Cairo POV~
We were way behind with paperwork and I didn't have the nerve to ask Marian again to speed up. She did what she could but being in trial meant we worked overtime everyday, and we spent endless hours on useless data processing and cross referencing from other similar cases.
She was tired, I was tired, I haven't seen Greg for two days in a row and it frustrated me to a point that I made a hasty decision. I picked up my phone and speed dialled Marian.
"Marian, hi, it's me. Let's get out of here. Let's eat lunch together!" I asked her, she sounded taken aback wheen she answered, even surprised. "Maybe she thought I will dump more work on her to do." I thought bitterly, we really worked hard on James's case.
It was important for me, as this case was our most publicly followed case, and for Marian, well it was obvious that she worked twice as hard, because she wanted justice for her boyfriend as much as I wanted too.
She agreed to have lunch together and now I just had to wait for her to come back from the admin office.
Until I was waiting, I outlined a few issues in one of the ongoing case, the junior team asked me to have a look at it earlier today. They were doing quite all right, I made a mental note to praise them in the next internal meeting.
About fifteen minutes later Marian strolled in, looking tired as ever, but her smile was genuine.
"Here I am, boss, what are we going to eat?" She asked hopefully, beaming at me. Since we became friends, well I considered us friends, I've learnt a lot of things about her. One of this new fact was that Marian's stomach was like an iron pit. She could stomach anything, like when I brought her to eat sushi, she went for one of my fresh oysters and I was shaken to see one of the delicious oyster to slip down on her throat like it's a marshmallow. It was amusing to see her eat, seriously.
"Nothing extraordinary, don't get your hopes up, Marian." I chided her laughing heartily.
I checked the time, and I knew Greg was taking his break shortly, so we should hurry up with Marian if I wanted to catch Greg on time. I couldn't wait to see Marian's face when I introduce him to her.
"We just need to pop into somewhere first, so let's go, we don't have much time." I added, and I urged her to get her stuff and we were on our way to Greg's flower shop in a few minutes.
Greg's shop was at the adjacent lane, it took only a minute or two to get there. I quickened my footsteps when I saw Greg fumbling around the pots that he placed outside of his shop each morning.
Marian knew nothing about my plan, so the shock on her face was priceless when we arrived in front of the shop and I simply back-hugged Greg. He yelped out of surprise, then he recognised me immediately and turned around and hugged me back properly.
Marian stood beside us like a statue, her eyes bulging, and she couldn't be more similar to a fish even if she would try hard.
"Marian, this is my partner, Greg." I introduced him
with a sly smile on my face. Greg laughed, it warmed me from the inside, whenever I heard his deep grumble, it made feel weak in the knees but I would have never admitted that to anyone.
"Oh...hi...I'm his assistant, please to meet you, Greg." Marian spoke up, her voice sounded just like a dying fish would make on the ground, and now I freely laughed at her.
"What's wrong with you, Marian? You were whining all the time to introduce you to my partner and now you can't even speak up?" I mocked her then looked up Greg, who chose this very fine moment to thrust his hand out to greet Marian.
"Hi, I'm Greg, pleased to meet you too. I've heard a lot about you, Marian." He smiled, the small wrinkles danced around his eyes, and I suddenly wished to grow old with this man. By all means, that was the plan, to grow old with this guy, no matter how our life will turn out, I wanted to keep him by my side, no matter what.
"Oh, I hope you've heard all the good things only." Marian finally pulled herself together from her internal shock, and were able to speak normally.
"I know you ate his oysters." Greg stated and looked at her seriously.
He knew how much I loved teasing my poor assistant and he was on my side.
"What? I ate only one, I can't believe you told him this too!" Marian whacked her bag to my side, I pretended to be seeking shelter from her behind Greg's back.
"Ouch, don't do that, I'll sue you if you don't stop slapping me all the time with your ridiculously heavy monstrosity." I laughed as I threatened her with our all time favourite inside joke.
She pretended to sulk, but a smiled tugged at her lips, and walked towards our favourite place.
We usually ate at Bobò's , the coffee was delicious in this little cafe, and lately their sandwiches improved significantly, since they hired a new deli chef.
Obviously we were all grown on each other, and got used to each other's sarcasm, and humour, I think she was the closest to a friend I could call after Greg, of course.
Her boyfriend's case was a huge hit in the country. The judge presumed it could last at least for 67 day in court and it exhausted all of us. His uncle lawyered up heavily. I wondered how much money he was willing to spend from James's inheritance. We fought fiercely and our private investigation team worked tirelessly to dig anything that might incriminate him, something that strip him from his right to James's assets.
Unfortunately the driver's death was caused by natural illness, and we couldn't stick that on him too. We had to explore other possibilities.
The breakthrough in the case came on the 45th day when James's cousin, a young girl all of a sudden, came forward with a story that she overheard their uncle talking on the phone, probably with Adams. Their phone conversation was recorded on the call list, and matched the exact date as James's cousin stated. It was something but it wasn't enough. Once this little morsel of information came through though, suddenly everyone in that household wanted to talk.
I was more than pleased. Although it was hard but my privately hired forensic investigator managed to prove that the car of James's parents was tempered with. The most difficult part was getting to prove that his uncle was the brain behind this madness, that eventually involved several household employees. Of course his counsellor wanted to blame one of the employees, but it was the moment when suddenly everyone wanted to talk to us. It was very interesting to deal with those employees who wanted talk about everything that happened in the Allbright's mansion.
We were at the stage to start our closing speeches, but we still needed just one more eveidence, the 'it' factor that could further implicate James's uncle. The problem was, we still didn't have it - and it made me feel uneasy. It was still up to the jury to decide whether James's uncle guilty of murdering his parents or not. I needed that one small evidence but my hands were tied now. I wasn't exactly a prosecutor, I haven't been working on their side before and it took a lot of effort to keep up with the prosecutors. They were demanding as hell and arrogant, so I had to do my best not to disappoint James and Marian. I needed to win. I thrived from winning and I needed to feel that euphoria that engulfed me whenever I've won a case for a client.
"What are you thinking about?" Marian stopped the chain of thoughts running through my head.
I shook my head, and tried to shake of the nervous feeling that came over me everytime we neared the end of a trial.
"Nothing serious, just try to eat up quickly when we get our food, so we can get back to work." I told her, then I turned to my boyfriend and quietly started to discuss the daily events with him. Marian made a silly face and turned her attention to her smartphone, probably looking up the news.
Greg was super cute today in his black chinos and plaid t-shirt. I was barely able to keep my hands off of him. But I had to behave myself, so I refrained from touching him too much. Since we were together, he started to dress better, although he was still careful with his spendings. He filed a lawsuit against his own uncle, and this is a totally different case compare to James's. Greg's uncle was a lowlife scumbag, who fraudulently wanted to sell Greg's building, but fortunately he's been stopped in time. Thanks to Greg's quick thinking and his smart boyfriend. Yeah, that's supposed to be and the thought that he was in love with me, flooded me, made me so proud that I could show him off.
There was only one problem remaining. I still haven't introduced him to my parents. I guessed my mother wouldn't care much, as she was busy with her toyboys, changing to a new one every few weeks. As far as I knew, lately she was with some newly discovered Broadway talent, called Johnny Fox, or whatever his name was. Honestly speaking, I couldn't care less what she was thinking about me seeing a guy.
The biggest problem was telling to my father. He wasn't against gay marriages, or generally speaking, homosexuality, but I didn't exactly know about his opinion if I'd announce my relationship status to him. It worried me that his condition hasn't improved significantly since his massive heart attack. He had a triple-by-pass, and slowly improved, but he wasn't the same as before. He needed a lot of rest as he got tired easily during the day, he had to retire from his daily job, hence I stepped into his place. His health was fragile and I didn't want to cause him another heart attack.
I looked at Greg, he smiled at me and sipped his coffee, I gave him a little smirk, his eyes sparkled and held a lot of promises in his gaze. I couldn't wait to be in his arms again.
"This evening I'll make you dinner, ok?" Greg said, his smile widened, and he touched my knee under the table. I shuddered slightly, and I hoped I wasn't too obvious.
Unfortunately Marian was like a hawk, and since she knew I liked Greg, she grilled me over and over again about very intimate details regarding my relationship. It was a daily battle between me and her, and usually I won, thank goodness. But not today. She decided to take up this battle to a new level.
"So are you guys... you know.... who is topping?" Marian asked with a deadly serious expression on her face.
"Whaaat??? Marian, I told you a million times it's not your business." I whisper-yelled at her, nearly choking on my coffee latte, I tried not to attract the public's attention.
" Ahh, I know, you don't have to tell me anyway, I know you are the bottom. It's enough if I just look at you two together. It's not hard to see it. " She continued, raising her eyebrows slightly, which I learned already was her 'I'll mock you and tease you to death' signiture move.
"You little beansprout, just wait until I get James in my office, you will come running to save him from my hands." I hit back at her, and her eyes shone from the supressed laugh.
"Guys, stop, everyone knows I'm the top, just look at the size of him!" Greg added into our conversation.
"Seriously? Wait till we get home, I'll show you my size you.....you.... petunia!" I croaked out of frustration.
They looked shocked for a moment than they both burst out laughing.
"Dear God, did you find petunias so bad that you had to degrade them to a curse word, Cai?" Greg asked me with a poker face.
"Yes, they are smelly, and ugly like both of your face right now." I said to them, trying to ignore the fact that I was laughing too in the meantime.
I wanted to surprise Marian and tease her, but it seemed, I had to take my own medicine and it tasted bitter for sure.
Why everyone was so hung upon my sexuality? Or my role in this relationship? Didn't they have better things to think of? Ever since a few staff member got a wind of my orientation, they were betting on me being the bottom. I've heard this from Daniel, and it disturbed me for a while. Then on the general meeting I told everyone if I hear about any kind of betting going around I will cut their balls and feed them to the dogs. No, of course I didn't say that. I suggested we could work through lunch times and maybe I will sell our coffee machine too from the staff room. I could use a few trick here and there.
For some miraculous reason, they stopped talking about me, and the new gossip was about Daniel, because the cleaner, saw him talking to the same detective who was dealing with the driver's death a few weeks ago.
Interestingly they were lesuirely walking down on the street from Bobò's direction. The funny thing is, when I asked Daniel about it, he denied it. Fiercely.
"I should ask him to join us next time. So Marian will have someone else to tease." I thought smugly.
"I'm so fed up with you guys, I will eat lunch in the office from now on." I sulked as they both giggled.
"Don't be mad, Cairo. Life happens, bottoming can't be that bad, you are still able to sit, aren't you?" Marian mercilessly continued her teasing and I decided not to ask her to come with me to lunch next time.
Greg and her laughed heartily and I grimly realised she definitely knew I was the bottom. "That's what my life became, like a clichè wattpad story. The ones Greg's niece told me about so often." I thought miserably.
Thankfully our food was served soon, we ate sandwiches and we ordered a big salad bowl for sharing. We needed our fibre and vitamin intake, I couldn't afford to fall sick in the sight of upcoming closing speeches. So dutifully ate my greens and a couple of cherry tomatoes.
Greg devoured his chicken and bacon triple-decker, and he was just picking on the salad. Our time slowly ran out and regretfully we had to part our ways with him. Once we reached his flower shop, I told Marian to go ahead, as I wanted to say my farewell to Greg properly.
We stepped into the flower shop, and the pollens assaulted my senses from all directions, but I didn't care the least. All I wanted was a hug from him, and kiss him silly like I always did.
"You look excited." Greg stated stoically, bringing me into his embrace with one smooth movement.
"I am, I can't wait for our date tonight." I replied, burying my face into his neckline, where I could smell him. His own personal scent was mixed with his minty-lemony shower gel, and some sort of cologne that I didn't recognise.
"Did you get a new cologne?" I spoke up, caressing his waist with my hands.
"Yeah, do you like it? It's called 'Midnight affairs' by Randolph Lauren." He answered quietly, gently entwining his fingers with mine.
"You smell divine." I murmured shyly, and slowly lifted my head to offer a kiss to him. He recognised my intentions and leaned down and kissed me.
His kiss was tentative first then he deepened it as I opened my mouth for him, let him to take over and dominate me. The promise of a hot and intimate date lingered in his kiss, and I gladly took his domination.
When we both ran out of air, he let me go, we both needed to go back to work, we had obligations, a business to run.
"I have to go back." I told him quietly.
"I'll text you when I finished at the office then I'll pick you up here, is that ok?" I added, and tried to unwrap myself from his strong arms.
"Sure, my sexy lawyer, I'll wait for your text. Don't be too late tonight." He smirked at me, and added a cheeky wink. He leaned close to my ear again, I thought he wanted to kiss me, but instead he whispered something to me.
The heat like a volcano erupted on my face in a nanosecond.
"I won't." I croaked out then swiftly left the flower shop.
A/N
Hello my dear readers,
How are you? Hope you are all keeping well!
A lot of information in this chapter, hope it could be processed easily, and it wasn't too much at once.
I tried to keep the ending short and sweet for Cairo and Greg, hope you are anticipating for the next chapter. Don't you? (smirk)
Any ideas what could be a perfect evidence that could implicate James's uncle even further? Has anybody got a guess?
What do you think of Marian and Cairo's friendship?
Did you like the way Cairo introduced Greg to Marian?
Please comment and vote if you like this chapter, I appreciate your input as always.
Now ... until next time sweeties! ❤
Love you all,
LCF~
I don't particularly like this picture of Gong Yoo because of the smoking but somehow this position stands out... what do you think? 😉
Edited and proofed 19/04/2018
All rights reserved. Copyright © LCF~