Laura walked into Deception slowly, lost in her own little world.
Elton stopped shuffling his papers.
“Morning, Ms. Spencer. Don’t we look lovely on this day?” he said cheerfully. Too cheerfully for Laura.
Laura sort of waved her hand at him and walked into her office. She closed the door in Elton’s face, but he just opened it and walked in.
“Here’s your printed emails.” he said handing them to her, “And your mail, and your phone messages. I put the important one on top.”
Laura lazily looked at all of the items, but her eyes immediately caught on to the words of the first phone message.
“The French company that makes Deception wants to send over a new contract for that new perfume. They don’t like the one that Asher Wilding put together.”
“That Asher Wilding.” Elton clicked his tongue. “He’s not a very good legal representative. If anything he gets paid for stalling things out.”
“Yeah.” Laura walked around the office for a minute. She knew what she had to do, and she didn’t want to do it. She'd have to have a lot of nerve to do it. Laura looked at the contract again, realizing that she was going to have to put out the call for the one man Calvary.
She smiled at Elton. “Elton, would you do me a favor?”
He turned his attention to Laura. “Yes?”
“Call Scott Baldwin for me, please.”
“You want me to call Mr. Baldwin?” he asked nervously.
“Yeah, tell him I really, really need him.” Laura said softly.
“Sure thing.”
Elton walked out the door but before he could completely exit Laura called to him.
“Elton, thanks.”
Elton exited to make the call.
Scotty sat in his office working on a case that really needed his attention. It was a kidnapping case, although his client didn’t do the kidnapping. It was just a father taking care of his child.
He sat there trying to write his opening statement when his telephone rang.
Scott called to his secretary. “Lisa! I thought I said no phone calls!”
She yelled back, “This is the phone call you usually tell me to put through.”
He sighed and picked it up.
“Yeah,” he said roughly.
“Mr. Baldwin, is this a bad time?”
“Elton? What’s up?”
“Oh, just major problems at Deception.”
“What?” he said, leaning forward in his chair.
“Ms. Spencer asked me to put out a mercy call. She needs you here ASAP.”
“Why?
“The French perfume makers are not happy with the new contract for the new perfume. And she’s in a little tizzy about it.”
Laura’s always in a little tizzy about something, Scotty thought.
“So, what are you calling me for?”
“Well, the poor dear’s fretting over anything and everything. She’s got wedding plans out the wazoo . It’s guest list, decorations, flowers………”
“I get the picture Elton.”
“And her new attorney just isn’t up to snuff. She wants the best, she needs the best and that means you.”
“If she wants me so badly why didn’t she call?” Scotty asked.
“Because she has too much pride!” Elton said in sarcastic tone, a tone that said Scotty knows that as much as he does.
“Look, will you please come?”
“I’ll think about it,” Scotty said.
“Whatever you do,” Elton warned, “Don’t tell her that I said she’s as jumpy as a virgin on prom night.”
Scotty almost laughed. Laura’s the poster child for virginity, he thought.
“I’ll see what I can do.” Scotty growled before he hung up. What was he going to do?”
Elton walked into Laura’s office slowly. I’ll see what I can do, he thought. He just hoped Scott did the right thing. Laura really needs him.
“Hey, Elton, did you talk to Scott?”
“Yes I did. He’s busy, but he’ll try to fit you in.”
Laura thought about that for a moment. That was better than saying “No.”
“Ok, well, we’ll just wait and see if he shows up.”
Elton left Laura’s office. She hoped he wouldn’t let her down, because if he did, it would be a first.
~End of the work day~
Scotty walked cautiously through the lobby of Deception, he waited to the last possible minute to see
Laura. For some reason, he didn’t want to spend much time with her. He wasn’t even going to come at all, but something told him he had to.
He noticed Elton wasn’t around, so he decided just to walk into Laura’s office.
She was sitting on the couch with her eyes closed, breathing slowly and deeply, obviously trying to calm herself. He hung in the doorway for a minute, staring at her before knocking. She turned around and smiled when she saw him.
“Hi, Scotty.”
“Hey.” he said, stepping in. Let’s just make this as quick as possible, he thought. “Elton said something was up.”
“Yeah, come, sit down” she said patting the spot next to her on the couch.
Scotty slowly sat down, he faced Laura and saw her still smiling at him. That amazing smile. She really was beautiful.
He realized that he was staring at her for a long time and her turned his gaze.
“So………” he said.
“OH.” Laura let out, as if she had forgotten the reason why he was there. Well, she kinda had. It was strange sitting next to him like this.
“Well, I have these contracts for the French company that makes Deception.“ She said, handing the contracts to Scotty, their fingers lightly touched and Laura blushed. “These are for the new fragrance
“Eternal Love” that they came up with. The only thing, is that they don’t like the deal.”
“Well, who could blame them?” Scotty said with a laugh. “Who came up with this?”
“Asher Wilding.”
“Oh, no wonder. Why did you get him? I could have referred you to another attorney Laura.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t want to bother you.”
Scotty looked at her for awhile.
“It wouldn’t have been a bother.”
“But you know, I thought you might not want to help me, after all this.”
Scotty got up and paced a bit. “Lots of other people break up every day, Laura.”
“Yeah, I know, but we’re not other people.” She said in a soft, sweet voice.
Scotty softened momentarily, but turned tough again.
“I told you if you ever needed me I’d be here. At least one of us keeps our promises.”
Laura got up, outraged. “I always kept my promises to you! I promised to give us a try again and I did.”
“Yeah, but that’s the thing, Laura, you didn’t try hard enough.”
Laura felt the pain hit her, hers and his, and she turned her back towards him.
“Scotty, I don’t want to fight with you.”
“I don’t want to fight with you either.”
She turned back around. “This is a simple business deal. I need a good lawyer, you’re the best, can you help me?”
Laura gave him those sad, bunny eyes.
He felt like melting.
“This means a lot to you doesn’t it?”
“Of course it does.” Laura reached out and tentatively grabbed his hand. “This perfume is incredible, and it will mean big money for Deception. I’m already stressed, and if you help out, it’ll be one less thing I have to be stressed about, so Scotty, would you please help me?” Laura gave him that sad face again.
“Ok, I’ll make a new contract.”
“And you’ll meet with me and the perfume company rep later in the week?” she asked, not wanting to press her luck.
“And I’ll do the meeting.”
“YES! THANK YOU, THANK YOU!” Laura said jumping in his arms. Scotty hugged her back, for that moments, she was a part of him. Laura stepped back.
“I owe you.”
“Yeah, you do.” Scotty said, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Laura.”
“Yeah, OK.”
Scotty stepped out of her office. He was just going to help her out this once and that was it, he figured as he left Deception.
Laura thought about Scotty the whole way home. He really was good to her, he was a great person.