Chance Encounter

"I'm sorry, Jeff. I was stuck in an elevator for four hours and I missed my flight. I can't get another flight out until tonight. What do you expect me to do? Teleport myself back to Atlanta?" Samantha whispered harshly into the receiver.

"Bullshit! Sam, you know I have to be in court this afternoon. What the hell am I supposed to do with him? Leave him in the car?" Jeff screamed. Jeff. Her ex. Jeff was a screamer. Always had been. Always would be. He was an attorney, too. Personal injury and malpractice cases. Ambulance chaser, as Brian would say.

"Jeff, listen. Take him to Lila's house. She'll watch him til I get home. I'm sorry if you feel that your son is a burden. Damn it, I only ask you to take him two days a month, and you act like I've asked you to raise the fucking Titanic with your bare hands."

"Nice language, Samantha. Really nice."

"Fuck you, Jeff." She hung up on him. Some days she could handle him. Some days she couldn't. Today, she couldn't.

She sat down behind the desk and looked out the window overlooking the city. It was an incredible view. She stared down at the tiny cars driving on the freeway. They looked like specks. Ants. She heard the door open and she turned to see who it was. It was AJ.

"Hi," she said, smiling. He held his hand up and flopped down onto the couch on the other side of the room. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

"Mind if I smoke?" he asked, still sounding very raspy and hoarse. He took a long draw off his cigarette and coughed raggedly.

"No. But your lungs might. You sound terrible."

"It's just a little cold." He shivered a little and closed his eyes.

"Sounds like an awfully bad cold," she said, frowning. She walked over and put her hand on his forehead. He was burning up.

"God, you've got a fever, AJ," she said. "You should see a doctor."

"Don't have time for that shit," he said. "Gotta get on the plane this afternoon and get home. Then I've got a meeting tonight."

"Meeting more important than your health?"

"Yep. AA meeting. Can't miss it. It's not allowed." He rolled his eyes.

"Ohhhh 90 meeting in 90 days, right?" she said softly, smiling. "Been there, done that."

"Really?" he asked, now looking interested. "How long have you been sober?"

"Let's see... 4 years, 2 months, 17 days. But who's counting?" she said, laughing. She sat down beside him.

"Does it get easier?"

"I'd like to say yes, but I'd be lying. Some days I don't think about it at all. Some days it's all I can do to keep myself straight."

"What made you stop?" AJ asked, pulling off his sunglasses and staring at the floor.

"My priorities changed. I finally found something more important in life that my own selfishness."

"Just alcohol? Or more than that?" AJ asked. "Or is that too personal?"

"Honey, let's put it this way... I've killed more brain cells in my life with booze, coke, and pot than most people have in their entire brain."

AJ nodded, then let out another ragged cough. He put his hand on his chest and sat back. Samantha took the cigarette from his hand and went to the sink at the bar, where she ran water over it, then threw it into the trash.

"Sorry. I know I don't know you, but I just can't watch you keel over and die from pneumonia with a cigarette burning in your hand," she said, shaking her head.

"Thanks. Somebody's gotta look after me, right?" he laughed.

"One time thing, baby," she said, wrinkling her nose at him. "I doubt I'll see you again after today. We don't exactly run with the same crowd."

"You don't look like a lawyer," AJ said, tilting his head and looking at her through his sunglasses.

"What do lawyers look like?" she asked, laughing. She sat back down on the couch beside him and raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know. Like Marsha Clark, I guess. Or Judge Judy. You look more like... uh... I don't know. A Hooter's waitress or something."

"You're a jerk. Did you know that? Here, let me get you another cigarette. I shouldn't have saved your lungs," Samantha said, laughing incredulously.

"Well, maybe not a Hooter's waitress. Maybe a Playboy centerfold?" he said, smiling.

"Oh, that's much better," she said, rolling her eyes. "And I guess you'd know all about those Playboy centerfolds, wouldn't you, Studboy?"

AJ burst out laughing. "Don't believe everything you read."

"Yeah, well, don't judge a book by its cover."

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