There were still the sounds of yelling and fighting outside but I kept taking notes on how Terrell believed that it was totally unacceptable that a cop would tell him that he was running a special on marijuana. After all, who could resist a buy one get one free deal?
I had no idea how much time had gone by, but finally, after what felt like an eternity, we heard a huge crash and loud voices. The door flew open and I saw officers in riot gear there. They ordered us out, and believe me, we weren’t arguing! As soon I cleared the outside door I saw Mark, who ran over, grabbed me, and pulled me out of there and past a gauntlet of reporters yelling out questions. He yanked me into a stairwell, grabbed me by the arms and spoke to me frantically.
“Are you okay, Gab?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. There are reporters. How long were we in there?”
“Only about twenty minutes. They were probably in the building already.”
“Twenty minutes! Oh God! Braden! Is Braden okay?”
“Is Braden okay?! You two really are in love.”
“Is he? Where is he?”
“They’re all in the courtroom waiting. They wouldn’t let him come downstairs. In fact, it took Adam and two deputies to hold him back. He’s pretty upset.”
“Oh God. I feel so bad.”
“Gabrielle, you were just in a hostage situation in lock-up. Cut yourself some slack. Come on though! We need to get upstairs. Judge Channing wants to see you too.”
“Oh f**k! I was supposed to come back to do my cases. Am I in trouble?”
“Are you nuts? No, you’re not in trouble! He wants to see for himself that you’re okay.”
We got to the courtroom door and Mark led me inside. Suddenly a cheer went up and a dozen public defenders, a few prosecutors who were Braden’s friends, Judge Channing and various other members of courthouse personnel were waiting but I only focused on one person. I literally ran to Braden who pulled me into his arms tightly and wouldn’t let go.
“Mr. Pierce! Take her back into my chambers,” Judge Channing ordered. “Don’t come out until you’re ready.” Braden kept his arms wrapped around me as he led me quickly up the stairs and behind the bench where we went through the door and back into the judge’s chambers. He closed the door behind us and pulled me over to a sofa and onto his lap where we just held each other.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Eventually, I stopped shaking and eventually Braden was willing to loosen his grip. Our heart rates even started to slow down.
“I want to get married,” he said. I sat back and looked at him with confusion. My brain was pretty scrambled at the moment.
“I know. You gave me this ring, remember?”
“Saturday, before the party.”
“You want to get married before our engagement party?”
“Yeah. If we apply for the license today we’ll get it on time. Judge Channing will marry us. I asked him.”
“You did? In the middle of all this?”
“That deputy who came and got you earlier came back and interrupted court in the middle of the hearing. He said that there was a riot down in lock-up and that you were one of the public defenders trapped inside.”
“Oh God, Braden! I’m so sorry about what you must have gone through.”
“Me?! Baby … anyway, I tried to leave but they held me back. They said there was nothing I could do down there. They wouldn’t even let me call you until they knew what was going on.”
“I wouldn’t have had much to tell you. I was holed up in an interview room with two other PDs and guy named Terrell who was only in for taking advantage of BOGO on some marijuana.”
“I felt so powerless, Gabrielle. It made me realize that anything can happen and life is too short to waste. Whatever does happen, I want it to happen to us together as man and wife. So, I asked Judge Channing if he would marry us and he said yes. Now I know that …”
“Okay,” I interrupted.
“…we talked about … Did you just say okay?”
“I agree. Life is short and whatever happens I want it to happen to us together.” I didn’t care about what anyone said. Even if it had only been a few months I knew that this relationship was the real deal. Braden looked elated.
“I was thinking that we could do it Saturday before the party!” he said with a huge grin filled with relief and love.
“Maybe the Ritz will let us have a smaller room too. Just a little private ceremony and the party can be our reception.”
“Yeah! And we could see if your friend Stan is free to play us a song.”
“Stan?” I smiled. “You would let Stan play at our wedding?”
“He played at our first date. And we can invite your friends from the kabob place too.”
“Oh Braden!” Finally, I had tears in my eyes and they were tears of joy. Go figure.
“So how about if we get the hell out of here, and go apply for a marriage license. Then we’ll go get our dog, go home, make plans, and make love.”
“Yes to all of that.”
“Come on, let’s go.”
That night we mostly held each other and talked. We discussed all the details we had left hanging including the plans for our non-profit. We tossed around some names and The Justice Project was our favorite so far. We agreed to talk to our parents as soon as possible to get their help with setting it up and we hoped to be able to start running it by the new year or at least by the spring. We decided that even though we would be working on the same team in the future, we would keep our skills sharp by arguing cases with each other privately. After all, we liked all that adrenaline, and arguing cases was much better than arguing about personal things.
Finally, after we were all talked out, he brushed a piece of hair that had come untucked behind my ear and then leaned in to kiss me slowly, lovingly, and sweetly. I responded, pouring all of my feelings and my desire into it. Finally, he pulled back, scooped me up into his arms and carried me into our bedroom. Bruno followed along but he was perfectly content to just lounge in his doggie bed with his chew toy. We really had trained him well.
Braden put me down and the two of us undressed each other slowly and walked hand-in-hand to our bed. Then we lay down next to each other and just stared into each other’s eyes for a long time. There were no words at all to describe the intensity of emotion between us that night. It may have only been a few months, but we were deeply and passionately in love. I felt like our souls recognized each other. Like we had always been together and we always would be. We began to kiss and caress each other tenderly and when he finally slid slowly into me, he told me that he loved me and that he would love me for the rest of his life. I told him that he was my bashert – my destiny – and that I would love him forever. Later, we fell asleep in each other’s arms.