Chapter 32 Learn From Their Mistakes
LEARN FROM THEIR MISTAKES
“How was your trip?” his mother asked him on Monday morning.
He’d gotten to the office early to get a head start on his week. He’d have to be in court most of this week.
“It was great,” he said. “Much needed. How was the Fierce Fourth of July party?”
“Interesting,” his mother said. “We haven’t been invited before. Your father didn’t want to go this year, but Ben talked us into it. He said if we were going to work with Jolene, it came with the territory.”
He laughed. “You’re not even hiding the fact now.”
“There isn’t a reason to.”
“Did she bug you too much for details?” he asked.
Matt reached for his coffee on his desk. He was still trying to recover from his time with Anya.
There used to be a time when he could survive on a few hours of sleep for days in a row.
Those times were few and far between.
The thoughts of a nice quiet night or weekend with the woman he loved were more enjoyable than anything else he could come up with.
“It’s Jolene. She bugs everyone.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That you and Anya went away for a few days to relax. You’ve both been busy and needed the time to recharge.”
“That should be enough for her to know it’s going well,” he said. “But I’m sure it wasn’t.”
“She had many people she was talking to and entertaining. There were a lot of Gavin’s family there from Durham so we got a reprieve. Your father and I talked with Ben and Eve more than anyone else, then we left after we ate. Since we got there late, it was about two hours.”
“Enough to get you out of the house,” he said.
“That was the thought. All those people aren’t my thing. You’d love it and fit right in.”
“Maybe years ago, but now life in the slow lane is more my style.”
“Anya might complain you’re boring again if you do that,” Grace said.
He snorted at the smirk on his mother’s face. “I mix enough fun in there to keep her happy.”
“It’s not just about keeping her happy. I want my son happy too.”
“I am,” he said. “More than I ever thought I’d be.”
“I’m thrilled to hear it. You two have come a long way,” his mother said. “I always knew you had a crush on her. I knew she had one on you too.”
“If you ever told me I wouldn’t have done what I had.”
How could his mother not have given him a heads up? To let him continue on with the way things were with just a few short words here and there.
“Matt. You were going to be you regardless. We told you enough to dial it back and you didn’t listen. You only learn when it comes from someone else. Teens don’t care to be told the same things again and again by their parents because we are never right in their eyes.”
He wondered if that was what happened with EJ and his parents.
“You’re not wrong.”
“Someday you’ll have kids of your own and experience that.”
“Yay me,” he said. “But I learned from the best. I’m sure I can handle it.”
“You’re handling things well.”
“There you are,” his father said, popping his head in. “You’ve got someone up front asking for you.”
He frowned. “Who? I’ve got no one scheduled this morning. I’ve got to be in court at ten.”
His father looked at his mother. “It’s Macy.”
His ex.
“You’re joking, right?”
“No,” Tim said. “She was walking in the same time I was. I held the door for her. I almost didn’t recognize her because I wasn’t thinking of her. She looks a little different. Her hair or something.”
He didn’t care. Macy was always changing the way she dressed and hairstyles. In her eyes there was always something better out there.
It was part of why they split.
She wanted more than he was willing to give.
He saw through her and, as much as it killed him to say his mother was right, he had used Macy for a good time and nothing more.
“She asked for me?” he asked.
“She went to the desk and asked for you. She said it’s urgent.”
“If you’ve got a child out there you know nothing about, Matt, I swear to God I’m going to smack you upside the head.”
He laughed. “Relax. That’s the last thing it is. We’ve been done for over a year and you know damn well if she was pregnant, I would have been the first one to know and been paying through the nose for it.”
“Grace,” his father said. “Relax. I’m not sure what she wants, but it’s not that.”
“I’ll go get her,” Matt said.
“No,” his mother said. “I’m going to do it.”
Oh boy.
No one messed with his mother.
Grace Kelly was the epitome of a mama bear protecting her cubs from the enemy.
“If you can bring her here, that’s fine.”
He stayed at his desk and waited. There were no voices or footsteps to be heard, but a throat clearing as his mother stood in the doorway.
Rather than wait there staring for Macy to come in, he’d checked some email and had his attention on his monitor.
“Matt,” Macy said. “I need your help.”
Her eyes filled with tears. Big fake crocodile ones that she could drop on demand.
Guess nothing had changed.
Grace was showing no reaction. He didn’t think they even talked, rather the silent assassin walking Macy to the firing squad.
“Have a seat,” he said, gesturing toward the chair in front of his desk.
She was standing there wringing her hands and beckoning him to stand and go to her.
“Can I get a hug? I really need one.”
He let out a sigh. He could be a dick and say no, but those days were behind him.
He’d never been a dick on purpose with people either.
He stood up and moved closer to her, but she walked to his door and shut it.
That wasn’t what he wanted. He stood his ground by his desk and made her come to him.
She turned and ran, her dyed auburn hair blowing behind her as if she was in slow motion for a movie greeting her lover on a beach.
She hugged him tight; he briefly closed his arms around her and then stepped back.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
She sniffled and found the tissues on a table by his chair and couch. Rather than sit in front of his desk, she went to the couch, forcing him to move there.
He hated the games she played.
The chair was where he planted his ass.
“I was arrested and booked last night. It was horrible. I mean horrible. They took my fingerprints and everything. The photo is hideous.”
Just like his mother, he had no reaction. “What are you accused of?”
“I had a few drinks with friends last night. We were celebrating.”
She did this a lot.
It drove him bonkers that she told him she always drove after having multiple glasses of wine.
No amount of lecturing got through her head.
“What did you blow?”
Macy’s face shrank back as if he’d dumped fish guts on the floor at their feet. “I didn’t blow anyone. Maybe if I had, the officer would have let me off.”
He rolled his eyes. “Macy. The Breathalyzer. What did you blow?”
“Oh.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder. “I thought you were insulting me in my time of need.”
This was hardly a time of need in his eyes.
She got herself into this mess.
“Answer me.”
“It was .10. It’s only .02 over the limit. I can’t believe they put me in a police car for that.”
“It’s the law,” he said. “Did you have to post bail?”
“No. It was my first offense and I had to sign something that I’d appear in court, but I need an attorney to get me out of this. I can’t have it on my record. Can’t you just get it reduced or something?”
Considering it was her first offense and she was close to the legal limit, there was a chance of it being reduced if she took treatment courses and there was no damage.
“It’s possible,” he said. “You’ve never had another DUI before?”
“No,” Macy argued. “Never. My record is clean.”
“Were you ever arrested for this before, and was the charge reduced or dropped?” he asked. “Or been let off with a warning and driven home.”
She wasn’t making eye contact with him.
“Does that matter? My record is clean. That should count for something.”
“It matters to me,” he said. “You need to find yourself another attorney. It can be one in the building or you can go elsewhere.”
“What?” Macy shrieked, standing when he did. “I don’t understand. I thought lawyers didn’t care about this and only wanted to be paid. I mean, we had something good between us.”
“You don’t know me. You never tried to know me.”
“Matt,” Macy said, wiping her eyes. They weren’t filled with tears anymore, but traces of annoyance and anger. “We had a lot of fun together. That’s what you liked. I gave it to you. It’s not my problem I wanted to get serious and you didn’t.”
“No,” he said. “You’re remembering it wrong. I had fun and you put up with it. You told me repeatedly.”
“Because you were over the top.”
“I was,” he admitted. “I’m not now. You put up with it because you played the long game I wasn’t interested in.”
“You’re kidding yourself,” Macy snapped. “No one will put up with you like I did.”
He opened his door and wasn’t surprised to find his mother and father close by in the hallway.
They were listening in and made no attempt to hide the fact or leave.
“That’s not your concern,” he said. “Did you want another attorney here or you’ll go elsewhere?”
“I only came to you because I thought you’d help, but I can see how you are playing it. I don’t want to get back together with you and if those are your stipulations for helping, then it’s wrong.”
He swore a tooth just cracked on those words.
“I’ll walk you out,” his mother said, her icy eyes ready to create snow in the summer. “To make sure you know how this is going to end. My husband said you drove here this morning. You realize that after a DUI, you’ve got a thirty-day suspension of your license until you appear in court.”
Macy turned on her heel after being presented with that information. “I can walk myself out.”
“I’ll still show you the way,” Grace said.
His father walked into his office and Matt took a seat in his chair again. His father would go to the couch and his mother would join him.
“That was rough,” Tim said.
“I’m sure you heard it all,” Matt said.
“The gist of it. Your mother had her ear to the door. The minute she found out the door was shut, she wasn’t leaving.”
“I can always count on her,” he said.
“You can. She’ll make sure Macy gets her story straight before she’s off our property,” his father said.
“You don’t care I didn’t take the case?”
Tim had a dumbfounded look on his face. “No. Why would you think that? It’s your right to take cases you want.”
He snorted. “No. It’s not. Don’t do that. I’ve wanted to turn other cases down in the past and you wouldn’t let me.”
“That was different. You were learning and sometimes you need to take the hard ones you don’t agree with to see the truth about your clients and their behavior.”
“I have no desire to represent someone who can’t learn from their mistakes. I always told her not to drink and drive after more than one glass of wine. She didn’t listen.”
“If this truly was her first offense, would you have taken it?” Tim asked.
“No, he wouldn’t have,” his mother said, walking in and shutting the door. “Because he would have worried that Macy would say he was leading her on. Just like she pulled that stunt with her words as he opened the door. She didn’t get her way and she was going to make him pay.”
“You’re right,” Matt said. “I had no intention of doing it, but I wanted to see if she’d lie to me. It’s not the first woman to lie to me in my life.”
“Not everyone is like Macy,” his mother said. “Anya isn’t.”
“No. She’s not. Maybe I needed to have a reminder of what I had before and what I’ve ended up with.”
“Ended?” his mother asked. “As in no more looking?”
“Neither one of us is anywhere near thinking along those lines.” Maybe he was, but he wouldn’t speak for his girlfriend.
“That didn’t answer your mother,” his father said. “If you don’t give her some kind of answer, she won’t let it drop. She’s a python not releasing the fox she’s trapped in the woods.”
It was an appropriate description as his mother was both dangerous like a python and sly like a fox. You just never saw her coming until it was too late.
“I’m done looking, but Anya isn’t ready to hear that let alone talk about it. Slow and steady is winning this race.”
“I have all the faith in the world in you,” Grace said. “You know where we are if you need to talk.”
“I’m good.” His parents left him alone with his thoughts.
He was good because he was right—he was going to win this race with Anya, but he knew it had to be on her terms.