Synopsis:

A trip to see Rita in the hospital. The down side of being the latest news. And Paul's day in court.

Story:

Karma Part 7
By Amanda D.

When I woke up I wasn’t sure where I was. I looked around the room and nothing was familiar. Then I heard the sound of a young boy laughing and I remembered I was at Anita’s. With recollection came all the memories from the night before.

“Rita.” I thought to myself.

As I started to get up my back let me know that I had done a little bit too much yesterday. Settling back down to give it a moment I noticed the time.

“10:22 am? God how could Anita let me sleep so late? I don’t even remember falling asleep.” I thought deciding to try getting up again and this time I was successful.

After a brief pit stop, I shuffled into Anita’s kitchen. She was sitting at the table reading Charlie a story. He spotted me first and bolted off the chair and squealed “Auntie Manda!”

He did his best to tackle me, but I withstood his attack, picked him up and countered by tickling him. After a few moments he surrendered and I stopped. He gave me a hug and a big wet kiss on my cheek.

He said “I dint know you was here today.”

“I came here last night after you were in bed.” I explained.

“Is you gonna be here all day?” he inquired.

I looked over at Anita.

“The hospital called while you were still sleeping.” she began. “The doctor said that Mom does have a concussion, so they want to keep her a couple more days for observation. Visiting hours start at two, so I figured we’d head over around then.”

I yawned and hugged Charlie again.

“Sounds like a plan.” I said to her. “Got any coffee?” I asked as I put Charlie down.

(My back was killing me!)

I poured myself some coffee and sat down at the table with Anita.

“Amanda” she said “about last night…on the phone… I…I’m sorry for the things I said to you.”

I could see the sorrow in her eyes.

(She was just waiting for me to pound her. And I’ll admit I was tempted, but in the end I took the high road again.)

“Look little sister, I don’t blame you for what happened to Mom! Okay! Did you screw up? Yes. Am I going to sit here and beat you over the head with it? No. Like I said last night, if you had been there when Dad showed up, you’d probably be in the hospital too. So knock this shit off will ya? Right now Mom needs our strength not your guilt. Now promise when we go to see her you’ll behave.” I ranted at her.

“I promise.” she said glumly.

“Good! Now make me some breakfast, I’m hungry damn it!” I demanded, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

She stood up and saluted me, saying “Yes Maam! What ever you say, Maam!”

When she got up to go to the stove, she grabbed the news paper off the table.

“Hey can I look at that?” I asked her.

She hesitated and then put it back on the table. Now she had me curious. There was obviously something in there she didn’t want me to see. I started thumbing threw, but it didn’t take me long to find the story she had hoped to hide from me. On the second page, just below the fold, was an article describing the disturbance at Rita’s house.

I won’t get into the specifics, but rest assured it didn’t paint a pretty or entirely accurate picture of the events. When I finished reading, I was torn between embarrassment and anger. I looked up at Anita.

“We don’t say a word to Mom about this.” I told her.

After breakfast Anita took me home so I could change. As we pull up to the driveway a handful or reporters assaulted the car. Luckily we had our windows up so all they could do is point their cameras at us as we drove by.

When we stepped out of the car, they yelled questions at us. I started to yell back but Anita told me not to bother.

(Well at least that seemed normal. I still can’t figure out how I suddenly became the voice of reason around here.)

We went inside. When we took a look around at the destroyed living room, it became very hard to not break down into tears again. By the look on her face, I could tell the scene was having the same effect on Anita.

“Before Mom get out, we’re gonna have to get this place fixed up.” I said.

“Tomorrow I’ll make some calls. We’ll need a cleaning crew and probably a carpenter or two from the looks of things.” Anita said flatly as she continued to survey the damage.

I went into the kitchen and checked the phone. The message indicator was flashing. I imagined most would be from reporters looking for quotes. After considering for I moment I decided to leave them for later.

I hurried up to my room grabbed some clothes and went into the bathroom to take a quick shower. When I came out I heard Anita talking to someone. I wrapped myself in a towel and stuck my head out the door to see who it was.

As I stepped into the hall I heard the front door slam and Anita yell “Fuck off!”

I was taken aback, Anita didn’t swear often. So when I heard her say that I knew she was pissed.

I yelled down to her “Hey! You Okay? Who was that?”

She stormed up the stairs and said “That was a reporter. He said he heard from someone in Dads attorneys’ office that they were planning to get you and Mom thrown out of here. Then he wanted to know if I cared to make a comment.”

“I think I heard your comment as you slammed the door. Good job sis.” I said congratulating her.

“You don’t think what he said about Dad is true, do you?” she asked.

I thought about it for a moment before I answered.

“He may try, but I can’t see how any judge would allow us to be thrown out of here. Especially considering the fact that he came back and assaulted Mom again.” I said.

“Well I don’t think we should say anything to Ma right now.” Anita said.

“Not a word.” I agreed. “We probably shouldn’t mention about all the press we’re suddenly getting either.” I added.

With that settled I went back into the bathroom and got ready. About half an hour later I was ready to go.

(God I can’t stand how long it takes to get ready sometimes.)

Once out the door, we were once again assaulted by the growing throng of reporters. They had actually moved onto our door step.

I turned to Anita and quietly said “let’s go back inside and call the police. These assholes have no right to be on our property.”

She nodded and we went back inside.

About twenty minutes later the police arrived and escorted the crowd out of our yard. Once again we headed for Anita’s Yukon and finally managed to get out of the driveway. When we reached the street, all the cameras in the world pointed at us. Figuring I’d give them something to report, I flipped them off.

(Had I know at the time how many problems this move would cause me later I probably wouldn’t have done it. But at the time it made me feel better.)

When we arrived at Rita’s room all our hopes of keeping her in the dark, went out the window.

We learned from one of the nurses on duty, that a reporter from channel 3 had snuck into her room earlier. They had thrown him out but the damage had been done.

Anita flipped out on her. The nurse did her best to apologize, but Anita wasn’t hearing it. Let her vent for a short bit and then stepped in.

“Anita!” I growled as I grabbed her arm. “Knock it off! This poor girl isn’t the one that let the scumbag in. Yelling at her isn’t going to solve anything!”

She pulled her arm away from me and stormed off down towards Rita room. With a loud sigh I took off after her, hoping she would calm down before she went into the room.

I managed to get to the room just before she was about to go in.

“Anita!” I yelled to her.

She stopped and glared at me.

I caught up to her I said “You need to calm down before you go in there.”

She scowled at me and let out a disgusted sigh.

“I know.” she replied. “This whole situation is just starting to get under my skin.”

“I hear ya, but we can’t let Ma see how upset we are. We need to be strong for her.” I asserted.

We took a deep breath, put on our best smiles and walked into Rita’s room. We were all prepared for this big emotional encounter, but son of a gun, Rita was sleeping. We looked at each other and tried not to laugh.

“Would ya look at that!” I whispered. “Here we are getting all worked up and she sleeping.”

We slipped back into the hallway and began to laugh at ourselves.

When the giggles had past Anita said” So what are we going to do now?”

“I don’t know. It’s not like there’s a lot to do in a hospital. I guess we could go down to the cafeteria and get a cup of coffee, while we wait.”

Anita agreed. As we went towards the elevator the nurse gave us a quizzical look.

“She is sleeping.” I said answering her unasked question. “We’re going down stairs to get some coffee.”

She just smiled and told us that she would let Rita know we were in the building if she woke up before we returned.

Sometime later, after have a cup of some sort of black mud like substance they claimed was coffee, we went back to Rita’s room.

This time she was awake and received us eagerly. She was understandably upset about the reporter being in her room and pressed us for more information. She had seen the reports on T.V. and wanted to make sure we didn’t give them anything Paul’s attorney could use as ammunition against us later. We informed her that we hadn’t done anymore than kick them out of our yard and flip them off.

“We need to be careful.” Rita stated. “With all this publicity things will get ugly and it’ll happen quickly. Your father is going to feel pressured to do something…anything that will give him the illusion of being in control. He’s changed…”

“I’ve already been in touch with my lawyer and informed him to go for his balls.” she proclaimed.

The rest of our time there was spent discussing strategy.

Paul was going to be arraigned tomorrow. Rita had already instructed her lawyer to get a restraining order on Paul first thing tomorrow. Considering that he had attacked Rita twice in her own house, the lawyer didn’t think it would be a problem.

I told Rita that I wanted to go to the arraignment and she said it probably wasn’t a good idea.

As far as getting us thrown out of the house, Rita told us not to worry about it. She had a plan for Paul that was going to keep him and his lawyer so busy that the house would be the last thing on their minds.

Shortly before it was time to leave, I excused myself from the room. I knew Anita wanted to talk to Rita about leaving her alone last night, so I figured this would make a good opportunity. I just kinda wandered around, trying to waste some time and wound up in a small waiting room with a T.V. in it.

I sat down and started thumbing through a magazine, half paying attention to the television. It was broadcasting a local news program and they were promising an update on the latest developments in the Paul David domestic abuse case.

Intrigued I put the magazine down and waited through the commercials. When the program returned, the anchor woman got right to the story. Strangely instead of the usual picture of Paul behind her there was a picture of me. She quickly rehashed the facts that everyone and their brother was aware of by now. When she was done, she started with the story about me.

“It has been learned by channel 3 news” she began “that key witness to Mr. David’s assault on his wife, Amanda David, had been out drinking heavily the night of the alleged attack. Miss David is the former wife of wanted felon, Jake Bryant. Miss David has a history of drinking, drug abuse and being the victim of domestic abuse, was, according to our sources, somewhat incoherent and smelled of alcohol when police arrived. Police sources told us that her sworn statement has been called into question in light of her apparent inebriation. Mia Blue, Mr. David’s attorney, declined comment when asked if she would be requesting that assault charges be filed against Miss David. When we attempted earlier today to get a comment on this story from Miss David, her only response was an obscene gesture on her part.”

(The story ended with a distorted video of me flipping off the camera man.)

In other…” the reporter droned on.

At that point I had stopped listening. I was flabbergasted! I was outraged! I was so pissed I couldn’t think straight! I was glad I was the only one in the room at the time!

I must have been unconsciously making noises or something, because people walking by started staring at me and a nurse came in to see if I was alright.

I didn’t dare open my mouth, for fear of what might come out of it, so I just nodded at her and hurried out of the room. I didn’t know what to do. How was I supposed to act to having my (Well Mandy’s actually.) dirty laundry hung out for all to see?

I was so steamed that I almost walked right by Rita’s room. I was too embarrassed to go in. I stood out side the door for several minutes until I heard a loud crash come from inside the room.

I burst into the room to find Mom and Anita watching a repeat of the same report I had just seen. I looked at the floor and spotted the source of the noise, there was a tray spilled there. The report finished just as I was looking back up.

Red faced I tried to look both of them in the eye, but I couldn’t.

Rita, with tears of outrage streaming down her face screamed “That bastard! How could he do this to you? That son of a bitch! Anita get me the phone. I’m gonna call Phil (Her lawyer Phil Akamideus.) and get him on this right now! That… That… ASSHOLE!!! I can’t believe he would involve you in this. Just wait! I’m gonna have his balls in a vice!”

Anita handed her the phone and pulled me out of the room.

“Are you gonna be Okay?” she asked me once we were in the hall.

I tried to listen to Rita through the door, but it was too thick to hear through.

I turned to Anita and said “I don’t know. I’m just royally pissed off right now!”

As we waited in the hall, one of the nurses came over and told us that visiting hours were over and we needed to leave. We poked our heads in to let Rita know we had to leave. She was just getting off the phone.

“Phil will be calling you at home later tonight.” Rita told me.

I’ll be over in the morning to help you get the house cleaned up.” Anita said as we pulled up to the front door.

I thanked her and gave her a hug.

(Ya know I’ve been getting very mushy lately. Friggen estrogen’s messin with my head!)

Once I was inside, I looked around at the mess in the living room. I was still very agitated, so I decided to start cleaning.

After a couple hours I had the place looking reasonably ship shape. With the living room clean and my agitation still high, I moved on to the kitchen. There wasn’t too much of a mess in there, thus I finished it quickly.

Next I moved on to Rita’s bedroom. There wasn’t much I could do with the broken door, so I moved it to the side and got to work. Her room was a disaster. It took me quite a while to get it done.

I was thoroughly exhausted by the time I was finished. It was all I could do to shuffle into my room and get in my bed before I passed out.

That night the nightmares came back. Once again I woke up sweating and a scream stuck in my throat. This one bothered me more than the others because it had been several weeks since the last one.

Usually the nightmare was something about Mandy’s miscarried baby. This one revolved around Paul. While I can’t remember all the details, I do remember him standing over Rita’s bloody body, smiling. The image scared the hell out of me.

I looked over at the clock. It was just before 3am, way to early to get up. I needed to go to the bathroom. Once back in bed I rolled over and surprised myself by falling right back to sleep.

Monday morning, I was determined to go to court for Paul’s arraignment. Anita was supposed to come over to help with the cleaning, but I called her and told her that I had an appointment with Dr. Roy that morning and I would catch up with her later. With that small deception out of the way, I went upstairs to get ready to go.

An hour later I was ready and called a cab. By 10:00 am I was standing in front of the Suffolk County Superior Courthouse. I had learned from my conversation with Rita lawyer that Paul’s arraignment was scheduled for 10:30am.

I hurried inside and found the right court room. I went inside, the place was crowded and the press was everywhere. In an attempt to not be seen I grabbed a seat at the back of the room.

Around quarter of eleven Paul’s case was called. He was led in wearing hand cuffs. His cloths were disheveled and in addition to the bandages from our fight, it looked like he had a black eye. Apparently his weekend in jail had been as pleasant as I had hoped.

“Good!” I thought out loud.

Things went as expected with Paul pleading not guilty. The judge set bail at $500,000 and Paul’s lawyer agreed to pay it immediately. The judge also ordered Paul to stay away from Rita and issued a restraining order on him. From his body language, I could tell he didn’t like that idea.

As the police led him out of the courtroom, Paul looked right at me and waved. Every reporter in the place turned to see who he was waving to.

“Oh shit!” I thought to myself as I ran for the door.

Some of the reporters in the court room must have been in contact with their people outside because as soon as I walked out the door, I had what seemed like a million cameras shoved in my face. This was turning out to be a disaster.

In a panic I turned around and ran back inside. The reporters that had been inside the courtroom were now exiting. I was surrounded. I pushed my way through the crowd. Lucky for me the court officers had seen the mob growing around me and came to my rescue.

Once they had me freed they held back the masses while I took of down the hallway. I wasn’t paying attention to which way I was going, so when I came to a dead end I was pretty distressed.

Worse I could hear the mob heading down the hallway after me. I looked around for some place to hide. All the doors were locked except for the ladies room. So I threw myself through the door.

I bolted inside a stall, locked the door, climbed on top of the bowl and crouched down. Not long afterward a couple women came in. It seemed to me that they were more interested in looking around than taking care of business, but I can’t be sure of that. Anyway after a few minutes they left. I stayed where I was for a while more, but eventually I had to get up.

(If it hadn’t been for my legs cramping up on me, I might still be there today.)

Just as I put my feet on the floor, someone came in.

I froze, but when the voice said “It’s okay Miss David. You can come out now. They’ve all left.”

I knew the jig was up.

As I cautiously stepped out of my hiding place, I saw Paul’s lawyer, Mia Blue standing by one of the sinks. I looked at her quizzically.

“It’s safe.” she said. “Your father had me tell them that I’d seen you go out the back way.”

“Thank you.” I replied confused.

“He would like to have a word with you. He’s out front in a car waiting. I can take you there as soon as you’re ready.” she told me.

This was just too bizarre. “What does he want to talk to me for?” I asked her.

“I’m sure he’ll tell you himself once your in the car.” she replied.

“I sorry, but even though I’m grateful for the two of you getting those reporters away from me, I really don’t have anything to say to him at this time. So if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be on my way.” I said trying to push past her.

She wouldn’t move.

“Before you go, I feel compelled to remind you that your father is going to be the one who comes out on top in this situation your family currently finds it’s self in. So you should think long and hard about where your loyalties lie.” she said to me in a vaguely threatening way.

In an attempt to look more confident than I felt, I smiled at her and said “Well thank you for kind concern. I promise to take your words to heart and to think long and hard about what you said. But if you don’t get out of my way right this second, I’m gonna kick your ass.”

She gave me a contemptuous smile and stepped aside.

I stormed past her and then cautiously peered out the door. The cost was clear.

“Well at least she didn’t lie about that.” I thought as I quickly headed out the front door of the court house.

As I ran down the steps I saw Paul standing outside a car.

“Amanda.” he called to me. “Amanda stop! I want to talk to you.”

“I’ve got nothing to say to you.” I yelled back to him.

He ran towards me.

“Don’t you come near me.” I yelled.

“Amanda! Stop this god damn it! I just want to tell you that I had nothing to do with the news story about you.” He hollered.

“Bull shit!” I screamed “Ya know, fuck you Dad! I don’t believe a fuckin’ word you say anymore. Even if you didn’t plant it, your scum bag lawyer is still going to try to use it when your trial happens. And while we’re on the subject, if you ever send her to threaten me or any of us again, I’ll cut your balls off!”

With that I turned and walked away.

Once I got around the corner, I stopped to catch my breath. I was so scared, that I started to shake. My breathing was becoming ragged and I could tell I was getting ready to cry. I didn’t want to take a chance of Paul of Mia seeing how much they had rattled me so I staggered down the block a bit more. Finally I found an empty door stoop and I sat down and let it all out.

(Man, when did I become so emotional???)

After a couple of minutes, I got a hold of myself. I looked at my watch, it was almost 12:30pm, and visiting hours at the hospital would be starting in a half an hour. I got up and walked back towards the court house to get a cab. I found one in fairly short order and was off to see Rita.

When I arrived, I had planned to keep what had happened at court to myself. However once I got to her room, I knew the jig was up. Rita’s lawyer was in there telling her all about my appearance.

To say she was pissed would be an understatement. As soon as I walked in she started ripping into me. I just stood there and took it. What else could I do? She had told me, rightfully as it turned out, to stay away from there and I had not listened. When she was finished, her lawyer asked how I had managed to escape the media.

I gave them both a weak smile and told them all that happened, right up to my telling Paul to leave us alone. Phil, her lawyer, listened intently to my story. Several times he asked me to repeat something I had said. When I finished, he stood there for a bit. He seemed to be considering everything I had said.

“Amanda” he finally said “are you sure that your told me everything that happened? You’re not leaving any details out?”

“If I am, it’s only because I don’t remember them.” I told him.

He frowned at me and to Rita said “This could potentially be very bad. If your husbands lawyer goes and tells the judge that you willfully spoke to both her and Paul, the judge may be forced to take her off the witness list. If that happens, it would be your word against his. If that’s the case…then I can’t be sure what will happen. The District Attorney’s office could decide to drop the charges if their only witness is disqualified from testifying.”

“You don’t really think they would do that? Do you?” I asked.

“I’d be surprised if Ms. Blue wasn’t meeting with the judge at this very moment.” he responded glumly.

“Amanda, how could you do this to us?” Rita asked me. “I told you stay away from there! Why didn’t you listen? Do you realize that you may have handed your father the key to getting us thrown out of the house? If the charges against him get dropped, that will put our entire plan in jeopardy.”

“What plan?” I asked them.

“We were counting on Paul to be tied up with these charges so that he couldn’t try to get the courts to evict the two of you. No judge in the world would let a man with a pending domestic abuse case against him; put the woman he was accused of beating out of her home. Now however, we may just have to plan on the two of you finding a new place to live for a while.” Phil said.

Needless to say I was horrified by what he said. I was so ashamed; I couldn’t make eye contact with Rita. How had I screwed things up so badly? More importantly, how could I set things right?

By the time I got back home that night I felt “lower than a snakes belly” to quote a former teacher of mine. Rita was upset and when Anita showed up later on and heard what had happened…well let’s just say I feel fortunate that I didn’t have to take a cab home tonight.

On the bright side, Phil seemed to believe the fact that he didn’t get a call to meet with the judge today could be a positive sign. Talk about spreading flowers out to cover the stink of dog shit.

I needed a drink so I headed to the kitchen to see if there was any beer. On the way by I noticed the answering machine message light was still blinking. I continued to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of MGD. After a satisfying gulp I turned back to the machine.

I pushed the button and started to listen to the messages. They were mostly from either friends, wishing us well or reporters looking for either quotes or comments on specific questions. There was even one from the station that did the story on me. Talk about a set of balls.

Kim and Pat had each called. I was gonna need to get back to them soon. The last call on the tape turned my blood cold as an ice cube.

The call was from Jacks friend Mike! He was trying to confirm our date for the following Saturday night. This was exactly what I needed, a blind date with a guy!

(I’m being sarcastic here by the way.)

However I had promised to go. So I called Anita, hoping she would say that with what happened with Rita that we wouldn’t be going. Unfortunately once she was done bitching at me for screwing things up today again, she said that we probably would be going and I should call Mike back.

I hung up the phone feeling worse than I had when I got home. I decided that calling Mike wouldn’t be a good idea in my current frame of mind. So I grabbed another beer and headed off to the couch to watch some TV.

I must have fell a sleep because the next thing I knew there was someone knocking at the door and the sun was back up. The knocking had startled me awake, so I groggily went to answer the door. When opened the door there was a police officer there.

“Are you Amanda David?” he asked.

“Yes.” I answered confused.

“Miss David, I’m here to place you under arrest for assault on Paul David.” he said seriously.

“For what?” I asked thinking I must have heard him wrong.

“Assault maam.” he answered. “Now if you’ll just come with me, I need to take you to the station for processing.”

Bewildered and starting to get angry, I said “Officer, I’m not trying to be difficult, but before I go anywhere I need to call my lawyer.”

“You can call him from the station maam.” he said trying to force his way in the door.

It was a moment of truth. He was still far enough outside that I could probably have gotten the door closed on him and then called Phil. I considered it for a moment but decided that I would only be causing myself more trouble if I did. I opened the door all the way and let him in.

“Officer” I started trying to reason with him one more time “I just woke up when you knocked. Is there anyway you could give me five minutes to…ah…take care of business before we go? I promise I’ll be good and won’t try anything funny.”

He seemed to consider for a moment and then nodded his assent. I grabbed the phone and called Phil from the bowl. He told me to go to the station with the cop and he’d leave right now and be there waiting for me. I thanked him and finished my business. I threw some water over my face, took a worried breath and went back down stairs to get cuffed.

When I arrived at the police station Phil was already there waiting for me. He approached the cop escorting me and explained who he was. He asked if he could speak to me for a moment and the cop said he would have to wait until they were finished processing me.

The officer then led me out back where they “booked” me. Having been arrested before, it didn’t take them long.

(I got Mandy busted holding on to few items that I stole a couple years back.)

Next thing I knew they were bringing me to a room where Phil was waiting for me. They led me over to a chair, removed my hand cuffs and left us alone.

“Are you holding up alright?” Phil asked.

“Yeah. I’m okay.” I answered back.

“Good.” He continued “Alright I’ve already talked to the assistant D.A. and he told me that your father’s lawyer insisted that they file charges. Now we both know your so called assault on him was self defense. The D.A. knows it too. So what I figure is Ms. Blue is trying to put some pressure on you to try and get you to recant your statement to the police.”

“So what should I do?” I inquired.

“You shouldn’t do anything. In about two hours they’ll bring you over to the court to be arraigned. At that time I’ll get you bailed out and then I can start filing motions for dismissal and such. It may take a couple appearances in front of the judge, but I would be surprised if this case ever went to trial.” he answered reassuringly.

At that point I wanted to hug him.

“So now what? I spend a couple hours hanging out with you until there ready to take me to the court?” I asked.

“Unfortunately no.” he replied. “There going to take you to a holding cell until it’s time to go.”

My face sank.

“Don’t worry.” He said. “I’ve arranged to have you kept in a separate cell. It’ll be boring but you won’t have to deal with anyone either.”

Well that was good news. I was having these visions of living through one of those “women in prison” movies there for a minute.

True to what I was told, two hours later I was bailed out and heading home top see Rita who had been released from the hospital that morning. When I got there she was ecstatic to see me. I guess the next time I screw something up, I just need to get arrested and everything will be forgiven.

“Oh Amanda” Rita gushed. “I’m so sorry that I yelled at you yesterday. I was just concerned about having making sure things go well with your father.”

“It’s okay mom. I deserved it.” I replied.

“Are you okay? We’re you scared? Did you have any problems with any of the others in the police station? You know how ruff some of those women can be. We’re you hurt? I told Phil to make sure you were safe. Did he? I was so worried about you.” she rambled.

“I’m fine mom.” I told her again. “Phil got me put into a separate cell. No one even saw me in there. I was treated as well as you could expect in that situation. Remember mom, it’s not exactly the first time I’ve been arrested. So don’t worry about me. Okay? Phil says everything should be fine. What I want to know is how are you feeling? Is there anything I can get for you?”

“I’m all set right now thank you. I am a bit tired though. Since you’re home safe now, I think I’m going to go lay down for a while.” She said.

“Okay, have a good nap.” I told her.

The next few days went by pretty much uneventfully. Rita got better each day. Phil filed the motion to dismiss the charges against me with the court. He seemed reasonably certain that we would be successful. I mainly hung around the house and kept an eye on Rita. I spoke to both Pat and Kim and filled them in on the truth behind the TV stories.

No matter how much good news I got, I just couldn’t shake the feeling of impending doom. As the weekend got closer, my anxiety grew. The closer to Saturday night it got the more I was sure this double date I was committed to was going to be a huge mistake.

Notes:

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