Chapter 2

Eliza's POV:



It had been one month and I was finally getting into the swing of things at my job. As I had learned over the last couple of weeks, the older staff members blatantly considered me the newbie and had no problem giving me the petty legal problems of the team. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that these petty legal problems pretty much consisted of a Mr. Max Talbot's legal problems. Honestly, was the man completely incapable of following the simplicities of the law system? I was getting tired of handling his parking tickets and weasling him out of community service for unpaid fees. His claims of "But I'm Canadian and we don't have so many laws there" and "But my native tongue is French, sometimes I forget to pay attention to the signs in English" were getting old fast. Thank God today is a half day on a Friday. After glancing at the clock for the 5th time in the last 10 minutes, I figured that maybe I could sneak out a little early and finally enjoy time to myself this weekend.



The last week had been difficult to say the least. It had been the anniversary of my Mom and Dad meeting each other for the first time and even though this had never been a big deal before, this year my Mom was remembering everything about their lives together and only making it harder on herself. I felt like she shouldn't be alone either so all of my time outside of work was spent going to her condo and trying to distract her and myself from memories of my Dad. This weekend though my Mom and Aunt were going on a spa trip and I saw this as the perfect opportunity to catch up on sleep and practice being comatose.



After shutting down my laptop and placing it in my briefcase, I called Mary at the front desk to let her know I was skipping out and to send any calls straight to my voicemail for the weekend. I could almost feel my body adjusting itself for sleep as I straightened up my office and watered plants. Lately I had been neglecting relaxation of any kind including yoga and was stretching my back a bit when I heard a quick rap on the door before someone shuffled in behind me, loudly closing the door again.



Please don't be who I think it is...



"Lizzy, I hope I'm not interrupting anything" he said with a smile in his voice.



My least favorite client, Max Talbot.



Max's POV:



I'll be the first person to admit that I don't have the strongest sense of duty to follow the law. However, in the last few weeks I found that there was an upside to all of the stupid things cops bitched to me about. Now a ticket was no longer quite so bad if it meant watching her clack around the arena with her fancy shoes and stacks of files. Especially when she came marching into the locker room to find him and yell at him for his latest mishap. As he studied her now with a ridiculous watering can in one hand and another hand pressing at the small of her back, he still couldn't help but be amused by her. As a conoisseur of females for the past 26 years, Max knew women. Sure they liked to think that they were mysterious to men and full of surprises but really they weren't. They were lovely and soft and meant to be enjoyed but they certainly didn't have layers. At least that was what he thought until he met Eliza Smith. Just by looking at her and all of her moods, he could tell that she would be the type of woman that most men avoided meeting for as long as they possibly could. He didn't necessarily think that was a bad thing but he definitely understood that it was a scary thing. It was her eyes, he thought. Well used to women only having an adoring or amused look in their eye, her eyes fascinated him because they only seemed to have a look of contempt or an analytical glint in them whenever she studied him. As he knocked on the door and pretended to only have just stepped in the room he saw the look of surprise and annoyance flash in her eyes before going blank again.



Yep, it's definitely the eyes.



"Can I help you Mr. Talbot?" she said after a brief pause.

"Uh, yeah. Were you going somewhere?" he gestured to her still holding the watering can and her things neatly packed up at her desk.

"I'm leaving a bit early today for the weekend and was on my way out so if there isn't anything important then..."

"Actually, I had a quick question for you. What does this paper mean exactly? I got it a couple of weeks ago and kinda forgot about it until now."



I watched her take the small stack of letters from me and quickly browse through them before sighing deeply and walking around back to her desk. As she sat down and composed herself, I was reminded of my third grade teacher who sat the same way before punishing me.



"Mr. Talbot, do you realize that this is a court summons? An official document from the city requesting that you be in court TODAY at 3pm because of an unpaid parking ticket and obstruction of a fire hydrant outside of the arena?"



"Uh, well you see I didn't understand exactly what all of the legal stuff meant so that's why I'm bringing it to you now." I figured that I should shut up soon before she did something dangerous.



"Ugh" she said surprising me. "Are you completely unable of being responsible? As your new legal representative, I have dealt with your incapacity to understand that when you receive a ticket for breaking the law, you are expected to pay it. NOT cheerfully stuff it in your glove compartment and continue on your merry way." Her face was starting to get really red at this point and she completely ignored my objections and kept talking.



"How many times have I asked you to give me ALL of your legal documents, both past and present, so that I can prevent your idiocy from getting out of control?! Honestly, you're the worst client I have ever and probably will ever have and now you are completely screwing up my weekend before it has even started."



Finally she stopped to breathe and clutch her abdomen before looking at me with shock on her face. I stopped what I was about to say when I saw her eyes had gone a bit glassy. Were those tears?



"Are you done yet? I didn't think that anyone was capable of talking that fast and for that long in one sitting." I figured maybe a smart ass comment would put anger back in her eyes instead of tears. Apparently she didn't think this was funny because she only glared at me before digging around in her oversized purse and taking out aspirin. Success.



"I wouldn't have to explode like that if you had an ounce of responsibility in that womanizing body of yours. What time is it?" She snapped before gulping down water with her pills.



"Are you going to be nice to me and take me to court if I tell you?" She didn't answer and instead checked the time herself 2:00 before snatching up her purse, coat and scarf and marching out the door down the hallway to the receptionist.



I guess she is taking me to court then.





Eliza's POV:



I really couldn't believe it. I couldn't fucking believe it. There I was, all ready to go home for the weekend when he waltzes in and is all Oh, poor me. I couldn't read the basic English and understand that I have to be in court today. I wish he would just cut the crap and own up to the fact that he's a child and I definitely don't get paid nearly enough to be handling all of his ridiculous and idiotic problems for a living. I made up my mind that I would take him to court but I definitely wasn't going to converse with the goon if I could help it. At least he had managed to look nice today and I hated to think it, but he almost looked good. If you were into the jock types. I was starting to think that he didn't have a face underneath all of the facial hair but today he had managed to shave, look clean and put on a suit. At least the judge won't think I'm defending a vagabond.



"Hey honey, I thought you were leaving a half hour ago?" Mary looked up and smiled at me as I stalked towards the receptionist's desk.



"I was until you let Max Talbot walk into my office and now we need to get to court so that I can do some sweet talking on the judge." I said grabbing some memos out of her hand and shoving them in my bag.



"Hopefully it won't be that judge that likes to pat your butt" she joked before greeting Max who had just appeared at my side.



"Hey Mary, how are you doing? And what's this I hear about patting Lizzy's butt?" he said smiling his schmoozy smile at Mary. As I groaned at the mention of the nickname he insisted calling me in the presence of others, Mary raised her eyebrows and questioned "Lizzy?" with a laugh.



"Have a nice weekend Mary!" I ignored her laughing and turned to walk out of the offices and into the main hallway of the arena.



"We're friends" Max added with a smile to Mary before heading out to follow Eliza who was already yards ahead of him.



I heard him grumbling and jogging lightly to catch up to me in the hallway. "Did anyone ever tell you that there's no reason to speedwalk everywhere in life?" he asked me when he finally caught up to me and brushed up against my side. I stepped away from him after replying "no" and continued to walk towards the parking lot and my car. If we didn't get through mid-day traffic quickly then we would definitely be late to court and it would definitely add to my already brewing headache and the annoying twinge in my stomach. I really need to make an appointment and see what's up with that. Just as I had finally located my red Honda Civic, Max grabbed my arm and lightly steered me in another direction towards the player's parking lot.


"Here, I'll drive so you can calm down and yell at me some more before we get there. I know I'm the bad driver and all but I fear what you are like when you're this annoyed."



I tried to wiggle out of his iron-clad grip on my arm then remembered that I was dealing with a hockey player and unfortunately this made him stronger than me. "Could you let go? I don't need to be steered everywhere."



"I know you usually like to do the steering but you're just going to have to let me for once. Here's the car." he added stopping in front of a silver BMW sports car. As I studied the car and was ushered into it I couldn't help but think that this is exactly the type of car I would picture him having. Impractical, irresponsible and an attention grabber. In short, the car fit the man.



"See something interesting Lizzy?" he asked glancing at me before turning his attention back to the road. I guess I didn't realize that I had been staring at him for a few minutes.



"Why do you insist on calling me Lizzy? My name is Eliza and I'm your lawyer. We're not teenage best friends who stay up late on the phone eating chocolate together."



"I think you look like a Lizzy. In the very few moments I have seen you relaxed, you don't look like an Eliza because you actually look approachable." As he said this he kept his eyes on the road so it was hard to guage his expression. Over the brief time that we had known each other, he had managed to get under my skin and annoy me more than any other player on the team (actually he was the only annoying one) but I guess he hadn't just been unloading all of his crap on me but paying attention as well. The thought of this made me uncomfortable and I shifted in my seat a little bit before telling him where to turn off. Miraculously, we were going to make it in plenty of time.



"Well, if I promise to look less scary most of the time, will you call me Eliza? No one but my Dad ever called me Lizzy and it's kind of weird to hear it again from another man."



After cutting the engine and looking at me for another uncomfortable minute, a wide smile took over his face and he nudged me before saying "It's a deal. Now lets go get me out of trouble."