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I glanced at my watch. It was already two. I would have to run through the airport if I was going to make my connecting flight. I stopped quickly at the information desk to make sure I had the correct gate, and nothing had been changed. The attendant tapped on the keys and frowned as she waited for the information. “Sir, it looks like that flight has been delayed by two hours. You have plenty of time.” The airport attendant looked up at me and smiled.
“Great, thanks.” My gut sank, I’m not going to lie. I just wanted to get home to my baby. I slowly walked toward the gate I was supposed to board at, stopping on the way to grab a coffee. It was going to be a long night if I didn’t get some caffeine in me.
Once I had found my gate, I sat down at a table in the small lounge and opened my briefcase. I figured I may as well do some work while I wait. I opened my laptop, and before starting, I booked two tickets for Tuesday evening. She was going with me; I didn’t want to hear any more about it. We needed quality time. If our parents couldn’t take the girls, one of my brothers could.
I sat there, sipping my coffee, working away, when my phone pinged. Glancing down at the screen I was surprised to see Mike’s name; after all, it was the middle of the night. The message was simple enough: “Call me.”
I dialed and waited, finally hearing his voice. “Hey, Carter.”
“Mike, I’m sorry to have to cancel on you guys on such short notice; there’s been an issue at home that I have to tend to.”
“I hope it’s not the girls?”
“No, no, everyone is fine. I received a call when I landed, but I had no choice; I had to turn around. I won’t be back until Wednesday morning, and I can only stay in town for a couple nights. I have to be back home for court on Friday afternoon.”
“It’s understandable, but I didn’t even know you were coming into town.”
“What do you mean? Felice messaged me. She set up a dinner meeting to go over adoption papers.”
“Seriously, Carter, I had no idea. But there is something I would like you to see.”
“All right, email over what you want me to look at.”
“I just did before you called.” He sounded down and a little strange to me.
“Everything okay, Mike? You don’t sound like yourself.”
“I’ve been better. I think it’s best you just open the email, Carter.”
“All right. Let me just take a quick peek and make sure I got it.” I opened my email on my laptop, connected to the Wi-Fi, and waited for emails to download, finally seeing Mike’s name. I opened the attachment and almost choked on my mouthful of coffee. I was no stranger to seeing these documents. I dealt with them more than I dealt with anything else, and I was suddenly grateful for everything I had in my life.
“Mike, are you sure this is what you wanted me to look at?”
“Yep.” He cleared his throat. “You are someone I trust.”
“I’m sorry, man. I’m shocked. Felice’s message said she wanted me to look over adoption papers.”
He let out a deep laugh. “How long have you been in touch with her?”
“She messaged me a couple weeks ago. Now that you mention it, her texts came across as desperate.” Then as I sat there thinking back, she had never once mentioned Mike in any of them.
“Desperate, that’s funny. She’s been fucking everything with a dick. Maybe her candy has finally run out and she’s looking now to revisit old flames. Anyway, we’re through. So if you wouldn’t mind looking over the paperwork, I would appreciate it.”
“Yeah, no problem. Why aren’t you trusting your lawyer?”
He cleared his throat. “I don’t have one. I was planning to represent myself with one of those DIY kits. She bled me dry, and I’m hanging on by my fingernails. I have the bar still, but she emptied all of our accounts.”
“Mike, you cannot represent yourself with a kit you bought off Amazon,” I chuckled. “Don’t worry and don’t submit those papers. We will get things together. You’ve got a lawyer now. I’ll be in touch with you on Monday morning. We’ll go over everything, and I’ll get proper documents drawn up.”
“Thanks, Carter. I just don’t know how I will pay you.”
“No need to worry about it. I do a certain amount of pro-bono work per year, and I haven’t hit my quota yet.”
“Thanks, Carter.”
We hung up, and I texted Felice letting her know I was cancelling, and then I buried myself into work until I heard the call for my flight. I packed everything up and got into line with my boarding pass. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket and looked at the screen.
“What do you mean you have to cancel? You’re going to cancel on this?”
