The OF Girl Ch. 371-380

You flushed, both at knowing Alita had been hearing you having sex and also at the compliment. Before that summer you'd never considered yourself to have great sexual stamina, but with all the sex you were having you definitely were doing way better than you had on the few brief hookups you'd had at college. It turned out practice really did make perfect.

"So I kinda used that whole thing to pivot into telling her about the, uh, 'content stuff,' and she was curious. Maybe even more than Becks was, and more about the business side of things. I told her about the choices I made early on, and how things took off more when you started helping me, John. Then I made the offer that, if she wanted to try it out, I could pay her a fair rate to film a scene or two. This is kind of where things get complicated though, because she wasreally interested in that, and even said if she could test the waters like that she might get into it herself. But then when she realised I meant with me and you, John, she said that she wasn't into girls at all, she thought I meant just filming with you. I told her that wasn't super in our relationship boundaries, but I would talk to your guys about it."

"So she wants to film a couple of scenes with just John?" Gemma clarified. "For your account?"

"Yeah," Sabrina nodded. "Same camera angles and everything, still anonymous. She said she'd call you 'papi' and everything."

"I don't know," Gemma sighed.

"Me neither," you said. "It really is outside of what we agreed on for hookups."

"I agree," Sabrina said. "But I feel like there are mitigating circumstances. And I'm not arguing for it, I'm just outlining my thinking. First, it's less of a hookup and more of a business arrangement. Second, she needs the money and I know she won't just accept some help. And third, she said Gemma and I could both be there for the filming, just not involved in the action."

You chewed on the inside of your cheek for a moment, then checked your phone. "We need to get back," you said. "Are we good to think about this through the day and come back to it?"

"We're not on a timeline," Sabrina assured you both. "We can take all the time we need."

"OK," Gemma nodded. "We think about it and talk more tonight."

With that agreed on, you headed back to the courtroom.

"Shit," you said.

"What?" Sabrina asked.

"I should have bought a Coke, I could really use the sugar and caffeine."

Both of your girlfriends chuckled at that and promised not to let you fall asleep.

Chapter 380

The good news was that the Defense wrapped up their case just a few minutes after the judge usually called for the lunch break. They'd done their best to refute Garrison's claims and discredit his witnesses, but it had all been done at such a slow pace that it felt hard to even listen for when the really important points were being made.

The bad news was that there were still Closing Statements to be made, which meant once lunch came back it would be Garrison's turn again to run through all the evidence presented for the judge one last time.

As he'd asked you earlier, you, Sabrina, Gemma and Eric waited for Garrison until he was done giving directives to the associates who had sat second and third seat with him. Then he crossed over to speak with the lawyers of the defence. They spoke for almost twenty minutes, leaving the three of you waiting longer than morning recess had lasted, and then he finally shook hands with the lead attorney and wandered back towards you.

"Did you just make a settlement, sir?" Sabrina asked.

"No, no," Garrison said with a little self-satisfied smirk. "It's way too late for that for them. We'll talk about it at lunch, come on."

The judge had ordered an extra-long lunch, so you had plenty of time to head out of the courthouse. Garrison led you a couple of blocks over and into a dingy little pub that looked more like it was closed than open on the outside and had some sort of an Irish name that was illegible since it probably needed to be repainted in the 90s. The waitress seemed to recognize your boss and waved from where she was working at the bar, and Garrison nodded and led the four of you into the back sitting area. The place was cleaner on the inside than it looked on the outside, and as you were settling around a circular table the waitress came back with single-panel menus. "How you doin', hon?" she asked Garrison.

"Just fine, Fran," Garrison said.

You all ordered drinks, Garrison ordering a beer first and winking at the rest of you, so you followed suit. Soon you all had a beer in front of you and your food orders put in.

"Alright," Garrison said, clasping his hands on the table. "Before we get into the case, we have something else we need to discuss. Eric, John, do you both give your consent to talk about yesterday in front of Gemma and Sabrina?" You both agreed immediately and he nodded. "Good. Here's an update, then - Devin Zachery, aka. the artist known as 'DeezChains,' has been charged with assault in the second degree against John, battery against Eric, and several other charges that may or may not stick. Disturbing the peace, public drunkenness, etc. Those will likely get pleaded down, but the battery is key here. Now, obviously, that is handled by the DA and a prosecutor will be assigned so the firm and I won't be touching any of it. We can, however, represent you if you're called in to give a deposition - it's unlikely to get anywhere beyond that unless Devin Zachery doesn't listen to any legal advice whatsoever and decides to not cut a plea deal. With all the witnesses and everything being caught on camera, it's a cut-and-dry case that will likely mean he'll be on probation for a while, maybe some house arrest."

"What about civil action?" Eric asked. "I'm clearly injured, and he spouted a lot of disparaging stuff about all of us along with the phoney cease and desists. Can I sue him?"

Garrison sighed and raised an eyebrow at Eric. "Honestly, Eric, you could do that if you wanted but there are some mitigating factors such as you going on and shooting your mouth off on widely accessible podcasts. He doesn't have a case for slander or defamation on you, but it's close enough that it would cost you more than you would get in awards. Unless the verdict is worth more to you than your money, I'd suggest just letting it go on the criminal side."

Eric grimaced a little and sighed. "I have plenty of time to think about it, right?"

"You do," Garrison said.

"I'm just thinking that the verdict could lead to more opportunities to build my platform," Eric explained.

Garrison rolled his eyes but nodded. "That's a decision that is on you. Though... that idiot who represents Zachery is an ass and makes lawyers everywhere look bad. I wouldn't mind pissing in his cheerios a little more. Let me do some strategizing, we might be able to bait a settlement offer with just a filing and a couple of threats."

"Isn't that asking for trouble, though?" you asked. "Like, are we sure this guy is actually as wealthy as he says? What if there's no money there?"

"That's something I'll look into," Garrison nodded. "Remember, folks, always do your due diligence no matter what area of law you go into. If you're going to go after someone civilly, make sure the money is there. If you're a criminal prosecutor, make sure your ducks are in a row and keep an eye out for bad police procedures on everything. Or, like our case, if you're going to do corporate law make sure to follow every penny and check every memo. Which is a great segway into our other- Ah, here's lunch."

The food got delivered, and all five of you took a couple of minutes to dig in. It was basic pub fare, not quite as nice as the place you'd gone to yesterday, but a little more homey in its feel. There were only a dozen people in the place, mostly up near the front or at the bar. The place, you realised, was perfect for a private meeting and with Garrison obviously knowing the waitress you wondered what other clandestine talks he'd had right there at that table before.

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Thanks for reading. Votes are awesome, comments are even better!

If you enjoyed, make sure to catch the rest of the series! It is ongoing and releases will be happening every few days as we catch up to current. I also suggest you check out my AMA: The Boyfriend series for another ongoing story with lots of teasing.

Cheers!

~Break.

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