13. Aries #2
I hope she has something to eat, I thought while swiping at my phone. Seeing my brother’s name made me think about how much I’ve come to understand him in the last twelve hours or so. The question now was whether or not I admitted as much to him.
“Yo, what’s up Marcus?” I answered still debating on my decision, but my brother as always opened the conversation talking a mile a minute.
“There’s a report that an attorney who was suing the hospital was just arrested for fraud. What’s the name of the guy who’s suing you?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Yo, I just saw a report on the town’s IG page about an attorney who was notorious for falsifying medical records, and filing bogus complaints was arrested after his client flipped on him.”
“Because everything you see on Instagram is real?” I asked mockingly.
“Nah, for real. Where’s your lady?”
“Huh?” I asked. I knew we discussed Skylar briefly, but why did he assume she was my lady? She was my lady, but I didn’t discuss that with Marcus.
“Man, don’t play stupid with me. The way you talk about that damn lawyer, I know you’re feeling her.”
“Everyone isn’t like you, Marcus.”
Everyone may have not been like him, bit I definitely was.
"Well, I know you, and I'd bet my entire savings that you're closer to that woman than you stated at dinner with me and Angela. And I saw her press conference. She was protecting you like someone protecting their man.”
“She was doing her job,” I countered. “And can you please tell me about this story that may or may not be real.
“The attorney who filed against you got arrested for falsifying medical records.
They're saying your attorney found evidence that he'd been doing this for years. Dude was doctoring medical charts to make it look like surgeries caused problems that were completely unrelated. It’s even noted that Skylar was the one who reported him.
Angela saw it and was like isn't that your brother's case?
So, I'm calling to see what's going on."
I sat up straight in bed, suddenly wide awake. "Hold up. What exactly are they saying happened?"
“Aries! Are you listening? The fuck? I just told you what the reports said. If I had more information, I wouldn’t be calling your ass.”
The remnants of sleep still had ahold of me, so I couldn’t even be mad at my brother. I heard exactly what he said, but I needed him to be the one with more information because my brain wasn’t fully working.
"I'm just waking up, and I was tired as hell from a long day," I admitted, rubbing my eyes. "But if what you’re saying is true, that’s crazy as hell. Let me talk to Skylar.” Telling Marcus that much wouldn’t have been telling, but Skylar walking into the bedroom at that moment changed the game.
“Let you talk to me about what?” she asked.
"Wait, you're with her right now? I knew it! Angela owes me twenty bucks," Marcus said making me focus back on the phone.
"What the hell did you bet on?" I asked, incredulous but not entirely surprised.
"That you were in love. I know sprung when I see it. We’re cut from the same cloth big brother. It runs in the family. Us Yerba men fall in love fast because we recognize pure hearts and want to protect them forever.”
“That could be good logic if you didn’t fall in love every other month,” I countered.
“Nah. I always see a pure heart. They just weren’t mine to protect, so it never worked out.”
"Goodbye, Marcus," I said firmly, ending the call before he felt the need to go further and bring the subject back around to Skylar and me.
“So, what was that about?” Skylar asked. She stood against the door frame to the bathroom, relaxed. For a second, I wondered if I was the reason for her chill posture. My ego inflated a little bit with thoughts of fucking Skylar so good that I had her walking around without a care in the world.
“Morton Chivy was arrested,” I told Skylar, noticing how relaxed her posture still was. She didn’t seem at all surprised or bothered.
“Skylar?” I inquired with a raised brow.
“Yes?” she responded.
"You don’t look surprised," I said, crossing my arms over my chest. "What did you do?"
Skylar shrugged, a mischievous smile playing on her lips as she walked toward the bed.
"I may have had Leslie do some digging into Chivy's past cases after I drafted my Answer and Motion to Dismiss. I had my suspicions, but needed to do a deeper dive, and preferably not on the hospital’s network.
So, while you were sleeping, I dug a little deeper. "
"And?" Skylar was being purposely vague, and she knew it. She was doing it on purpose for sure.
"And it turns out our friend Morton has been pulling this scam for years.
Falsifying medical records, coaching clients to exaggerate symptoms, and targeting hospitals with deep pockets.
" She sat on the edge of the bed, looking entirely too pleased with herself.
"I simply made sure the right evidence found its way to the right people. "
I stared at her in amazement. "So, while I was sleeping, you were taking down a fraudulent attorney?"
"Multitasking is a skill," she replied with a wink. "I also spent time with my Coffee Bean. I have been neglecting her.”
“Why are you referring to a coffee bean as if it’s a living creature.”
“Because she is. Come. Let me introduce you to Coffee Bean.”
I had no idea what to expect, but I got up, put my briefs on, and followed Skylar. A whiff of something delicious hit my nostrils, and my body was ready to go follow the smell of food instead, but my mind was stuck on figuring out what the hell was a Coffee Bean.
What I was not expecting was a nicely decorated room that could be a library or an office, but with a big ass contraption on the wall, containing a turtle. I looked at Skylar as she reached in and lifted a turtle out.
“This is Coffee Bean, my Eastern Box Turtle. I’ve had her since I was a preteen. For all intents and purposes, she’s my best friend, besides McKenzie, whom I’m sure you will meet eventually. I’m going to keep that at bay as long as possible though,” she rambled.
“You have a turtle? A pet turtle…” I confirmed, starting at her petting the thing as if it were a cat or some shit.
“I do. Is that a problem?” she replied with a tone that told me I needed to be careful of my next words. Her brows arched in challenged.
“No, not at all," I replied quickly, taking a step closer to examine the turtle. "I just didn't expect it. She's... cute." The turtle stared at me with what I could only describe as judgment in its beady eyes.
"Want to hold her?"
I hesitated for a moment, then extended my hands. "Sure, why not?"
Skylar gently placed the turtle in my palm. Coffee Bean's shell was smooth and patterned with beautiful amber and dark brown markings. She pulled her head slightly into her shell as I held her, eyeing me suspiciously.
"She doesn't trust easily," Skylar explained, watching us with an amused expression. "Kind of like her mom."
I looked up at her, catching the significance of what she had just shared…
which I also already knew. There was something oddly fitting about Skylar having a turtle, protected by a hard shell, but surprisingly vulnerable underneath.
These last few days I’d come to recognize those same traits in her.
“A pet turtle,” I murmured to myself as I rubbed the smooth shell, taking it all in.
“So, what happens now with the case?” I asked, bringing the topic back around to Morton Chivy.”
“My guess is that our motion will be heard, granted, and the case will be dismissed with prejudice… meaning that Mr. Simpson will not be able to bring any future claims.”
“I knew what that meant. You know I'm a doctor, right? I went to medical school. I can actually follow legal jargon, but thanks for breaking it down for me.”
Skylar laughed, her eyes crinkling at the corners in a way that made my heart do strange things in my chest.
"Force of habit," she admitted, gently taking Coffee Bean back from me. "I spend most of my time explaining things to people who don't understand the law."
I watched as she returned the turtle to her elaborate habitat, handling her with such care.
There was something oddly intimate about witnessing this side of Skylar—the woman who had a pet turtle she'd kept since childhood, who named it Coffee Bean of all things, and who spoke to it in soft tones that I'd never heard her use with anyone else.
"You know what this means, right?" I asked as she closed the enclosure. “We won.” The thought of that had me releasing the last of the existing stress, which being with Skylar and owning her body couldn’t even get rid of.
“We won," she confirmed. "And now I'm starving. I ordered from a soul food place close by while you were asleep. The food is keeping warm in the oven. Let’s go eat."
As I followed Skylar to the kitchen, I couldn't help but smile at the absurdity of it all.
A few weeks ago, I was just a surgeon with a potential lawsuit hanging over my head.
Now I was following a woman with a pet turtle named Coffee Bean to eat soul food for an early lunch after spending the night making her scream my name.
"What are you smiling about?" Skylar asked as she pulled plates from the cabinet.
"Just thinking about how quickly life can change," I replied, sliding onto a barstool at her kitchen island. "Not that long ago, you were just the scary lawyer who was coming to ruin my surgical schedule."
She snorted as she pulled foil-covered containers from the oven. "And you were the arrogant surgeon who thought he was untouchable."
"Was?" I raised an eyebrow. "Past tense?"
Skylar rolled her eyes. “You know you’re still the top surgeon at St. Ambrose.”
“Just at St. Ambrose?” I asked, purposely annoying her.
“Shut your cocky ass the hell up and tell me what you want me to add to your plate.”
You! I thought.
Instead of telling her that, I observed all of the dishes as she pulled them out of the warm oven, and my dick was instantly forgotten as my stomach took the lead.
Skylar didn’t forget anything off the menu.
The counter was quickly filled with fried chicken, mac and cheese, collard greens, cabbage, candied yams, and cornbread.
“Damn, girl! Did you leave any for other customers?”
“They’re not my problem. You are.”
“I wouldn’t technically think of myself as a problem,” I replied.
“If you say so.”
I smacked Skylar’s ass as she walked by and watched it jiggle.
I was going to enjoy traversing whatever journey life took us on.
I was even going to have to admit to Marcus how wrong I was and apologize for calling him an idiotic romantic.
Because I definitely understood now. I was suffering from tunnel vision and all I saw was Skylar Wise.
I wonder if she’d be willing to change her last name?
I wasn’t exactly like my brother. That question I would keep in the tuck for now. However, I already knew I loved Skylar and that she was mine. She was the remedy to everything I didn’t know I needed.
The End