Beautiful Girls

"Does this look okay?" she asked.

I had to look away from her and take a few seconds to gather myself. Her smoky black hair was curled in ringlets that draped over her shoulders. Her big innocent-looking blue eyes not only complimented the incredible dress but cut through the black curtain of hair startlingly. Her lips floored me. They were full and smiling and wore something I'd never seen before. Her lipstick was nowhere near a natural color, unless you were in a comic book. In fact, her lipstick was the same color as the dress. Those blue lips did something to me. Things only got worse below the neck. As much as I was trying to remain professional and remind myself that this woman was young enough to be my daughter, I couldn't look away from her breasts. There must have been a draft in the office though because I saw a shiver go through her and her nipples seemed to sprout out of nowhere. She reached down and pulled a tiny sweater out of the bag she was carrying. The sweater was waist length and very thin but it did offer another layer of coverage over her breasts and prevent her nipples from flashing everyone.

"You look stunning," I said.

"This old thing," she said, looking at me curiously. "Do I look stunning for the meeting, or stunning in general?" She held my glance and refused to look away. Luckily, Penny, my assistant came into the room and broke the tension. As we left the room to head for the meeting, I couldn't help but look at the incredible way that her waist tapered away from that sweater and formed an ass that was just mouth-watering. For the first time since my wife's death, I was looking at a woman as a woman. The problem was that the woman was my daughter's age and that she simply wasn't attracted to men. There was also the problem of professional ethics. In fact, if things went as planned, the ethics thing would probably come up very shortly.

* * * * * *

Jill

As we drove towards the building that I'd worked in for the past three years, I felt weird. I was also kind of pissed. I was sitting in Penny's car as she drove us toward the meeting, as I was too nervous to drive myself. The funny thing about it all was that I hadn't given Natalie a single thought. I hadn't seen or accepted any communication from Natalie in over two weeks. Every day got easier to be without her. All of my feelings were coming from a different source.

First, I was pissed because I was stuck in a car with Penny. Penny wasn't a bad person and she was really very professional. She kept asking me questions but skirting what she really wanted to ask me about. Penny is a legal secretary. She's very close to being a paralegal so she asked questions about classes, and so on, but from the way she looks at me I know that she wants to ask what it's like to be with another woman. She's curious about it. Since she's chunky and not very attractive, she's wondering – since her relationships with men aren't very successful – what it's like being with another woman.

The problem is that she's barking up the wrong fucking tree. I can't really tell her anything because I don't know. All of the terms they use for what they think I am don't really apply to me. I'm not bisexual. I'm not a lesbian. Those are names or labels that just don't fit. I just see myself as a person.

It's very complex. When I was a teenage girl, I fell in love with a person that I could never have, and I guess I just decided that if I couldn't have him, I'd follow his advice and wait for a person who made me feel the way that he did. Actually, he never knew it. We were talking about boys and he told me to wait for the boy who made me feel really special. He told me I'd know when I met him because I would just feel loved. He told me that teenaged girls fell in and out of love in a heartbeat but, no matter who I loved, I had to wait for someone who really loved me. The problem was that I vowed to wait for that man and I just never found him. So I settled for the first person who made me feel that way and HE turned out to be a HER.

So, now that I'm divorcing HER, HE wandered back into my life – or I wandered back into his – and I found out that he wasn't as unattainable as previously thought. To me it seemed like fate. The problem was that he hadn't given me even a clue as to whether or not he could be interested in me. He'd taken me to lunch several times and been the rock I'd turned to for advice and even for comfort during this difficult period. In fact, he treated me the same way he did when I was a little girl. It almost seemed like back in the old days, when I was nine and fell off of my bike and skinned my knee, and he'd clean it and give me a band aid. He'd kiss the tip of his finger and then press it gently on the band aid and I'd feel invincible.

I wished he'd kiss some areas on me now that I'm an adult and see if they felt the same way. So, even though it wasn't necessary for me to dress for this meeting, I bought a new dress. I was dressing for him. I needed to see if there was a reaction. When I walked into the room I could tell that he was gobsmacked.

It was so cute. He was trying his damnedest not to look at me. So I asked him if I looked okay. He had trouble answering. He finally told me that I looked stunning. That was when everything flipped. It was the look he gave me more than anything else. All of a sudden, I was that little girl, and he was my friend's daddy again and I wanted him just as much. He was my knight in shining armor and I wanted to be rescued. He was again that man that none of the boys could equal. It wasn't that I'd gotten over Natalie any faster. It was just that I'd realized that Natalie had only been a stopgap. She'd been someone to take the place of the person I really wanted. The problem for me was that there were too many things that I didn't know about the boy/girl thing.

Then Penny came along and cock-blocked me. She was cheerful and polite and thoroughly professional, but she was getting in my way. The worst moment was as we headed for the parking lot. I announced that I was too nervous to drive so Penny suggested that we should all go together. I could have hugged her for that, but then we realized that there was simply no way that all three of us could comfortably fit in Mason's Mustang. I already had my hand on the passenger door handle when Penny suggested that we could all fit into either my Jeep or, since I didn't want to drive, her Ford Explorer. Mason thought that was a great idea but said that he didn't leave his 'baby' anywhere. So he decided to drive there and let Penny and I go together.

"Great," said Penny enthusiastically. "We can catch up on our girl talk and give you a chance to relax."

I smiled brightly while wondering if she could tell that I was thinking about knocking her teeth out. If she hadn't come along, Mason and I would have been squeezed into that little leather car together right then. In fact, I wondered why he'd insisted on bringing her. Penny chattered on and on for the whole twenty-minute drive there. By the time we arrived, as nice as she was, I hated the sound of her voice.

It was weird walking through the building and back into the office the three of us had shared for so long. I put my hand out and Mason gently grabbed it. The contact between us set every hair on my body standing on end. We could have stood there forever holding hands and I wouldn't have minded.

"Let me," he said.

I smiled and nodded. He walked into the office and I followed him. Penny brought up the rear. Natalie was sitting at her desk and she got up as soon as we walked in. She had on a blouse and a skirt that didn't really look good together. Even though it had barely been over two weeks since we'd seen each other, she looked a lot worse. If it was possible, she looked thinner, with her face appearing drawn and her eyes puffy. The tattoos that covered her entire right arm had never really appealed to me, but suddenly they really set me off. Nat is a beautiful girl, but those tats made her look cheap and...stupid.

"We're going to be in the conference room," she said, ushering us into the room. She ran out and got coffee and a plate of pastries. "Gunner will be here in a few minutes," she said, upon returning. "Before we begin, could I please speak to you alone, Jill?"

"No," said Mason quietly. "We're here to work out your differences and keep this out of court, if possible. During the meeting, I'd appreciate it if we could keep things to just the issues at hand. After the meeting, if the two of you would like to talk, you may exchange phone numbers or agree to meet anywhere you choose. But, unless the two of you have decided that there's no need for this meeting, we should do this by the rules."

"Do either of you think that we should cancel or reschedule the meeting?" he asked.

"I don't," I said quietly but sternly. "Let's have the meeting." I looked away from Natalie and settled into a chair, with Mason on one side of me and Penny sitting near the opposite end of the table. Natalie's shoulders slumped and she left the room. When we were alone Mason asked me a couple of questions.

"Is Gunner the same guy she was screwing?" he asked. I nodded my head and barely contained my revulsion. Mason smiled and I wondered why.

"Looks like you may get a bit of revenge," he said. "Luckily, I brought Penny along."

"But..."I began.

"When did Natalie get all of those tattoos?" he asked. I just shrugged my shoulders.

"Do you have any?" he asked.

I smiled and started to come up with a flirty answer, but Gunner stepped into the room. As usual, he was all suit and bluster. He came over to me and reached for me as if he wanted to hug me. I started to cringe but there was no need. Mason leaned over across me and extended his hand.

"Mason Wright," he said.

I was excited for two reasons. The first was that, as usual, Mason had leapt in to protect me and I loved to see him going to battle for me, even if it was only to shield me from unpleasantness. The second reason was because the awkwardness of the position caused Mason's torso to rub against my breasts and the contact had me more excited than I would ever have believed.

"I hope you don't mind, but I brought along my own transcriptionist to record the proceedings," he said.

"No problem," replied Gunner. "I'll be acting on behalf of Natalie. Hopefully we can come to an agreement so there's no need to go to court. Even more hopefully these two young ladies can iron out their differences and get back together." Natalie was behind Gunner nodding her head.

"That's what I'd really like," she said. I couldn't hold back any more.

"It's easy to say that when you're not the one who was lied to or cheated on," I snapped. "It's easy to want to work things out when you're not the one who got hurt."

Mason grabbed my wrist under the table. I knew he needed for me to be quiet.

"Since it seems that we must proceed," said Gunner, "my client would like to propose that both parties attend relationship counseling in the hope of reconciliation."

"My client is not willing to reconcile and wants to move on with the dissolution of the marriage. Since they have no tangible assets except for their personal belongings, my client would like to simply walk away. She proposes no alimony or spousal support, and is generally willing to accept the divorce being filed for irreconcilable differences, instead of infidelity, so your client doesn't end up with a damaged reputation," said Mason. "Oh excuse me, where is my head? We need to sign a couple of papers first to indicate who we all are and what is going on." He passed a paper across to Gunner for him to sign. He also had Natalie and I sign it. Then he had us sign again that we all agreed to Penny recording the meeting.

"Isn't all of this kind of old fashioned?" asked Gunner. "We already know each other; most of this is just useless documentation."

"Yeah, I'm kind of old fashioned," said Mason, "but you never know." Under the table Mason bumped my leg with his and I realized that he'd just somehow put one past Gunner.

"Okay," smiled Gunner, "let's start out with the basics. I'm going to be honest and just put all of our cards on the table: Jill, Natalie is miserable without you. She wants to apologize and go to counseling to try to get back what the two of you had. To tell you the truth, I need to have you come back to work, too. The office and my practice just are not running nearly as smoothly as they were. Exactly what is it going to take to get that to happen?"

"It's going to take a time machine," I spat. "Mr. Peabody, you're going to have to have your boy Sherman crank up the way back machine and take us back to before Natalie first started cheating on me. Actually, that's actually not going to be enough. You're going to have to give me some kind of drug or treatment to erase my memory, that way I won't be haunted by visions of the person that swore to love, honor and stay with me for the rest of my life rutting on top of a desk with the sleaziest lawyer I know. It's also going to have to stop me from having nightmares where I'm at home trying to make things nice for us while Nat is off screwing every random man she can find. I'm also going to need some kind of drug to make me trust her again and another one to make me respect her as well, and all of that is just to get us even. If you're talking about making it up to me, then...." Natalie started crying and ran out of the room. Penny quickly ran after her.

"What's wrong with HER?" I asked.

"Don't you think you were a little harsh?" asked Gunner. He still had the smug look on his face and I got the idea that he'd actually enjoyed seeing Natalie hurt.

"The look on your face..." he said. "It was pure hatred. I can't believe you'd flip-flop from worshiping her two weeks ago to almost hating her now. I think that you're still in shock. I'm almost afraid to ask how you feel about me."

"I don't think you want to know how I feel about you," I said and his smile vanished.

"Are you at least willing to consider giving this a short period of time before you just write off the relationship?" he asked. At that point, Penny and Natalie were coming back into the room.

"No, I'm not," I said, my answer directed more towards Natalie than Gunner. "I think that I've just been hurt too badly by all of this to ever trust her again. The only chance we have is to be totally honest with each other and try to stay friends. If we make a clean break and are perfectly honest with each other, then maybe we can start over again, but this time before I'd commit to a relationship with her we'd have to have certain ground rules about what we each can and cannot do. The first step in that would be to get the divorce out of the way so we could have that fresh start. Maybe, after the divorce is final, we could talk and go from there."

Natalie had been listening to the whole conversation. Mason wasn't the only one who could play tricks. I had no intention of ever going back to Nat. As I said, she'd hurt me too badly, but I wanted her to think that if she went along with the divorce, there was a chance for us. As we sat back down, Gunner started again.

"I think that what you tried to do before was a bluff," he said to Mason. "You're only going for irreconcilable differences because you have no proof of infidelity. You have no photos or videos to prove anything."

"And how do you know that?" asked Mason.

Gunner quickly turned green with embarrassment. He gulped his water and cleared his throat. "Well in this state the reason for the divorce doesn't really..." he began.

"I did it," said Natalie quietly.

"Shut up, Nat," hissed Gunner. "Your admitting it is the same thing as their having proof. If you admit to the infidelity and we end up in front of a judge, you may get the worse end of the settlement."

"What settlement?" asked Natalie. "We don't have any money, we don't have anything expensive, our apartment is rented and right now Jill doesn't even have a job. What can any judge take away from us or make us split? She still has a few of her belongings at the apartment and some of her stuff at the office. I'd give her all of that stuff back whenever she wanted it. I just want this over so we can start again. Give me the papers and I'll sign them. Jill, do you promise that, when this is over, we can talk?"

I looked across the table and nodded my head. She took the pen and signed the papers.

"I know that right now you're so angry at me that you probably don't want to talk to me," she said, "but I need for you to know that I really do love you and I'm miserable without you. I guess I just didn't realize how important you are to me. I was just stupid and greedy. I wanted to have my cake and eat it, too. I guess I'm my father's daughter, after all." Then she got up and left the room. She did manage to leave the room before she started crying this time. Gunner looked across at me and smiled.

"Okay, where does that leave us?" he asked. "Your divorce is settled. After the papers are filed with the court, hopefully by tomorrow or so, we'll get a date to go before a judge. He'll rubber stamp the papers and sixty days after that you'll be a free woman. Of course, from the date that the papers are filed, you're legally able to go out and start courting another woman. So theoretically, you could be in some other woman's bed by tomorrow night. Since this is all settled, have you considered coming back to work for me?"

"We'll be in touch," Mason said, taking my hand as he stood. "Good luck with your career."

Gunner looked funny then he smiled. "So you've been watching my career?" he asked. "It is good to do research on your opponent. You're a smart man." Mason just smiled as we left.

"Grrr...." I started growling as we left the room.

"Shh," replied Mason, smiling.

"I hate that bastard," I snapped. "He got away with it again."

"Shh," said Mason, as he reached over and held my hand. The contact was enough to quiet me down. I immediately closed my mouth as I mentally regressed and thought about him holding my hand while I tried to master the dead man's float in his backyard pool. I'd tried to float both on my back and on my front and could never do it. My own dad loved me, but he just didn't have the patience to try to teach me. Mason, however, had just told me to relax and let it happen. I always panicked and worried about my face being in the water. Finally he just told me to close my eyes and he'd hold my hand the whole time. He told me if I got scared to just squeeze his hand and he'd lift me out of the water. I floated perfectly. I don't know if it was that I was no longer worried or just the magic of him holding my hand, but I was never afraid of anything after that. So to have Mason holding my hand in the elevator was magical. I'd much rather have him hold my hand than vent about Gunner any day. As soon as we cleared the building and got back to the parking lot, Mason started speaking.

"I have no idea whether or not their elevators have listening devices," he said. "I didn't want to tip our cards."

"But Mason, the divorce is settled," I said.

"And now the revenge begins," he smirked.

"Mason, believe it or not," I said, "I don't want any revenge against Natalie. I loved her for a long time and she hurt me badly, but it's over. I have an idea that she's going to pay for it in her own way, and maybe she already is, but I don't need to do anything to her. I just want to move on and live my life. The best revenge is a life lived well."

"You are even more special than the young woman I remember," he said. "For a while, back there, I really thought that you were just leading her on, when you were talking about just settling the divorce so the two of you could get back together."