She laughed and pointed at me. “You see? So grouchy. Like Oscar.”
I rolled my eyes and put the file under my armpit. “Be an adult, Nicole. Stop talking about cartoons and fantasy shows for a moment.”
“Oh yeah, let me just sit here and quote rappers so you can keep up with me.”
I sighed. She wasn’t going to shut up. Maybe it was her nerves. Everybody had a coping mechanism. As long as hers wasn’t open-mouthed chewing, we’d be all right. Hell, as long as her mouth was on me, we’d be all right. I shook my head and blinked out of my thoughts.
“Nic,” I said.
“Hmm?” She tilted her head slightly to look at me.
“Can you please be quiet for a little while? I need to think and I can’t if you make me keep looking at your lips.”
She smiled and put her hands up. “I won’t even make a joke out of that.”
I wanted to take her face in my hands and kiss that smirk off right there in the middle of the courthouse that was practically my second home. Instead, I walked until I reached the room and opened the door. Lewis was sitting at the conference table with the phone to his ear, taking notes of something. He looked up and nodded in greeting.
“I’ll have to call you back. Okay. Sure.” He hung up and stood, offering his hand for me to shake. “Good to see you again.” He looked at Nicole and did the same. “Unfortunate circumstances, but good to see you.”
We sat down across from him.
“Where’s the prince of Hollywood?” I asked.
“Running a little behind. Thanks for agreeing to meet me here. I have a case ten minutes after this one and there was just no way I’d make it here with the traffic.”
“The fucking traffic is unbearable. Is it me or is it getting worse?” I asked.
“It’s getting worse,” Nicole said.
Lewis smiled slightly. “We’ll try to do this as fast as possible. Gabriel said you’re amicable.”
She scoffed. “Did he? We seem to have a difference of opinion in more things than I realized.”
I looked at her. “This is off the record right now, but when he walks in here and we start our meeting, I can’t have you jumping in when he says anything.”
“So I just stay quiet?”
“If you can,” I said, hoping she understood it was for the best.
I got along with Lewis, until we were put on a case against each other. Then the gloves were off, mainly because he was damn good at his job and I took no chances.
The doors opened and Gabriel walked in with a little kick to his step, looking like a man who was ready to be single. It gave me a vote of confidence because we’d be closing this sooner than expected, which meant soon I’d have his ex-wife in my bed. I’d always heard the saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” and took it at face value, but it was the first thing that came to mind. The problem was, now I was in the situation, I realized that in reality it wasn’t one man’s trash. Women weren’t things you could discard. Much less a woman like Nicole.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said, looking around the room. I didn’t miss the way his eyes stayed on Nicole. A man walked in behind him. At first I thought it was the mediator, but I knew all of the mediators and I’d never seen him.
“Who’s this?” I asked when the man took a seat beside Gabriel.
“I’m his manager, Darryl Cusack.”
“And you’re here because?”
“You’re about to find out,” he said, smiling smugly. He looked like a fucking caricature, his head not proportioned with his body.
Soon after, Marvin Harrison walked in. I could have leaped from happiness. From the smile on his face, I could tell Lewis was having the same reaction. Out of all the mediators, Marvin was the easiest one to work with. He was clear, to the point, and most importantly, fair. I rubbed my hands together as he took a seat. When I glanced over at Nicole she was giving me a funny look. What? I asked with a frown and a shrug. She shook her head, looking away from me.
Marvin started talking, and I shut all personal thoughts about Nicole out. He asked if they were both sure they wanted the divorce. They both said yes, though with the way he was looking at her, Gabriel didn’t look like a man who was done. I looked away. We went down a checklist of things, the King Charles named Bonnie that Gabriel had kept (for now), the Hollywood Hills home, the Escalade, the Prius, the Porsche, the Bentley, the farm in Idaho, the stocks in a production company, and the New York condo. Darryl perked up at the mention of the condo. I kept the expression on my face impassive. Nicole made it clear that she no longer wanted the house in The Hills, but she did want to be compensated for the money she put into remodeling the kitchen and the guest house.
“The dog?” Marvin asked, looking at Nicole first.
“He can keep it.”
“So there will no longer be a need to share it?” he asked.
From the corner of my eye I caught the way her hands gripped her thighs. I looked at her. “You sure about this?”