Chapter 4

Even though Mark had sold an energy unit Thursday morning he was not in the best of moods. Gloria’s leaving tomorrow was on his mind and he was going to miss her. A further damper on his mood was just before he left to go to her condo he received a notice requesting him to do substitute teaching at Kennedy High School Friday. He had thoughts of having one long night and early morning of enjoyable moments in saying good-by to Gloria but that was not now going to happen. It was his fault that he didn’t change his availability to teach and now he couldn’t refuse.

Gloria warmly greeted him with a nice kiss. She looked nice in the shorts she was wearing. Judging by the two indentations he saw on her pullover he would guess she was braless. Seeing the jiggle in her breasts when she walked confirmed to him that she was.

She offered Mark a drink. The meal she said was going to be a pizza she had purchased from Costco to which she added mushrooms, green pepper, onions, sauce, cheese, and some Italian sausage. Laughing she said it was like a deep-dish pizza on a thin crust. As it turned out the pizza was excellent even though this thin crust pizza had to be eaten with a fork where normally a fork wasn’t needed.

Gloria was cleaning up after they had eaten and she had a good laugh when he explained that the night and morning of debauchery he planned on having with her wasn’t going to happen since he was scheduled to teach tomorrow.

She wiped her hands and then turning to him pulled her pullover up over her head and said, “If that’s the case I guess we had better get started now.”

He admired her two naked breasts that were pointing at him. She then turned and walked to the bedroom with him following. He noticed her hands going to the side of her shorts pulling down the zipper and the shorts being lowered revealing the thong she was wearing. He could only think this was going to be an interesting night and it was.

They did have rewarding and pleasurable intercourse that night. One time she positioned herself for doggie style. She could rapidly move her hips and became a little vocal when Mark started teasing her rosebud. He was tempted to do more but he remembered what she had said. In thinking about it later he thought that Gloria wanted to make this last night with him memorable and without a doubt, she certainly did accomplish that.

Because he was scheduled to teach, Mark couldn’t stay the night and he left her around midnight with each of them promising to stay in touch.

It was an ordinary day of subbing the next day at Kennedy. Nothing unusual happened when he was teaching except in doing it he was having many thoughts about Gloria.

That evening Mark received a phone call from Ralph Avers. Ralph was a fraternity brother of Mark’s when they were undergrads in school. After graduation, Ralph went to law school and received his JD. He was hired by Peters and Montgomery which was a large law firm in Austin primarily specializing in insurance defense work. The last time Mark spoke with Ralph he laughing said they had taught him where the courthouse was and how to take depositions. He said shortly they would be giving him cases to be tried.

“Hi Ralph, it has been some time since we talked. How are things going?”

“Things for me are both good and bad.”

“What do you mean?”

“They are letting me go to trial on bodily injury cases which is good. The bad is that I lost the first two cases I tried. If I lose anymore I will be relegated to doing wills and trusts which I don’t want to do and that is why I am calling. I am asking for your help.”

“What can I do to help?”

“You told me at one time you were pretty good at reading people’s body language. I saw you doing this with the girls when we were in school. I was hoping you could attend my next trial which is starting this Monday and tell me what you see I am doing wrong and maybe give me some hints on what to do.”

Mark agreed to attend the trial which Ralph said should be no more than three days. Mark also thought that these were days that he wouldn’t be selling energy units or subbing which would cost him but then who knows when he would need an attorney and Ralph would owe him big time for doing this.

On Monday Mark was at the courthouse and found the courtroom where this trial was going to take place. In walking into the courtroom he joined the few other people who were sitting there and saw that the trial had started. They were in the process of doing voir dire in selecting a jury. The jury was selected and there was a break for lunch.

Speaking to Ralph he said he didn’t have anything to comment on yet. After lunch, the plaintiff’s attorney gave his opening statement with Ralph deferring his opening statement. The plaintiff’s attorney called his first witness, the police officer that was called to the scene for this minor rear-end automobile accident. Both attorneys questioned the police officer.

While this was going on Mark was observing both attorneys as well as what were the reactions he could see from the members of the jury. He made a few notes on some three-by-five cards that he had with him. When the court adjourned for the day, Mark went with Ralph into an interview room and told him what he had observed.

“Before I get to the jury let me tell you what I think of what you are doing. The only time you looked at the jury was when you were doing voir dire. After that, you never looked at the jury and were either looking at your notes, the judge, or the witness. Neither of them is going to give you the verdict you are looking for, it’s the jury that is going to do it. I would suggest fifty percent of the time you look at the jury when you ask a question of a witness or hear a response. If you like the response you receive from the witness let that show on your face with maybe a raised eyebrow or a smile. Let the jury unconsciously read your body language in that you scored some points with that question or response.”

“Now when I say look at the jury I don’t mean you are just facing them. I want you to look at a specific jury member in their eyes. Make them relate to you by the member thinking you are specifically talking to them. Of course, alternate doing this with each jury member. In a way I want you to flirt with the female members and become buddies with the male members. Do you understand what I am saying and do you have any questions?”

“What about the jury’s reaction today?”

“It’s too early to tell. From what I see there is no reaction by them to either one of you two in any way.”

Ralph thanked Mark for being here and for his comments. He said he would try and do what Mark says and would see him here tomorrow.

The next day when the trial continued Mark noticed the change in Ralph. He was looking more at the jury when he was asking his questions and receiving responses. He could also see where some of the jury members were relating to Ralph. Mark saw a few of the members nodding their heads in agreement with Ralph.

When the court adjourned for the day Mark critiqued Ralph on what he was doing just pointing out small points that could be improved. He did say he thought most of the jury members were on Ralph’s side.

The following day started with the defendant testifying and verifying that the photos showed the minor damage to both cars. Both attorneys then gave their closing arguments. Since it was a rear-end accident the liability was clear and it just was a question of how serious was this “pain in the neck” injury and what was it worth? Ralph argued minor damage to the car, the plaintiff was treated by a doctor the attorney referred her to, one-half of her medical bills were for X-rays which didn’t show anything, and thirty days after she saw the doctor she said she was pain-free.