There Was This Girl - Billi - The Legal Department - Charlie For Now

Chapter One

I was trying to install his new home security system, but he kept bugging me. Finally, when he saw my exasperated look, he asked what was wrong, and wouldn’t take ‘nothing’ for an answer.

Some movement over across the hallway on the landing about halfway down the stairs distracted me and drew my attention. There was this girl.

I glanced at that young woman on the stairs. She was cute. Gorgeously cute. Effingly, beautifully cute. She had long dark blonde hair cut with bangs above pretty green eyes, a cute little nose, slightly darker eyebrows, a smile to write home about, and a body to just die for, with a tiny little waist and a cute little butt over legs that went all the way down to the floor and all the way up to THERE! She was wearing short shorts that climbed up a bit between the cheeks of that cute little butt leaving the bottom curve uncovered for my viewing pleasure, and a tight little knit crop top that highlighted her perky nipples, firm breasts, and tight abs. Even her belly button was cute. She looked so smooth and soft…

She smiled at me as I looked up at her, then simply flexed her bare feet and legs so that her heels rose to about four inches off the stair and stayed there on the balls of her feet until she knew I had seen what that did to the shape of her otherwise magnificent legs. Jesus! She was, in a word, distracting. Distracting as hell, and most definitely well worth any… I needed to get back to work and the man wouldn’t let up.

“Look, sir, I have five guys stuck in Illinois on a job that was expanded threefold almost overnight. I have three out sick with the Corona virus, I have another two on complex service calls, I have two open positions, and I’m here trying to get your security and internal network system installed because I’m just about all I have left, and I need this done right. I have my ex-wife’s lawyer crawling down my back every three seconds, and everyone I talk to in this damned town knows each other, so finding a lawyer that wants to work for me, instead of for themselves, or for her and her lawyer, is impossible. I’m just trying to make things come together positively for you, and my people, and my company, in the midst of an avalanche of negative input. Sorry, sir, I’m just here to work and to get this all running. I didn’t mean to spill my guts, but you insisted.”

“Billi!” he yelled. The girl on the stairs came over to where I was working, and where the customer was tormenting me.

“Yes, Daddy?”

“I’m going outside. Talk to this young man. He sounds like a nice guy, he’s a hard-working fellow, and he has what seem to be legal issues. If he can’t afford you, I’ll subsidize it, but you need to find some honest work and get out on your own. Start here. Please.”

She looked at me, cocked her head, then smiled at her father and shooed him out. “Hi. I’m Billi. Billi Jo Martin, and I’m pretty sure my father wants me to try to help you. Harvard Law, Class of Nineteen. Spoiled rotten, and not quite ready to leave home. Look around. You wouldn’t, either.”

“I get that. I had a pretty good gig as a kid, too. Charlie. Charles Cox. Honored. Honored just to look at you. You’re a lawyer? You look more like a judge’s pixie faerie fantasy. Sorry, but you’re really pretty, Billi. Sorry to start this discussion out on a bad note.”

“Nothing bad about being called a pixie faerie fantasy and good looking. Enough of the joking around. It’s good to see you again, Charlie. It’s been a long time. Talk to me about your problems, sir. I am here to help.” She made a face, the look of an older psychiatrist, fist under her chin, trying to get me in a better mood.

“I had, have, a prenup. She has a vicious lawyer. My lawyer has not only retired but left our plane of existence for one with my ex-wife not in it. She made the last four years of his life miserable. He was a hell of a good guy, and an even better barrister, but he only lived to be seventy-four, and I needed him to live to be at least a hundred. Obviously.”

“I want copies of everything. His files, whatever you’d like to share. Sounds like fun. Daddy thinks I’m just a spoiled rotten lazy little girl, and he’s right, I am, but I’m also so very much more than that. I really do need to get to work, and this sounds like a good place to start. How much were you paying your last attorney?”

“Way too much.”

“Good. I’ll take two thirds of that to start, but I’ll need some kind of proof and five grand in advance for a retainer. I need gas money, after all. He,” she thumbed toward outside where her father stood, “Bought me a really nice car for graduation, and now he says I need to put gas in it all by myself. Can you believe him? Of all the crap a girl has to put up with!” She started laughing. “Kidding. My mother left me a bundle. I can afford anything I want, except a client, and my father may have just found me one. Talk to me!” Her smile was monumental.

“You may be too much for me. You’re a bit… A bit boisterous? Maybe a bit forward?”

“Try me anyway. I promise not to bite. Very hard.” She chuckled.

“We were married for a year. She was a gold digger. I didn’t see it. My father demanded I get an ironclad prenup and helped me work it out. His legal department was handed down to me with the company, but that’s not available anymore. In any case, I just need her to go away.”

“OK. I need copies of everything, like I said, and I need you to think of everything and tell me everything. Everything. Any promises you may have made. Anything you may have said, or, God forbid, written, that would countermand the prenup. Everything. Anything.”

“I can tell you now, already, I lied to her. I told her I loved her. I thought I did. I didn’t. Since then, I have been very fond of a specific leather wallet, more so than of her. In fact, come to think of it, the cute girl on the stairs a few minutes ago? I feel more strongly about her than I did of my own wife, and I haven’t really gotten to know the girl, other than to meet and exchange names when she was a bit younger.”

“Seriously, Mr. Cox? Coming on to your lawyer? Seriously? That’s kind of cool, actually.” She grinned. “Let’s work from there. I wouldn’t mind being taken to dinner tonight, either. That would be nice. I’ll pick. Come get me at seven. Now, get to work. Daddy wants his network back up and those cameras running by tomorrow afternoon. He’s having a party tomorrow night and wants it recorded. He thinks there may be a problem. You are going to help him prove or disprove it, and I’m going to help him ruin the people if it’s proven or watch him promote them if not. It’s complicated. Everything is these days.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, ‘wow’ is right. Seven. Wear a tie. I’ll make reservations. See you then, Mr. Cox.”

“Yes, Miss Martin. As you wish.” She giggled and ran up the stairs. I had to laugh, shook my head and got back to work. Mr. Martin saw me.

“She’s a wonder, Charlie. Trust me. She graduated second in her class. She’s no dummy. She is very needy and very spoiled, though. She’s my daughter and I wouldn’t have it any other way. It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if she fell for you. Your old man said it would happen. Ten years ago, he told me to lock her up. She was fifteen and you had just graduated from flight school. I sent her to law school to get her away from you, at your own father’s bidding, and yet here you are, talking to her. Chuck was right. You’re a danger to my family’s future.” He started laughing.

“Bill, please let me get this done. I don’t need your help with my non-existent love life. I just want to do my job and get you ready for your shindig tomorrow.” He left me alone, laughing as he walked down the hallway. I called a guy in, offering him double time to help me that evening, and he did a really good job helping me then taking over to get it finished up. All I needed to do was test and certify the equipment the next day, and it would be ready.

I arrived back at the Martin estate at seven, sharp. No need to piss off the natives. David was making headway on the installation and immediately figured out why he was working overtime, and I was off.

“Schmoozing the customer’s daughter?”

“No!” I explained it to him. “She’s my new lawyer and she’s going to try to get Nancy off my ass so I can continue to pay you guys for a while longer.”

“Oh, cool. In that case, have a great evening. You can test this layout tomorrow and certify it for Mr. Martin. You had it close to done, and it will be when you get here tomorrow. Charlie, please know I was just kidding. I wouldn’t trade your hours for twice what you pay me. I’d never see my kids.”

“I know, Dave. By the way, tell the missus I said I was sorry about tonight.”

“No biggie, boss. She’s in Columbia with her mother. They are planning my demise. Number three is due in a few weeks. She took the kids with her to go see their Nana, so no issues at all.”

“Congratulations, again, and make sure I know about it when it happens. I don’t need or want to be notified before everyone else, but I’ll have something for you, so I need to know.”

“Thanks, Boss. You’re on my list to notify in any case, if for no other reason, a few days off to get Momma situated. Oh, my God. Ten o’clock high.”

I looked up the stairway at a heavenly vision. Billi Jo Martin was a goddess in blue. A blue surplice silk wrap with dyed to match satin heels. Diamonds adorned her neck, her ears, her wrist, and two of her fingers, neither of which was her left ring finger. I was in awe and forgot to say anything.

“Mr. Cox?”

I nodded.

“You look nice tonight. You do gray really well,” she said, breaking the silence.

“Not nearly as well as you do blue. I guarantee,” I finally managed to mutter.

“Thank you for that. At least you can speak now. Come on, let’s go. The Lamplighter has a table waiting for us.”

“The Lamplighter? The dance club?”

“Yes, Mr. Cox. I want to dance tonight. Please don’t say ‘no’. I don’t take disappointment well.” She giggled after she said it, yelling, “Goodnight, Daddy!” and off we went.

Billi Jo Martin is a card. She was fun to be with, could carry a conversation on any of several subjects, and was completely NOT self-centered. Very surprising, since she seemed very much that way at her house. She asked about my company, my parents, my divorce, my love life, and about a hundred other things, never once injecting herself into the conversation as a subject. What little I found out about her, I had to ask, and in one case, even pry a little.

She didn’t, at all, want to share any information about her past failed engagement, since it was a disappointing event, then said, “and I told you I don’t take disappointment well.” Then she laughed. She did tell me, though, that her fiancé decided that since they were engaged to be married that she should go ahead and give herself to him. “I didn’t see it that way and told him as much. I let him have a taste of passion and even helped him out a few times, but he just couldn’t be put off any longer. In any case, he’s now in jail for assault and attempted rape. I sent his mother the ring with a note about just how poorly her son reacted to my desire to remain a virgin until after HE said, ‘I do’, and I haven’t heard another word from either of them. Daddy heard from her, though, and when she told him I was a ‘stuck up ice queen bitch’, he let her have it with both barrels. I was HIS ‘stuck up ice queen bitch’, thank you very much, and he was more proud of me then than he was before. He also told her it was a pretty high bar already. “I love my Daddy, Charlie. Since Momma passed away, he has spoiled me rotten and I want for nothing. I probably never will. I’ll forever have him first or second in my heart. Or third, I guess, after my first child is born. Enough about me. Tell me about your company.”

I told her about the company my grandfather started when computers were just coming into vogue, and how he built it, he and Dad expanded it, how they invented the software packages that changed the accounting world, sold them to a large software company, making a fortune, and how they both died in the fishing boat accident with Nana and Mom on board, and how I was left with the whole kit and kaboodle.

“Net worth?”

“Sixty to ninety million, depending on the markets.”

“OK. I’ll go through all your paperwork tomorrow and we’ll get this Nancy woman off your ass. The band is tuning up, Charlie. Dance with me?”

I took her out on the floor for several numbers. She could dance as well as she looked. Elegant, smooth, easy to lead, and a bit amorous on the floor. She kissed my neck during a slow waltz we were doing, catching me just a bit off guard.

“Have you ever thought you really, really, liked someone right after meeting them, Charlie? I mean, I know we’ve known each other for ten or so years, and yet not really. Not that closely, anyway. My father teased me once about your father telling him to keep you away from me. Now I understand why.” She giggled cutely. “I’ve never kissed a man on the neck before. I could have sworn I felt you shiver a bit.”

“I did, Billi. I shivered all the way down to my toes. I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and ask if you’ll spend Sunday with me. I have to work some more on your place tomorrow morning, but tomorrow afternoon, tomorrow night, maybe, and hopefully Sunday, I’d like to spend more time with you.”

“I’d like that. I really would. My place, out at the pool? I’ll get us fed and we can just talk and learn some more about ourselves and each other. I should have a really good idea of your financial and legal future by then as well.”

“Ourselves?”

“Yes. I was engaged for six months, knew him quite a while before that, and I never felt this way with him. I’ve also been with members of the fairer sex, and I can guarantee I’ve never felt this way with any of them. I need to know what I’m feeling, and why.”

“Good. At least I’m not competing with a woman for your charms.”

“Not in the least. Take me home, Sir Galahad. I’m tipsy, and I don’t want to say anything stupid.”

I took her home, walked her to the door, and after kissing her, she pulled me inside. “Daddy? Daddy! Oh, there you are. I want to see this one again. Don’t shoot him, OK?” She laughed. Mr. Martin smiled. “This one can dance, and I made him shiver. I think that’s a good thing. Say goodnight, Daddy!”

“Goodnight, Daddy,” he said, smiling and shaking his head, playing along with his daughter’s silliness, then waved at us and went back into the study.

She turned back to me, tiptoed up, pulled my face down, and kissed me again. Soundly. Softly, yet intensely. And wetly. Her lips were soft, moist, and pliable, meshing with mine. I felt more emotion from that one kiss than I had with my ex-wife in an entire year.

“Goodnight, Charlie. I need all that paperwork tomorrow. OK?”

All I could do was nod. I didn’t have the muscle control to do anything else. I couldn’t even speak.

I didn’t sleep well that night. In the morning, I did finally get around to gathering the documents she wanted and put a folder together for her. The prenup and the divorce settlement were the most important, I thought, but she wanted any written communications, emails, texts, and anything else I could come up with. Just in case.

I took everything I had available at the house and arriving at their place with my gear to finish the Martin home network, was met at the door by a cute little blonde woman in a chenille robe and fuzzy slippers.

“Good morning, Charlie. Is that all for me?” I handed her the fat envelope, nodding. “Cool. Any luck with the texts and such?”

That was fun. I had called the phone company, given them the numbers, to and from, and was told to wait for a day or two. They’d be there shortly. Good to know! Gotta love good record keeping. Scary, though, that if someone had a court order, they could get anything… Yes. One could come up with those if they had the right request.

“Yes. I called the phone company before I came over here. They will have them on the way shortly. You’ll get them as soon as I do. I can’t believe how easy it was.”

“Only if they’re yours. If they’re someone else’s, it takes an act of congress and a friendly judge. The phone companies hold them pretty tightly, like I said, unless it’s you and you want your own. I’ll look over all this tonight after Daddy’s party and we’ll go from there. Are you busy tonight?”

“Not really.”

“Good. Come by around eight. Business casual. Sports coat if you like. I don’t want to be here alone. A couple of Daddy’s buddies’ little boys are letches. Rich, spoiled, late twenties, early thirties, and think I’m available. I’m certainly not. Not to them, anyway.”

“Eat first?”

“Yes. Come to think of it, get done here, and we’ll take care of all that at once. That way I can come back in with you on my arm, or me on yours, depending on how alpha-ish you need to be. Doesn’t matter to me one way or the other. I know who I am. Let me know when you’re finished. We’ll talk.”

It was about three hours later when I started looking around the house for her. She had the cameras already running on her iPad and found me while I was looking for her. It was just after one in the afternoon, and when she stopped me in the downstairs hallway, between the study and the kitchen, she really caught me off guard again. Short shorts, high heeled sandals, a tight tee top that just barely covered her waist. I could see her credit card and driver’s license in her back pocket when she turned and opened the door to the study. The shorts fit her that well.

“Daddy, I’m taking Charlie to lunch. We’ll be back in a bit.” I heard him say, “Okay,” and mumble something then she said, “Okay,” and we walked out. Once I had her up in the truck, she asked me if I was done.

“Yes. I just need to run the printouts and hand them over. Did the app come up all right on your tablet?”

“Worked like a charm. Question?”

“Anything you want to ask, I’ll answer. I think I like you, Billi. I hope that’s all right and I’m not reading too much into this.”

“Same here. Can I use your guest room to get ready for tonight? I’m wearing a mini and heels. Not much to them, but I don’t want to just hang around while the caterers are setting up.”

“I’d love that,” I said. Her smile was golden. “Bread Company for lunch?” She nodded.

We had a nice talk over lunch then I took her back to her house. She ran upstairs, grabbed some things, and ran back down the stairs. In just that few minutes it took, Mr. Martin called me into the study.

“She’s quite taken with you, Charlie. Do you even remember her when she was little?” He showed me a picture of his young teenage daughter. I looked at it, smiling, and nodding. “She told me last night, she remembers you being here for dinner a couple of times with your father and a party once with your grandfather when your dad was in Washington doing something, if I recall, and the old man brought you. He was quite a guy, your granddad. You were home on leave, maybe? I don’t remember all the details, but she remembers you being here. She told me she thought you were cute when she was what, fourteen? Fifteen? You were what, twenty-two? Twenty-three, maybe? She still thinks so, but don’t tell her I told you she said that.”

I printed the certifications out on his laser printer, then showed them to him.

“Bill, you DO realize your daughter is a beautiful woman, and if she thinks I’m cute, or worthy of her, or both, I won’t fight it. She’s a gorgeous, spoiled rotten brat, self admittedly, and I’d like nothing more than to know if we could spend the rest of our lives trying to make sure that doesn’t change.”

“Good. Your father is up there laughing at me. Have fun. I hear you’re taking her home to get ready for our little soiree tonight. It’s going to be fun, one way or the other, but it could get really, really exciting. I’m sure you’ll be entertained one way or the other. One of my former partners has a son that thinks the sun rises and sets over his own shoulders. Billi will use you to keep herself away from him. Do well, young man. She’d much rather be around you than any of the low-life pussy hounds you’ll see here tonight.”

Billi popped through the door, smiling brightly. “Daddy, you didn’t tell him I said I think he’s cute, did you? I don’t want him to know about that yet.” He shook his head and grinned. “Good. I’ll tell him later tonight, maybe. We’ll see. Charlie, are you done with that certification thing yet? Finish up and let’s go before the caterers show up. I don’t feel like being cheap labor tonight.” She walked around the desk, leaned over, showing me the card and license in her pocket again, then kissed her father. “I love you, Daddy. We’ll be back later. Eight-ish maybe.”

“I love you, too, baby girl. Take care of her, Charlie. She’s all I have left. Oh, and get me an invoice and you’ll have the check on Monday.” I nodded, took Billi’s hand, her other one holding a little bag, and off we went.

The weather was nice, so she asked if I minded if she went out back for some sun and maybe a bit of a swim before we started thinking about getting ready. I certainly didn’t, so she went into the guest room to change. On her way back by the kitchen area toward the back yard, I handed her a big plastic tumbler of iced tea. My tongue was probably hanging down about to my chin.

“Stop. I didn’t bring a robe.” I ran back to the guest room closet and brought one out for her.

“You can have it when you get out to the pool.” She laughed and walked out back, itty bitty bikini, high heeled sandals and all, then when she got to a chaise by the pool, I handed it to her. “Thank you. You really are a gorgeous woman, Billi. Beautiful. I’ll go get you a couple of towels.”

“Join me, Charlie?”

“In a bit. There’s something I need to take care of, and send your father some paperwork, then I will. I’d love to. You don’t mind if I stare, admire, ogle, look, fantasize, and stare a little more, do you?”

“Not a bit. I might indulge the same way. Depends on what you wear when you come back out. Less is the new more. Remember that.”

I finished the paperwork on the Martin job and emailed Bill the invoice. I looked at the status emails from the other crews, checked the job boards for applicants, and called it a day. I shimmied into a little spandex Speedo suit I used only at home around the pool, then grabbing a couple more towels and some suntan oil, went out to keep her company.

We talked about everything from Red Lobster biscuits to the price of first-class tickets to Europe. I told her I always tried not to get a second basket of those biscuits, for my health’s sake, and had no idea about those ticket prices anymore, not having flown commercial for years and years.

“Daddy mentioned you flew. Pilot in the Air Force, if I remember, and that you have your father’s, well, now your plane, that you use. You’ll have to give me a ride sometime.”

“Consider it done. Where would you like to go?”

“What are your limits?”

“I have none. No distance limitations, anyway. I can make it from San Diego to Hawaii, and that’s the longest leg of an around the world trip.”

“Cool. Curacao. I’d love to go back there someday. I went with Mom and Dad, years ago. Mom was still fairly healthy then and we had so much fun.”

“I’d like that, myself. Pick the thorn that is one Nancy Morton, formerly Nancy Cox, out of my butt, and I will not only pay you at the rate you requested, but I will also take you on a two-week adventure to the island of Curacao, all expenses paid, aboard my magic carpet.”

“I may need a chaperone.”