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“Sounds a bit like stalking, doesn’t it, Mr. Sharpe?” Mrs. Levine said.
The nerve. My heart was set ablaze at the offense. “Excuse me?” I responded. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Is it? Sounds like you couldn’t help yourself, so you pushed your way into her path when you should’ve stayed out,” Mrs. Levine said.
“Objection, speculation and argumentative,” Jared said, and I could hear him trying not to lose his temper.
“Overruled,” the judge responded.
Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and counted to three before opening them again.
“Tell me, Mr. Sharpe. What happened after you took Mrs. Levine home that night?” she asked. “And let me remind you, Mr. Sharpe, that you are under oath.”
With my hand resting on the wooden surface before me, I could feel my blood pumping against it with force at how impossible she was. “She asked me to stay on her couch because it was her first night on her own,” I said.
“Oh, how chivalrous. So, you want us to believe that you were the perfect gentleman, this knight in shining armor the whole night. And even though you were a stranger to Tiffany, she was the one who asked you to stay in her apartment with her without you coercing her?” Mrs. Levine asked.
“I never called myself her knight in shining armor or a perfect gentleman, the latter were Tiffany’s words. And yes, she was the one who asked me to stay with her that night,” I responded.
Mrs. Levine paced next to the podium. “What did you want to happen in that apartment when you were alone with a vulnerable young woman, Mr. Sharpe?”
Sighing, I looked up at the ceiling and asked for patience. “As I stated before, I found Tiffany attractive, but I was conflicted. I was trying to do what she asked me to do, but it was hard.”
“Why was it hard?” Mrs. Levine asked.
“I just told you. Because I was attracted to her, and I was conflicted,” I said.
“But if you were a perfect gentleman, it shouldn’t be hard for you to be decent and spend the night on her couch to protect her, unless you were obsessive and couldn’t control yourself,” Mrs. Levine stated.
“Objection, argumentative,” Jared hissed.
“Sustained,” the judge said, and I relaxed a little bit.
Mrs. Levine stopped her pacing and leaned against the podium. “So, what happened after that? You just spent the night on her couch?”
For the most part, yes. Damn, it. “Yes, ma’am,” I said.
“And nothing else happened that night. Let me remind you again, Mr. Sharpe, you’re under oath,” Mrs. Levine pressed.
“When it became too hard for me to stay, and I knew that staying there could lead to something that it shouldn’t, I tried to leave, but Tiffany caught me sneaking out,” I confessed.
“How convenient. And then you left, like the perfect gentleman, did you?” she asked.
“No,” I breathed.
“What was that? Speak up for the court,” she said.
“No,” I grunted.
“You had sex with her that night, didn’t you?” she asked.
How did she know that? Unless she didn’t, and she was just fishing. Either way, this whole case was about the truth, wasn’t it?
“We had sex with each other, yes, Mrs. Levine.” I straightened my cuffs and smoothed out the wrinkles in the sleeves of my jacket.
“So, let’s recap, shall we? You met Tiffany Levine that night, and you didn’t have the willpower to leave her alone, even though in your own words, you said you knew you shouldn’t go near her. Your lack of self-control led you to…” Mrs. Levine was cut off.
“Objection, argumentative, badgering the witness.” Jared jumped up, and Tiffany was looking at her mother with her mouth opened wide and her head shaking in disbelief.
