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He laughed. “I said no details but gave you what I could. I wanted you to see or understand that I’m not one of those lawyers going after a doctor because he gave the wrong diagnosis on the first try when going through tests to figure out what could be wrong with someone. This was cut and dry, a mistake occurred and no one disputed it. But offering six figures when someone has incurred seven figures in medical bills by now, whether insurance covers it or not isn’t the point. The patient has a long road of rehab and may never recover fully. Those are the unknowns at this point. The parents are missing work and will continue to. What if they lose their jobs over this? There has to be compensation for all of that.”
“Just like Janine lost her job for caring for her son and a parent?”
It was one of those conversations that she and Janine had one day. Where Janine had been saying how great of a boss Trent was and that they’d worked together in the past.
“She told you that?” he asked.
“She did.”
The door opened and their food arrived. Trent got up and paid for it, leaving what she was positive was a very generous tip, then locked the door.
“We can go to the conference room. What can I get you to drink? We’ve got water, a few kinds of iced tea and soda too. It’s in the fridge in the kitchen we’ll pass. Help yourself.”
“What do you want?” she asked.
She followed him to the kitchen and she opened the fridge, saw the variety and grabbed water.
“I’ll take a water too.”
She picked up another bottle and then they moved to the conference room.
The table wasn’t that big, six chairs at it for now, and a few more off to the side.
She wasn’t going to sit next to him and decided to go across. It’d be easy to watch him while they talked.
“Janine speaks very highly of you,” she said.
“Have you asked about me?” he asked, grinning at her while he pulled their food out. It looked like they’d gotten the same.
“I haven’t,” she said. “I don’t like to pry because I don’t like people prying into my life. I know that sounds harsh, but as I said…guarded. I haven’t asked anything more than background on your office to put in the newsletter. It’s how or why she’d explained you two were working together again.”
“We need plates and silverware. Napkins too. Hang on, Janine will have them in the kitchen.”
He ran out to get everything and she took a few deep breaths.
She was good in work meetings whether food was included or not.
She could make all sorts of small talk and keep it professional.
This was something different.
It was pretty much a date, even a loose one.
Something she hadn’t had in close to nine years. Her last real date in her eyes, was Jeff in college when she was twenty. They’d dated less than a year, then she got pregnant and had Eli when she was twenty-two, just a few months before she turned twenty-three.
“Thanks,” she said when he handed her the plate a minute later. “Did you like what I ordered or just wanted to be like me?”
“Lucky number thirteen,” he said. “Why not? And I do like it.”
She nodded. He just seemed so easygoing. “I don’t think all lawyers are bad people.” She figured she better clarify that now.
“I’m not one of those lawyers that is going to stick it to someone,” he said. “There are a lot out there that do, but less than you think. We are doing our job. I don’t know your ex’s attorney at all. In your eyes, he might be an asshole, and maybe he is. But know that if he or she didn’t take your ex’s case, someone else would. We work for our clients and most times we don’t like what they say or want, but do it anyway or have to. It’s not personal.”
She sighed. “I know. I tell myself that. It’s all on Jeff and what he’s done to me. His attorney is just doing his job. I’m sure Jeff tells him if he doesn’t do it, he’ll find someone else.”
She was positive that was the case because that was how Jeff operated.
“That is exactly it,” Trent said. “My point is, if someone came in here and said they robbed a bank and in the police chase crashed their car and broke their leg and wanted to sue the police for making them speed and lose control, I wouldn’t give them a minute of my time. Owning my own firm now, I can say that. I can tell someone I don’t want their case or I’m not interested. Before, I didn’t have that control.”
