Reese banged his head on his desk. If he could not
sleep, maybe he could knock himself out. He should be resting by now. He will
be giving his testimony tomorrow, and he should be relaxed and refreshed and he
should definitely have not downed two glasses of scotch. Jobs, reputation, his
family’s legacy and the company’s future would be affected by his demeanor and
responses, so why couldn’t he just sleep now and be alert and brutal in the
courtroom tomorrow. Or, if he is really gonna stay awake, he could run over the
points his lawyers had strategized for him, clear his head of all the other
preconceptions and rehearse again so that he will be confident and flawless in
his delivery. Or, in the least, he could just pep talk himself, calm his thoughts,
imagine conquest and claim victory in his mind.
Ok… so now that he had ran these thoughts… in
passing, he should not feel that bad anymore, right? And then he could back to
what he was really thinking about for most of the night: Mindy Lahiri, aka
Chloe Silverado, doctor, curvaceous woman… pop culture, blabbering mouth with
an ass that won’t quit and her very bad timing of breaking up with him.
Logically, he knows he can reconcile with her later. Maybe after the hearing,
maybe after all his scheduled appearances, maybe even after the case itself.
The smug part of him feels that he can always pull her away from whomever guy
she would be dating the moment his own life has gone back to order. He feels their
connection is actually that strong. The problem is that he does not fear she’s
gonna be swept away out of his reach. The problem is that he had developed a
connection with her at all and that every second away from her feels like a
waste of time. He wants to be with her constantly. He had been fighting the
urge to go and apologize to her since they fought this afternoon, telling
himself that more important things have to be done, and now, nearly midnight,
he is without her and still had not done anything important.
Nope, it is not pride that keeps him from
apologizing. It is how incredibly out of control this relationship had turned
out to be. This one thing which at the beginning he had the upper hand in, one
which he felt he had full control of the steering wheel of in contrast to the
other aspects of his life that within such a small amount of time had spiraled
out of his hand. She was just supposed to be his newest arm-candy, a superior
rebound from Jackie, a doctor not anyone can look down on again, but immature
enough so that his mother would not want her for marriage, a fun distraction
from all the stress in his life.
It started out slowly. He thought he was doing well
managing his thoughts when the court case ceased to be the first thing he
thought of in mornings. It felt good and relaxing when she’d distract him from
business thoughts and force him to grab bacon and pancakes. He thought having
breakfast instead of just coffee was what made him happier during the day. Then,
she’d pull his head off important meetings with her silly texts, sometimes
panic over celebrity alerts, or random neighborhood stories from her patients,
but most of the time just endearing messages of how much she misses him and his
kisses during the day. He started seeing some red flags when his secretary gave
him a knowing smile when he asked her to coordinate with Mindy’s receptionist
before approving on evening meetings. He and Mindy had a fight the previous
night when he wanted to go out because his meeting got cancelled and it turned
out that she actually scheduled a Caesarian operation for the night. He does
not know how but she had effectively convinced him that bringing a child into
the world is more important than his multi-million making corporate meetings. The
red flags got effectively ignored though and he started planning his days
around her operations, found himself watching tv shows not on his channel when
he misses her, started conversations with his gossip columnists just so he can
relate to the things Mindy is saying, and started a mini-war with his mother
when he went out of his way and insisted on making more time on news features
for a Colin Firth movie over Daniel Craig’s. While seating on ACN’s executive
meeting, he suggested taking on a show that recently got cancelled on network
(because Mindy cried heaps and heaps of tears over that show). He got ignored,
but Leona eyed him suspiciously until dinner.
He was doing all of these just to keep his mind off the
case and ratings and competition pressures. He was sure he could switch it all
off when he needs to re-channel all his focus again to the company and the
litigation at hand. But he couldn’t do it tonight, damn it.
He picked his coat. He can drive up to her place in
half an hour, convince her to forgive her in another half, make love to her in
another half… no make that an hour, he would still have 4 hours of sleep if he
wakes up at 8 and then rush to the hearing at 9. Not bad at all, he had gone to
some meetings without even sleeping before. Right, he can do this. He opened
his study door and found her standing in his hallway. She looked like she was
getting ready to enter his bedroom.
“Reese…” Mindy was stunned to find him in the
hallway. She is in a very tight dress… apparently a hot prosecutor costume,
complete with a whip stick and glasses. He is sure she has a monologue ready,
but as much as it would amuse him to hear it, he just couldn’t wait to take her
into his arms immediately. He captured her lips with a lopsided grin and
started pushing her back to his bedroom.
“Wait, Reese!” Mindy protested.
“Yeah?” He started unbuttoning her blazer.
“You haven’t properly appreciated my costume, so
don’t take it off yet.” Mindy pushed his hands away.
“Okay,” Reese stopped, crossing his arms in front of
him waiting for Mindy’s poses.
“Wait, why aren’t you sleeping yet? You’ve got a big
day tomorrow.” Mindy asked worriedly.
“So I can appreciate your sexy prosecutor outfit?”
“Gosh, you are so obsessed with me, we need to fix
your priorities.”
“We just have to hurry, come on,” Reese began
pulling at Mindy again.
He doesn’t know whether it would be helpful or not,
but he’d sure have fun conjuring up images of Mindy in costume when he comes to
court in the morning.
ok
my writing flare is already gone. This piece is a mess. Too many themes running
through it. I would probably break this up into chapters. Drabbles on Reese and
Mindy. Starting with this break up reconciliation story. Then background (what
he loves about Mindy, the practice, etc). Then the first meeting history.
She was not supposed to be “The One.”
He also thought that Leona did not like
her (which he found out later on to be incorrect). Leona gave a lot of snorting
sounds the night he brought Mindy to the Thanksgiving Party AWN hosted the same
day he met Mindy at Carl’s house. Leona was actually the main motivation why he
asked Mindy out. The Genoa story had put him in the first real test of his
career. He had never experienced this type of public backlash, political
pressure, ratings plummet and advertising pull outs before. To top it off, his
trophy girlfriend even left him. Not that he cared too much about her, but to
be abandoned by someone you did not even like that much just sent his ego
reeling in.
e
later found out that the reason for the hostility was because the two had a
debate on who is the hotter Brit, Daniel Craig or Colin Firth, in the women’s
powder room earlier that night. Suffice to say, Leona actually love Mindy but
kept it to herself, probably thinking that her approval would alienate her
son’s feelings for the blabbing lady.
She was very effective initally. She was a
great verbal sparring partner, not that he had a shortage of that at work, but
their fights are over nonsensical and insignificant matters, not anything that
could get him barred from political parties or taken to court the next day. Not
that she is totally senseless, but because at the core, they both want and
valued the same things, there really isn’t anything to seriously fight about.
Sometimes he felt too removed from reality
after watching wars and famine his network reports on, too pathetic about
caring too much about ratings and running his huge company, his
pseudo-philanthropist acquaintances making him feel too worldy, but
conversations with Mindy about pop culture and clothes and shoes make him feel
a tad bit secured about his priorities. Not because she is shallow, but because
she shows him that it is okay to care about worldly and material things if you
deserve them and if you do your own share of moving the world forward. Her
fondness for gossip does not diminish her being a really good doctor and his
hunger for ratings and recognition actually pushes his network to do the best
reporting and deliver the best shows it can.
She is also very busy, so she does not
cling to him. Many a times, he found himself visiting her in the hospital, or
waiting for her at her practice and bonding with her partners Jeremy and Peter,
feeling needier of her than he has ever been with his other girlfriends. But it
was a fun type of needy, something he enjoyed a lot, because really, how could
he seriously need this boisterous woman. He attributed everything to hormones
and his mind’s latent need to relax.
He felt suffocated with the current
fixtures of executives and lawyers in his life. That got him getting in touch
with old best friends who he feels still respected him, who knew who he was at
his best. That got him saying yes to a Thanksgiving lunch with Carl Grady, one
of his best buds in high school. The last time they saw each other was at
Carl’s wedding, and now, he is too surprised to find out that Carl already has
an adorable little girl. He was having so much fun catching up with Carl and
playing with Riley up until Gwen let it slip that Leona actually promised Carl
to match him up with another guest at the party. That got his nose flaring. He
did not want any pressure for a single daylight, especially not one about
getting married, and Leona just has to ruin everything. He now understood why
Gwen kept on coming up to him and Riley bringing a random, single, Wallstreet
girl. He could not show his annoyance easily though. He could have punched Carl
right away, but he was not particularly close to Gwen, so he did not know how
to communicate his disapproval of her matchmaking. So he chatted up each girl
they left him with, careful to highlight the big litigation case AWN is facing
to make sure each girl left uninterested. There was one girl who seemed drunk
and kept on passing him loudly that Gwen never introduced him to. Riley said
that the girl is actually Gwen’s bestfriend and was actually single. When he
asked about her from Carl, Carl’s forehead creased and told him she is bad
news. That got him very interested. He later cornered Mindy after lunch and got
her to spill that she recently broke up with her boyfriend when she found out
he did not want to be exclusive. She is overtly dramatic and Leona would just
find her to be too much of a mess. He was actually disappointed to find out
Mindy is a doctor. He thought a more exotic job like a ventriloquist, stand up
comedian, aspiring actress or sales girl would make her even less appealing to
his mother. He was disappointed again when he picked her up later in the
evening and she cleaned up pretty nicely, in an elegant long gown and no hint
of intoxication. He was happy though when he sensed that
