Monday came and went without much fanfare. I visited clients at the jail and caught up on paperwork. Braden made a goodnight call and I was already looking forward to seeing him again. Tuesday morning Jess and I arrived at work as usual, coffee in hand, and we were just sitting down at our desks to start preparing cases for court the next day when Chief Deputy Public Defender, Chuck Collins stopped by our office with Cam in tow. His request had been granted. He would be shadowing Jess and I and sharing our office space for the next few weeks. Jess seemed perfectly happy with that and I suspected that the fact that Cam was a really cute and sexy guy made this assignment a little less burdensome.
Before long Cam and Jess were laughing together, which I took as a good sign. I had been so engrossed in my work I hadn’t even heard what they were talking about.
“Any interesting cases tomorrow?” I asked, wondering what was so funny.
“Nothing spectacular. How about on your list?”
“I’ve got a pretty good one. A guilty plea — Mr. Maximillian Davis. I’m not going to spoil it for you though.” I smiled. The hours went by quickly and we made plans to go out to lunch with Braden, who stopped by at noon. The four of us headed for Reading Terminal Market, chatting on the way.
“So Cameron, give investment advice to any felons yet?” Braden asked with a smirk.
“Not yet but I’ve got definite ideas for expanding their portfolios.”
“Well, I’m sure it will be an interesting experience for you. I hope you’ll get to be there when we do Mr. Davis’ guilty plea tomorrow.”
“We get all the good ones, don’t we?”
“Uh, hello? I get my share of good ones too,” Jess chimed in.
“I hope that you two will let Cameron share in the fun.” Braden smiled.
“Can’t wait,” Cam replied, grinning the grin of the blissfully unaware.
When we arrived, we browsed the various stalls for something good to eat and when we had all picked up our lunches we found a place to sit and dug in.
“So you and Gabrielle were friends in college?” Jess asked Cam.
“Yeah, we were in the same lit class and she obviously got it. I obviously didn’t, so I asked her to help me study.”
“And it had nothing to do with the fact that she was hot,” Braden said dryly.
“Braden!” I rolled my eyes.
“It had something to do with the fact that she was hot,” he said with a laugh and I almost choked on my curry. “But it had more to do with the fact that she was so smart.”
“So you thought she was hot and smart?” Jess asked.
“And funny and very nice,” Cam added, glancing at me and smiling but nevertheless looking a little uncomfortable. He turned his focus to his Pad Thai.
“So how come you never asked her out?” Jess asked. Oh my God! I was going to kill her.
Cam hesitated. “Well, I was kind of a serial dater, and besides, when we first met she was dating somebody. Jonathan Parker, right?” he asked me. “It’s weird but for some reason, I always thought he was g*y.”
“He, uh, well,” I coughed. “He was. That is, he discovered that he was. Gay, I mean,” I said and Cam almost spit out the Coke he was drinking.
“Discovered that he was g*y? He didn’t know that already?”
“People don’t always realize that right away. Do they?”
“I’m not sure, but I think that most people realize it on some level, although maybe they haven’t come to terms with it,” he answered tactfully.
“How long did you date a g*y man?” Jess cut in.
“Just a couple of months.”
“And it never occurred to you?” she asked incredulously.
“Well, I’ll admit that I thought it was odd that he was so shy, you know, about physical contact. I didn’t really bring it up though because I didn’t want to pressure him.”
“So you never had any physical side to your relationship?”
“We were affectionate. We held hands and hugged. He put his arm around me and we gave each other little cheek kisses. At the time I had hardly any sexual experience at all so I was pretty naïve.” I saw Cam look away uncomfortably. Braden wasn’t looking terribly comfortable either.
“And what did you do on your dates?” she wanted to know.
“Hung out and watched movies, went out dancing. Stuff like that.”
“Honey, are you sure you were dating? I mean it sounds to me like you were his hag,” Jess said sounding bewildered. I saw Cam and Braden glance at each other and struggle valiantly not to laugh. They were barely holding on there. At least they were kind of bonding.
“I think we were dating. I have to admit that I wasn’t really surprised when he told me he was g*y, but I assumed it was something he had just figured out. I didn’t want to push him to discuss it, in case he wasn’t ready.” Suddenly it sunk in. “Oh my God. I had an imaginary boyfriend.”
That one was just too much. They lost it. Those two bastards totally cracked up! Cam turned his head and Braden covered his face with his hands but they couldn’t hide the way their shoulders silently shook. Finally, they pulled it together.
“Just for the record, we’re really dating,” Braden said, catching his breath, which almost started Cam off on another laughing fit.
“I’m glad that you two find this so amusing.” I calmly went on eating my lunch. I was actually thankful for their little laughing fit because it had allowed Cam to avoid answering Jess’s question. I really didn’t want to discuss it at the moment.
We finished up our lunch and Braden kissed me goodbye and whispered in my ear that we would have a private lunch soon. Then he returned to his office and we returned to ours. We worked on through the afternoon and finally at the end of the day, we said goodbye to Cam, and Jess and I headed home. When we got there I stopped at our box to pick up the mail and we went upstairs.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
We walked in and I was going to toss the mail on the entry table, but something caught my eye; peeking out of the pile was an envelope that was addressed to me in sloppy handwriting that I didn’t recognize. There was no return address. What the hell? I stood there and stared, starting to feel a little apprehensive for some reason.
“Jess,” I called.
“What’s the matter?” she asked, coming over to me.
“It’s nothing big. Just that there’s a letter addressed to me and it doesn’t have a return address. I don’t recognize the writing.”