What Now

9. It's A Date

"Wait, let me put some more on," I said to Lydia as I squeezed out some medicine for her poison oak. It was slowly getting better, but I still felt terrible. I had poison oak once when I was a kid and I remember it was no picnic. 

Lydia made a disgusted sigh. "Fine. Hurry up, he'll be here any minute." 

The 'he' she was referring to was my lawyer. Our appointment was in about fifteen minutes and she was a little jumpy about it. She had every right to be. I knew she was anxious and nervous. She's never dealt with anything like this before. I was just glad that she included me in this and didn't try to tackle it by herself. We've been making progress with that. Compromising. 

"We have plenty of time. Is it feeling better?" 

She shrugged her right shoulder. "It's okay. I try not to think about it. The more I think about it--"

"The more it itches." 

She nodded. "Exactly. I'm just ready for this to be healed and this meeting to be over." 

Once I finished putting some medicine on it, I washed my hands before walking back over to her. "Hey," I said as I turned her towards me, "this is going to go well. He's already been able to find out some helpful information. You got this." 

She closed her eyes tight. "I'm glad you're here. I wouldn't be able to do this by myself." 

"I disagree," I replied immediately. "You've gotten so much stronger over the past few weeks. You can handle anything. Even this. You don't need me for it. I'm here solely as a supporter of the woman I love." 

She smiled as she wrapped her arms around my neck. God, I loved when she did that. I always caught the lavender scent of her hair and the jasmine perfume she wore. There was nothing else like it. "Well then, I'm grateful to have the man I love in my corner." 

I gave her a kiss that was meant to be short and sweet. I was very surprised when she pulled my body flush against hers. She deepened the kiss, and I groaned as she gently tugged on my bottom lip with her teeth. My body was rock hard for her. "We definitely don't have time for that." 

She stuck her bottom lip out. "Are you sure?" She slid her hand down my body and stroked my hard length through my pants. "I can make it worth your while." 

Every instinct I had was screaming at me to scoop her up in my arms and take her upstairs to my bedroom. But, I couldn't do that. We couldn't do that. Not right now. "Sorry, beautiful. We'll have to pick this up after the meeting." 

A knock sounded at the door and she gave my body a hot once-over. "Pity," she whispered before she went to answer it. "Good morning, I'm Lydia Preston."

I kept my distance as Lydia introduced herself. Jim had been my lawyer for almost ten years and he was the best at what he did.  if there was anyone who could help her with this, it was him.

"Hello, Ms. Preston, I'm Jim McDaniels." Jim walked inside and came over to shake my hand. "Mr. Williams, how are you?" 

"It's good to see you Jim." I gestured over to the table in my dining room. "Shall we?" 

"Yes, let's begin," he stated as we all took a seat around the table. He opened his briefcase and pulled out multiple documents and files. "Now, Ms. Preston, it is my understanding that in April of last year your landlord evicted you. Is that correct?" 

"Yes," Lydia answered immediately. 

Jim nodded as he scanned the documents. "Can you tell me exactly how he did that?" 

"Well," she glanced at me before continuing, "I was having trouble holding down a job and I got behind on rent. I was in kind of a bad place and dealing with some things mentally.  I remember him coming to my apartment a few times to bitch at me about the rent. Then the next thing I knew, he said I had five days to move out or he was calling the police." Lydia looked to me before returning her gaze to Jim. "So, I packed up my things and left."