Chapter 1b

"You're certainly looking good." Lee said as he took a seat.  "You as well." Amy replied, trying to suppress her smile.  "Is this meeting to tell me that you're now the CEO of Proctor and Gamble and you want to hire me as general counsel?" Lee asked, suddenly feeling inferior thinking about the rumors he'd heard about Amy's quick rise in the corporate world compared to his career defending the hated of society from a 2 room office in what he told friends was a very under-appreciated part of town.  "Well." Amy replied.  "I haven't worked there for over 2 years.  I'm running the women's education program for the Calvary Mission." She paused to enjoy the look on Lee's face before continuing, mostly with a string of questions for him on what he'd been doing the past few years.

"So, you call me up out of the blue at eight o'clock in the morning and want to buy me coffee.  What's up?" he said, cutting through the chit-chat to get to what he knew was something intended as more than just old friends catching up with each other.

"Well..." Amy began slowly and a bit apprehensively "For a year or so I've had this thing floating around in my head.  You know, when you see a problem and you know there's a fairly simple solution to it, but you're not sure what that solution is."   Lee smiled and nodded his understanding.  "Well, about three this morning as I was laying in bed unable to sleep and thinking about it the solution sorta popped into my head."  Amy paused.

"And..." Lee replied expectantly

"Well, it's kindof unorthodox and may involve quit a bit of legal wrangling."

"I see." Lee said trying unsuccessfully to suppress a smile.  Amy wasn't exceptionally pretty, but wasn't bad.  What she was though, is one of the most brilliant and fun-to-talk-to women Lee had ever met.  During their years in school together Lee had slowly developed a deep-seated attraction for her and though he'd never told her outright that his thoughts included more than friendship, and she'd never brought the subject up, he was sure she'd figured it out.  It was her intellect that really had Lee hooked, but she also had a killer body, which, Lee noticed in the coffee shop, hadn't changed.  Her strong belief in no sex until marriage combined with his desire to keep her as a friend had caused no small amount of grief for him.

"So anyway, while I was in the shower this morning thinking about it I thought of you." Amy went on.  The thought of Amy in the shower was, by itself, enough to put Lee over the edge - how quickly old feelings come back stronger than ever he thought.  That she said she was thinking about him at that time had to be some sort of cruel torture plan of Amy's.  Maybe this just her way of getting back at him for his lack of communication over the past few years.  

"You're doing a bunch of defense work now, right?" she asked.  "Something like that." He replied apprehensively, now sure that she simply wanted to get back at him somehow.  She was going to torture him and then bury his ego.  "So I thought that what I needed was not only someone who knew all of the legal stuff, but was also someone that I could talk too." Amy said

"Hi sis." A woman from behind interrupted their conversation.  "Hi sweets." Amy replied with a little bit of a giggle.  Lee knew Amy and her family well enough to know that she didn't have any sisters, just two younger brothers.  "Lee, this my best friend Linea." Amy said as she introduced Linea to Lee, quickly ending the confusion.

To say that Linea was striking was an understatement.  Lee had to force himself to not take in every inch of her body, something made easier by his becoming lost in her eyes.  "Hi." Lee finally replied and then immediately started feeling guilty for his thoughts - as if he was cheating on Amy.

"Linea works with me at the mission." Amy started explaining to Lee but was interrupted by Linea.

"Work for her would be more appropriate." Linea smiled.  "Or maybe admire, adore, worship, or any number of ways to describe how I feel about this women."  Linea continued with more than a little enthusiasm.  "My little sister Christy had gotten into drugs and was working a corner to support her habit.  My parents and I had done everything we could to clean her up but couldn't do anything.  She'd come to the mission a few times and several people worked really hard to get her to straighten up, but she kept going back to her drugs." Linea said.  "Amy was her savior."

"Careful." Amy interjected.

"Yea, yea." Linea continued.  "Amy's just being miss modest." Linea said looking at Lee.  "So anyway, Amy just started having all these little talks with Christy and before we knew it she was in detox, out of detox, enrolled in the program at the mission, graduated from the program, and today she's been clean for over 2 years."

"Linea came down one day to thank ME for what OTHERS had done." Amy jumped in while getting a disapproving look from Linea. "We got together for dinner that night and have been best friends ever since." Amy finished.

"So anyway, who are you?" Linea asked Lee in her typical matter-of-fact way.

"Lee is one of my best friends from college and an attorney that I'm hoping to con into helping me with something." Amy replied for Lee.

"Well, Lee, it's good to meet you." Linea said.  "So, did you hear about Beth?" Linea turned serious and looked away from Lee towards Amy.  Amy began to nod her head no and Linea continued without even taking much of a breath.  "Some jerk beat her up yesterday and took about 800 bucks from her.  She needs some stitches over her eye, but won't go to the hospital cause she's afraid they'll call the cops."

"Um, do you mind telling me why she'd be afraid of the cops?" Lee asked with some interest.  Linea looked at Amy for assurance that Lee could be trusted.

"She works." Amy told Lee.

"So." Lee replied.  "That's a misdemeanor.  If she's reporting any kind of assault or robbery they're not gonna tag her for working."

Linea began to roll her eyes at his ignorance, but thought better of it.  "You're right, they won't tag her this time."  She said.  "But they'll be tipped off to what she's doing and I can assure you she'll get a visit soon after."  

Lee looked at Amy who nodded affirmative.

"This is what?" Amy looked at Linea "The third time this has happened to someone this month?"

"Fourth." Linea replied with a tinge of disgust entering her voice.  "And that's just to the escorts.  Who knows how often it happens to the hookers." Linea added, obviously making a distinction, but not in a derogatory way.

Lee listened as Linea spouted off a litany of statistics about prostitution.  "Reporter or politician?" He asked when she finally took a breath.  

"She has a degree in journalism." Amy said to Lee and then smiled at Linea.  "But apparently was having difficulty keeping her editorial opinions to herself."

"And you're miss perfect." Linea smiled as she stood to leave.  

Lee's phone rang as he was standing to say goodbye to Linea.  He hated to interrupt their conversation for a call that he was sure would take him away from what was becoming an enjoyable and intriguing conversation.  His sense of duty to his clients overcame his objections though, before he could give it any more thought.

"Cute butt." Linea said to Amy after Lee had excused himself to go back to his office.  Linea just smiled, giving no hint of her thoughts one-way or the other.  "I'll see you at lunch." She said to Linea.

Jacob looked back when he heard Amy and Linea laughing and thought how fortunate he was to have friends like them.

-------------------
Copyright 2003 JTH
May not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form including electronic without the expressed written permission of the author