and stock replenishment for Trish.” She started laughing and jumped up and hugged him.
After giving him a quick smacking kiss on the lips, she smiled.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but its good you’re leaving today. You’re too much of a distraction, and I have a lot of work to do. And guess what?” She giggled and did a happy dance around the office, and Christopher felt his heart thump hard in his chest at her excitement.
“What?”
“My stuff is going to be on display in the gallery for a month.”
“Damn, then I guess you really can afford to buy me lunch.” He laughed at her excitement.
“I can.” She giggled. “If you didn’t have a job and life back in New York, I’d hire you to help me.” She laughed.
“I am not getting that goo all over me.” His expression showed a curled nose, and extreme distaste.
Wanda laughed. “No, not helping with the actual making of the inventory. I’m probably going to have to hire someone who can box up the items and ship them out.
As it is, it takes definitely a day, sometimes two to do that all by myself.
” She paused and sighed. “But I can think about that later. Right now, we have to get going.” She looked at her watch and then grabbed her purse. “Do I look okay?”
“You look sexy,” Christopher said, and gathered her to him and kissed her deeply.
Happy for her. He released her and stepped back to study her with a critical eye.
Her navy-blue dress that rode just above her knees, the sleeveless dress showed off her toned arms. Her hair was swept up, and she had on minimal makeup.
“You look sexy. If I didn’t know you and saw you walking down the street, I’d turn and get a second, third, maybe even fourth look at your sexiness.”
“Thank you.” She blushed, then hurried from her office. She had never had anyone compliment her like that before. Even though he was leaving in a couple of hours, she was happy she’d spent the last weekend with Christopher and was going to miss him when he left.
She watched him enter the kitchen with his suitcase, and he had his suit jacket over his arm. He had on a pair of dark blue dress pants, a pale blue shirt, and a medium blue tie. “Damn, you’re some hot stuff,” she said to him, and they both grinned at each other.
“I somehow feel that we shouldn’t arrive at the courthouse at the same time. After all, we’re going for a divorce. It’s bad enough we look like we planned to match by both wearing the color blue.”
“Oh crap. Should I go change?”
“No. We don’t have anything to be embarrassed about. I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to tell anyone where I spent the weekend. It’s no one’s business but ours.”
“Agreed,” she said, and kissed him quickly, then reached up and wiped her lipstick from his lips.
They went out, got in their own cars and Christopher followed her to the courthouse.
They parked in the same lot, but Wanda waited for about five minutes after Christopher walked away before getting out and making her way to the courthouse.
She saw Christopher and two men off to the side and then turned when someone called her name. It was her own lawyer, Tony Harris.
“Wanda. You look nice, how are you?”
“Good, Tony.” She shook his hand. “You have any idea why we’re here?”
“None. I hate to ask, but do you know if Christopher Evans made it in?”
“He’s standing over there. The man with the blue tie facing this way.” She nodded to the three men and watched as Tony turned to look at them.
“Good. At least whatever we’re here for won’t be postponed because of a no show. Let’s make our way in.” He put his hand on the small of her back and escorted her up the stairs. It took everything Wanda had not to turn and look at Christopher, but she felt his eyes on her.
“Do you know if Ms. Perkins is here?” Christopher’s New York lawyer, Paul Thomas asked. Because he couldn’t practice in Arizona, he’d contacted a friend of his who would be representing Christopher in this state. He looked at Paul and Gregg Anderson, the Arizona lawyer.
“That’s her walking up the steps.” Christopher nodded, and the other two men turned and watched.
“Damn, you sure you want to go through with this?” Gregg asked, then gave himself a mental shake. “Sorry. Like I said earlier, I have no clue as to why we’re here, but the only advice I can give is if you’re asked anything answer as honestly as you can.”
“Of course.” Christopher frowned at the man.
He liked his own lawyer, but was unsure of Mr. Anderson.
They made their way up the steps and after going through security, made their way to the courtroom.
They were settled in and only had five minutes to wait before the judge arrived.
Once they stood, the judge entered, and they sat back down, the judge didn’t waste any time.
“Thank you for coming. I’ll get right to the point. This case intrigues me. I have some questions. First, if Wanda Perkins and Christopher Evans could please stand.” She paused as the two perfect looking people stood.
“Okay, now please tell me how you two came to be married.” She nodded and sat back in her chair and watched the two people standing. They looked at each other, and she saw Mr. Evans bow to Ms. Perkins.
“I was sick,” Wanda started, then went on to tell her how she’d talked to her Pastor and said she’d wanted to get married before she died. At one point Tony stood.
“Your Honor, if I may?” He held up an envelope.
“What’s that?”
“Actual pictures of the wedding.” The judge leaned forward and held out her hand.
“Continue, Ms. Perkins.” She continued as the judge looked at the pictures and at one point she looked up and sucked in her breath. “You were really sick, weren’t you?”
“Yes. As you can see from the photos, the people walking up the aisle behind my father and I was a nurse and doctor they had the IV pole, but I was also in the middle of a chemo treatment.” The judge saw she reached up and rubbed her upper chest. “I had a pic line in.”
“Okay, so how did you get involved, Mr. Evans?”