Page 30 of Taking A Chance

I know it’s crazy, but I also know that I have the stupidest of smiles slapped on my face, which would have the rest of the staff asking questions that, at the moment, I’m not prepared to answer. It might jinx it.

We’ve not video called again, yet. But every other day he calls me late at night. He says he loves to hear my sexy as fuck sleepy voice. I can relate. Maybe not sleepy, but his voice has me tingling from head to foot. If he did advert voice overs, he’d have the women swooning and clearing the shelves in the nearest store of whatever he was pitching. If it was vibrators and condoms, there’d be a lot of thrilled, satisfied customers.

When the phone wakes me suddenly, I quickly check my alarm clock and see that it’s just gone midnight. My heart pounds when I see Cade’s name light up on the screen of my phone. I only spoke to him last night. A giant knot of worry sits heavy in my stomach as I answer the call.

“Hello.”

“Hey baby, you’re awake?”

“Well, I am now.” I don’t mean to be snarky, but this feeling of dread is making me angsty. “Where are you?”

“Miami. I know it’s late… I… I shouldn’t have rung.”

“Cade, it’s fine. What’s up?”

“I needed to hear your voice.”

“Has something happened?” I ask, pushing myself up to a sitting position. “Is everything okay? Ben, Isaac, Amy?”

“Everyone’s fine. I had a terrible day and I… God, I wish you were here with me.”

“How bad is bad?”

“The case I’ve been working on, some little guy against a big conglomerate. It should have been a done deal, but the company’s hot shot lawyer had them walking away scot-free on a technicality.” He mumbles a few choice words under his breath. “I should have picked up on it, but I missed it.”

“Isn’t that the nature of the game, that you can’t possibly win them all?”

“I know. I can’t go into too much detail, but it’s pretty much ruined this guy’s life, when it’s blatantly obvious that the company was at fault. He has a young family and another kid on the way, now he’s been left with a whole load of debt, unable to work, which means he’s going to lose his home.”

“That is pretty shitty,” I sympathise. “Isn’t there anything you can do to help?”

“I’ve wavered my fees, but that’s about as much as I can do,” he sighs. “God, he must be worried sick about providing for his family. I’m glad I don’t have that sort of responsibility.”

“I guess.” I’m not sure what I can say to ease his stress over all this. I’m clueless about this type of legal stuff.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be burdening you with all my crap.”

“Cade, I’m not sure what I can say or do to make this any better, but if you need to vent, I’m always here to listen.”

“Baby,” he laughs softly. “You make everything seem better.”

“In that case, I’m glad to be of service.”

“Anyway. How’s things with you?” he asks changing the subject.

“Okay, nothing new to tell, really. I’m having lunch next week with Amy. She’s going to be back here, but Isaac has to stay in New York for an extra week. I think she wants to drag me around a few baby shops. I’d rather go around a few bars, but I guess that’s out of the question for a while.”

“Yeah, can you believe that? Isaac knocked her up already.”

“He’s happy about it though, isn’t he?”

“Oh yeah. Look at how he is with Mikey. He adores the kid.”

“They do make a cute couple,” I agree on a sigh.

“Talking about Isaac, he’s asked me to come over there next month, so…”

“Really?” Suddenly. I’m super awake. The excitement builds, but I try not to let it get to boiling point. “You’re coming here?”