Sometimes I wonder what the point of my law degree is. Here I am defending this scumbag stalker, a case I have to take because I'm still too far down the rung in the firm. He claims innocence, but I can see the girl on the other side of the room with her hands in her face and can hear her crying. She had just gotten off the stand telling the whole room of the relenting way this man had stalked her. I try to do my best to defend him, a client is a client after all. I can see the jury isn't buying it and frankly, neither would I. I can see the guy despairing. He can also tell they aren't siding with him. I fight the urge to glare at him. I look over at the girl and our eyes meet. She's actually very pretty with long black hair and these bright blue eyes. My eyes linger and as we look at each other it's like she's looking into my soul and she smiles for the first time during the trial. I start to feel like I'm being weird and look away, probably not the best for the defense attorney to be caught staring at the victim. I notice my client staring at me too, but he has a sad look in his eyes. At this point the jury steps away to make their decision.
They come back a half hour later and the judge pronounces my client guilty.
I turn to him, "Sorry, Truett, but you lost."
He is just sitting there freaking out. He stands up and yells, "No! I wasn't stalking her! Why does no one believe me?!"
He turns towards me and yells, "Even my own lawyer doesn't believe me!"
At this point officers are heading towards him and I'm backing away. They grab him by his arms and he tries to break free, but can't. He keeps yelling though, "She's crazy! You can't imagine the things she can do! You'll all see! You'll regret this! Especially you!" He is pointing at me, "I've seen the way she was looking at you. You're next!"
The officers take him away. Clearly he was really messed up in the head. Maybe a few years in prison will help him get a better head on his shoulder after he reflects over his actions. I'm a little shaken from the events and go to leave. As I pass by the victim our eyes meet again and she gives me a smile and waves goodbye. It feels a little awkward, but I give a quick wave back. Exhausted from the trial, I arrive home and go straight to sleep.
The next day I still have work in the morning. I put on a clean suit and groom myself a little. I have short black hair and a pretty respectable figure. I walk out of my apartment, get in my car, and drive off. I always leave a little early every morning to go to this little coffee shop that I like. I'm standing there waiting in line when I notice the victim from the trial sitting in one of the booths looking out the window. I look away and hope she doesn't notice me. She probably doesn't want to see the guy who defended her stalker. After I get my coffee I try to walk past her nonchalantly, but right after I pass her I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around to see her right there.
"Hey," she says, "You're the lawyer. The one from the trial. You defended Truett. What was your name again?"
"Andrew," I tell her.
I hope that's all, but she puts out a hand and says, "I'm Aliya, but you probably knew that already."
I feel like it would be worse if I ignored her so I shake her hand and say, "Yeah, I remember."
"I just wanted to say that there's no hard feelings," Aliya says, "I know you were just doing your job."
"Yeah," I say, "To tell you the truth, I had trouble dealing with that guy. I'm sorry for what he put you through and I'm glad he's behind bars."
"Thanks, for that," Aliya says and she brushes her hand against my arm and says, "You're sweet."
"Oh, thanks," I say, "But I really must be going or I'll be late for work."
"Oh, sorry, don't let me keep you, but it was nice talking to you," she says.
"Yeah," I say and I walk away hoping to never see her again.
I get to work and start dealing with the paperwork following the aftermath of the trial. The rest of the day is normal and boring. I see Aliya at the coffee shop again the next day and she once again stops me briefly to chat. It's pleasant. The rest of the week I see her there everyday. I'm surprised that I never realized she had gone there, but I guess I didn't know who she was before the trial so it didn't click before. That weekend I go to the grocery store and run into her there too. The next day I see her at my gym and she even spots me for a little while. I guess she lives around here too so I'll be seeing a lot of her, but it's strange, I swear I'd never seen her before the trial. Over the next month we talk a lot. She's really nice and I start to consider her a good friend. She's not really my type, but sometimes I catch her flirting and I ignore it, but she doesn't give up. Also during this month I started noticing weird things happening in my apartment. At first I thought I was imagining it, a misplaced TV remote, pictures being a little crooked, furniture moved slightly. When I told Aliya this she thought I was being paranoid, but things got worse. Pictures were being moved completely. furniture was being rearranged, and food was missing, even stuff I had already taken a bite out of. Someone had clearly been in my apartment. I didn't call the police though because I had no proof. Months go by and this continues, but never escalates past these minor inconveniences.
I run into Aliya in the coffee shop one morning like always and I have big news to share with her.
"Why are you smiling so brightly?" she asks, "Something good happen?"
"Why yes it did," I say, "I finally made partner."
"That's great news, congratulations," she says.
"Thank you," I say back beaming.
"You should celebrate," she says, "Any ideas?"
"Yeah," I say, "I was thinking of going out drinking and maybe I could find a woman to spend the night with."
I can see her mood sour when I say this and the conversation quickly ends. I guess she hoped I would ask her to dinner or something. She never got a hint, but I don't want this to ruin our friendship so I decide to make it up to her somehow next time I see her.
She's probably better off not dating me anyways. My love life is nothing but failed relationships. Whenever things got deep or we were dating for a while they always seemed to get sick of my attitude. Some of them called me a misogynist, others a sexist prick. I never thought that was fair. I didn't treat women poorly, it's just that in a relationship the man should have control, and the woman should just listen. That's just how things worked best, that's how my parents were. No woman I found agreed with this and there was no way I wanted to test this on Aliya and ruin our friendship.
That night I was at a bar and hitting on the hot woman next to me. We kept ordering drinks, me more than her and I thought things were going great. I try to kiss her, but she pushes me away.
"What are you doing?" she asks loudly.
"What?" I ask back, "I thought we were having a moment."
"You've just sat there and talked about yourself this whole time, except to compliment, how did you phrase it? My great ass and big tits," she says back, "How did you think that was a good conversation? Do you even know my name?"
"It's um, um, it's Robin," I say.
"My name is Clare, jackass," she says, "Just leave me alone."
"Fine," I say.
Maybe I'll have to try my luck with a woman another night. I still want to celebrate so I proceed to order drink after drink till I'm super wasted. I see Clare about to leave the bar with some other guy. Against my better judgment I walk over to them.
I go right up to Clare and say, "What's so great about him, huh?"
"He was thoughtful and nice and we had a real conversation," she says.