Vince Houston, 38 at the time of the meat of this tale, considers himself a bad ass trial attorney. He probably is based on the effect he has on opposing counsel and his success rate in litigation. He's good looking, wealthy, and smart; however, his life is far from ideal. His wife, Angela, is a cold fish.
Angela, 37 during the meat of this saga, wasn't always a cold fish; she is now, however. While she will allow him to essentially masturbate inside her a few times a month the passion that characterized their previous love making is completely missing.
Angela used to be fun loving with a high libido and zealousness during sex that was unmatchable. She and Vince -- even after they were married -- loved to fuck in strange venues, the stranger the better. This included -- among the more bizarre places, including joining the mile high club -- on Vince's desk when he was an associate attorney and could have lost his job if caught, in her strict parents' bed when they were only going to be gone twenty --thirty minutes, under the stands at a High School football game that they attended with friends whose son was playing, under a picnic bench in a State park, on a tour through a medieval castle, and perhaps the most inexplicable place of all, the bathroom of a DMW (Department of Motor Vehicles).
Angela became a cold fish about three years after the birth of their third child, and after what appeared to be a minor traffic accident, but which may have messed up her limbic system.
While Vincent is suffering because he isn't getting passionate loving he doesn't consider divorce a realistic option for many reasons. First, he still very much loves Angela and she is his best friend; second he loves his kids and it would kill him to be a part time dad; third Angela's father is the managing partner of the law firm he is a partner of; fourth while no longer passionate Angela still treats him well and is devoted to him and is embarrassed by her inability to enjoy fucking his brains out; and fifth he otherwise really likes his life and doesn't want to disrupt it.
What Vince lacks in passion in his sex life he makes up for with passion -- his opponents call it viciousness -- in doing trial work. Because of his take-no-prisoners approach clients love him, judges just tolerate him, jurors either love him or hate him but he gets through to them either way, and opposing counsel loathe him. Many opposing lawyers attempt to quickly settle a case when Vince is on the other side rather than deal with him.
In some ways Judy Blackstone, 42 at the start of this story, is a female equivalent of Vince Houston. She is a trial attorney in the biggest firm in the city where Vince lives and practices, although she lives on the opposite side of town from Vince. While Judy doesn't have enormous God-given attractiveness through proper hygiene, intense exercise that has successfully sculpted her body, some constructive medical procedures, fashion sense, and personal care, gets second glances from all hetero males. Her nickname is Black Widow, not because she's ever eaten one of her husbands (she's on her third, no kids) or because of her skin color, but because she is poisonous to anyone who opposes her, not just in the courtroom but even at her law firm and in personal relationships. She is even wealthier than Vince and engenders fear in opposing counsel as much as he does.
Vince and Judy do not normally practice in the same areas of law, and only know each other slightly as a result of bar functions; they do know each other's' reputations.
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On a bright May morning Vince's father-in-law Harold Morrison brought the executives of a new client, Affinity Manufacturing, into Vince's office shortly after he arrived. "Vince, I'd like you to meet Charles, the CEO of Affinity, Carolyn, in-house counsel, and Jackson, engineering manager."
After handshakes and pleasantries are exchanged Charles tells them why they are there. "We were served with a lawsuit last week alleging all sorts of outrageous things including product liability, fraud, violation of state unfair competition laws, and others. When we took it to our normal outside counsel they declined to represent us in this matter. While they didn't come right out and say it Carolyn is convinced that it is because Judy Blackstone is on the other side."
Vince's eyebrows rose.
"Yes," Carolyn continued, "the senior partner at our regular outside firm, Winston and McGrath, got his head handed to him in a litigation against Blackstone last year and it left a very bad taste in his mouth. He recommended you as someone who could match her tooth-for-nail."
Vince was pleased at the compliment and anxious to lock horns with the notorious Black Widow. After a half hour of discussion he agreed to take the case.
As expected, the litigation was contentious to the extreme. Vince filed a counterclaim that in intensity matched the claims in the complaint, added a few Federal causes of action and filed a motion to remove the case to Federal court where he felt he had an advantage over the Black Widow.
The acrimonious motions flew, the oral arguments were hostile, and both sides were in complete take-no-prisoners mode. Just when it looked like things couldn't get worse an event occurred that riled Vince. For a seemingly innocuous third party witness deposition Vince sent one of his female associates. Shockingly, The Black Widow herself attended the deposition and completely intimidated Vince's associate to the point that she had tears in her eyes when she related the situation to him. "I'll get that bitch," he fumed. Several weeks later when The Black Widow noticed the deposition of an important third party witness in upstate New York, and refused Vince's request to reschedule it at a more appropriate time, he decided that this was his chance to put her in her place, so he arranged to go to the deposition rather than sending a partner or -- heaven forbid -- another associate.
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Vince didn't like travelling to upstate New York in the winter, but the third party witness refused to come to the big city, and insisted that the deposition be taken at a modest motel conference room near his home rather than the ostentatious law offices that Vince and Judy were used to. While Judy was examining the witness Vince made numerous objections; while Vince cross-examined she had her own voluminous ones. The deposition took significantly longer than it should have but by late afternoon it was finally concluding. As Judy and Vince were collecting all of the exhibits -- actually interacting to see that each had a copy of each -- and otherwise assembling their papers, the witness and court reporter quickly took off.
As they were finally packed up and ready to leave the deposition venue Judy looked at her watch. "Because of your tedious and juvenile cross-examination, we've missed any possibility of catching the last flight out tonight," she snarled.
"If you had postponed this like I asked, we could have come at a more convenient time where there were more flights, but you couldn't even extend a simple courtesy," Vince snarled back. "Plus," he continued as he moved the blinds aside on the window in the conference room, "I hate to break the news to you Lizzy Borden, but it looks like there's six or seven inches of snow on the ground and it's still coming down." Vince fiddled with his cellphone for a minute or two while Judy looked at him, then he continued "According to the weather report on my iPhone it's still coming down at about two inches per hour. We're lucky if we can get into town to get a decent hotel room."
When Judy moved the blinds and looked out the window she moaned "Shit." Then in an uncharacteristic moment of reasonableness she said "We'll be lucky if we get a taxi to take us into town -- let's get one together rather than trying for two separate ones."
"Is the Black Widow going to lure me to her web and bite me to win the lawsuit?" Vince chuckled.
"Funny, asshole, "Judy shot back, only not with a sneer, but with a smile.
With their over-stuffed brief cases they walked down to the lobby of the very modest motel, six levels below where they normally stayed when out of town. "Can you call for a cab to get us into town?" Vince asked the young male desk clerk with "Jimmy" on his nametag.
"Sorry sir," he replied, "I tried the only two cab companies in town for another guy when there was only three inches of snow on the ground and they both told me that they have suspended operations until tomorrow around noon."
"What?" Judy exclaimed. "Maybe we can get an Uber."
"Sorry ma'am," Jimmy continued, "we don't have Uber or Lyft service in this area -- plus I heard on the radio that it's been suspended in town too."
"How are you getting home?" Vince asked.
"I just started my shift before I called the taxi companies and I'm on for ten hours more and I might have to extend if no one else can get into work tomorrow morning," the clerk replied.
"Well how about here -- do you have any rooms?" Vince asked.
"I don't think so -- but let me check," Jimmy replied and then started clicking on his keyboard. "Sorry -- the only room we have, and I mention it only because you two seem desperate, is what the night manager sometimes uses when he is on duty, although he canceled for tonight when the cafe closed."
"What -- the restaurant closed?" Judy shrieked.
"Sorry ma'am," the timid desk clerk replied. "I...I...can give you the room if you want, though, but the bed is just a twin and the bathroom isn't too large, although it does have a full size shower stall."
Vince and Judy groaned and griped for the next fifteen minutes to no avail. After they looked at the room Vince quickly said "I'll take the room, here's $200 cash," handing the clerk two Ben Franklins.