Junior Year Box Set

“Why not? You heard him. He was out to destroy me and would do anything to make sure I didn’t ever see my baby. When I saw the expression on Cal’s face when they let it slip they had our confidential financials, I realized we had the opening to push for it, so I did,” I said.

“We need to stop this love-fest because this isn’t over yet. Cal might not be done with his tricks,” Mom warned us.

“Can you hold off on the disbarment?” Dad asked.

“Actually, I disagree, Dad,” I said. “I’m all for them having to pay the price for what they’ve done. I’d also like to push anything else we can come up with. I think the state’s attorney mentioned a false police report. Cal, Mr. Fox, and Rigby, Thompson and Associates need to be held accountable,” I said.

“David, for once I would advise you not to get your hands dirty in this. Up to this point, you’ve come across as the good guy. I think we hold this as the hammer to force an agreement on our terms,” Ms. Dixon said.

I looked at my mom because if anyone would want payback, it was her. She just shook her head at me, and I realized I needed to tone it down. It was like a football game when you had a team down and out. You didn’t have to keep pouring it on, or they might decide they have nothing to lose and do something stupid and hurt someone. I didn’t need to put Cal in a corner and then poke him. He had shown he would strike back without regard to the consequences. I had to let him walk away with some small amount of dignity.

“Alright, but if this goes south, I want to be ready to back up our threats,” I said. “I’ll let Cal walk away with some dignity, but only if we can be sure he’s really walking away, and that he won’t come back.”

“I wouldn’t want it any other way,” Ms. Dixon said with a smile.

“One more item,” I said. “Can we get them to pay all your fees for this fiasco?”

My mom and dad had no idea how expensive this all had been for me. I clued them in, and they both were suddenly very interested in my request.

“I’ll put it into our proposal. Since they caused this, they should pay for it. The good news is my firm hired your PR firm so you won’t have to pay for that, either,” Ms. Dixon said.

“And one last thing,” Mom said. “Let’s hold off on getting Children and Family Services involved. I don’t think Pam or her mom needs that hassle right now.”

Ms. Dixon nodded and then stood up to leave.

“Even if I’m not filing anything today, I still have a bunch of documents to prepare for contingencies for tomorrow. David, we’re not out of the woods yet, but our position is much stronger than before.”

◊◊◊

Greg and the kids came over to go trick-or-treating. Our neighborhood was much better for young children than around campus at State. Duke and I were put in charge of handing out candy. He at first wasn’t sure of the scary masks, but once my hound figured out that they were little kids, he thought it was great that people would come to his front door. Duke was in charge of making sure their candy was safe. I think he personally smelled every bag.

Kyle was dressed up as a tiger and Mac was a princess. Nate made a great pumpkin. I had to laugh when I saw Greg had on a pirate outfit. When they made it back, they were all exhausted. I was jealous when I saw all the candy the four of them had. I was surprised when Greg put the little ones down in beds here. It looked like he wasn’t going home tonight.

The good news was Greg brought all their candy down and dumped it on the kitchen table.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

Mom just laughed.

“You don’t think we’d ever let them eat all this candy, do you?” she said as she picked through it and got what she wanted.

“You guys used to steal our candy?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Dad said, as he picked out what he wanted.

Duke nudged my arm. I saw that one of them had gotten a toy football. I tossed it to him and watched as he took his new toy and put it in his basket. I would have to check his basket and see if he had stolen any more of the kids’ toys. Duke was protective of his stuff. He knew exactly where it all was. Mom had started to play a game with him where she would steal one of his toys and hide it somewhere. Duke had a great time hunting all over the house until he found it.

I broke down and snagged a Heath Bar and a Butterfinger, and then the doorbell rang again, so I was put back to work.

◊◊◊

I arrived at Mona’s and found all the cheerleaders helping the drama students from State finish decorating the house. They had gone all out, with a fog machine and creepy noises that were triggered when you set off a motion sensor. Tracy was in the kitchen making punch in a big witches’ cauldron. They had dry ice, so it would bubble and look like smoke was rolling out of it.

In the dining room, Granny had put together a spread. She had finger food that looked like actual fingers. I saw a bowl of eyeballs and decided I might not be hungry. All I could say was Granny had outdone herself.

Brook found me as I checked out the food.