“You have to tell us, Tiny!” I scream at the huge man, hoping to somehow manage to pull the information out of him.
He chews another bite of food in his mouth, “Guys this is so good,” he states.
“Why won’t you tell us, then?” I plead, wanting to know what is going on, I knew there had to be something about Lauren, something not even she could hide. The thoughts inside me run wild, she’s been in prison, she’s dealt drugs, something, there just has to be something.
“I was talkin’ about the sandwich.” He smiles, knowing he’s pushing all the wrong buttons, “I”m sorry Liz. Okay, so I was talkin’ to my boy LeRoy whose in charge of all this private investigation stuff. I simply asked the man if there was anything he could dig up on this chick, nothing apparently. So then I went to my other boy Sean, and he found something big.”
“Jesus, Tiny, just tell us already!” Trace exclaims. “I need to know about this girl!”
Tiny waves his hand in front of Trace, signaling him to be quiet. The suspense in and of itself is killing me inside, I don’t know what to do anymore about it.
“She’s got a baby.” Tiny states. Trace spits out his milkshake, choking in the process, my face is pale white painted with shock. “Well, not a baby, he’s about five now.”
“How? When?” Trace stutters out, “Does J know?”
“Hell no, man. He’s got no idea. Matter of fact, the only people that know are her parents and the hospital where she had it. From what I’ve found, she’s planning on telling Justin after they get married, which brings me to another point. She wants to rush the wedding as fast as possible, she’s hoping they can elope within the next two months.”
“Wait, so what does this mean for Justin?” Trace questions and I immediately know the answer.
“She’ll have his money. Technically, she’ll have half plus whatever happens if he pays child support should they ever split but if they get married in California it’s gonna be 50/50 and he’s too faithful-”
“To ever sign a pre-nup,” Lynn interjects.
Tiny’s phone rings to cut in to our investigation of Lauren, “Hey boss. Yeah, what’s up?” You can hear mumblings on the other line as he continues to eat his food, “What’chu mean you didn’t know Liz was on the case? Boss, that’s crazy, we can’t do that.”
My eyes lift up from my plate to look over to tiny with his face resting in his hands, “Yeah, I know.”
He hangs up the phone, throwing it on the table, “Fuck,” he mumbles.
“What Tiny? What’s he want to do now? What is she putting him up to next?”
“He wants to have your firm paid off so that you’re permanently off the case, he says you shouldn’t be able to handle this situation because it’s a conflict of interest. You have to know that she put him up to it,” he states.
“There’s no way my firm will ever allow that to happen. Not in a million years. I have to win this case, it’s the only thing that’s going to keep everyone’s job,” I say.
“He’s willing to give them millions for it, he ‘says’ that he can’t stand to be in the same room as you as long as this continues to go on.”
I become uneasy and I pull my cellphone out of my pocket, dialing the number, not even bothering with speed dial. I’m livid, I can feel my blood boiling my skin, running through me like crazy.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve calling this phone, you bitch,” Lauren quips into the speaker, “he’s mine, always has been, always will be, and I can’t wait til you have nothing and I have it all.”
I hand the device over to Lynn, “Excuse me, Lauren, this is Lynn Harless, you know, Justin’s mother. Now I don’t know who you’re talking about or to in that tone but Liz was nice enough to lend me her phone to call my son.”
“Oh, hi Mrs. Harless! How are you?” The voice and tone immediately changing to suit who she’s talking to.
“Cut the bullshit, can you put my son on please?”
“Sure, let me grab him!” The phone is handed back to me in that instant and the voice that has always calmed me now overcomes me with a pain.
“Momma, what’s up?” He says calmly into the phone.
“Sorry, it’s me.” I say, hoping for some sort of mutual greeting or appreciation.
“Oh, what did you need?” He asks with a strong hint of irritation in his voice.
“I need to talk to you, immediately. If it’s the last thing I do, we have to have this conversation.” I say, knowing that if it ever came down to this, there might still be hope that he’d hear me out.
“When and where?” He asks.
“My house, a half hour,” I respond.
“Okay, ‘Momma,’ I’ll be right over.”
“Thank you.”
I put the phone down and Trace looks up at me quizzically. “We can’t just hide this from him for weeks and months, it won’t work that way. He’ll deal with it best if he knows before something major happens and if he hates me even more in the process then that’s something I’m going to have to live with. I might not like it, but at least I’ll know deep down that I tried and at this point, that’s all I can do.”
I grab my jacket from the booth, giving Lynn and Tiny a hug and I walk out the front door with Trace tailing me.
“Do you think you’re doing the right thing? I mean, what if he doesn’t care? Where do we go from there?”
“He’s our best friend, Trace, we can’t keep hiding this from him, he wouldn’t do that to us.”
“He’ll just hurt you in the end, Liz, that’s what I’m worried about. You don’t know how much it fuckin’ sucks to have to want to kill your one best friend because he hurt your other best friend.”
I pull him into a hug, knowing that the comfort of his arms will never match that of Justin’s. At this point, though, it’s better than being alone. I walk over to my car, putting the key in the ignition. I sigh, look at myself and it’s then that I know that this is the last chance I have to prove to Justin what’s best for him, I know that this is the last chance for me to ever see him again without her around and I know that this is the last chance for our relationship to be what it needs to be. I put the car in drive, hoping that I’m ready for what’s to come.
