Chapter 47: Developing Relationships

Thursday, October 20, 1983

Jas, Angie, Paige, and I headed to Jas’s house after school to hang out. We were going to go out to dinner, but I wanted to make a phone call first.

After a bit of thought, I skipped the other two candidates for now and gave Kyle Branner a call. I got his assistant, and she put me right through.

“Hello,” he said.

“Hello, Mr. Branner,” I said. “My name is Steve Marshall. Lewis Mayrink referred me to you.”

“How can I help, Mr. Marshall?”

“Just Steve is fine.”

“Then I’m just Kyle.”

“Sounds good to me. So ... briefly...”

I explained about the accident, and the settlement, while alluding to some things being confidential.

When I’d finished, he said, “I guess I’m not sure why you need an attorney right now. A good tax accountant should be plenty. I can certainly use the business...”

“Well ... here’s the rest of the story, I suppose, or some of it. I have a friend who, a little bird tells me, may need an investment in a business that he’s starting sometime soon. I’ll need an attorney to help with that. Beyond that, I’ve got some investment plans that involve things other than just buying stocks or mutual funds and sitting back. I think that might be as far as I’m willing to go without being a client.”

He chuckled a bit. “Tell you what. First consultation can be the nominal one dollar fee for an hour, and that will put it under confidentiality. If we’re both good with continuing, we’ll work out a retainer and get started.”

“There’s one more potentially major complication that I’ve intentionally left for last,” I said.

“Oh?”

“I’m seventeen, so there are the usual issues with voidable contracts. I have no plans to void anything, but you’d have to take that on faith. My father is willing — happy, even — to sign anything he needs to sign to make sure we’re ethically on the up and up, but I want to be the client, not him, and he wants me to be the client, too. That probably means we negotiate a larger, non-refundable retainer than we usually would, so you don’t wind up left in the lurch if I turn into a flighty teenager and void the contract.”

That got him laughing. “You’ve got a solid grasp of the situation there, I can tell! Yes, if your father will sign off, we can make the payment work. There’s nothing stopping me from working for a minor, but the bar association would prefer that I have parental consent if possible. Of course, your age may complicate everything you do in terms of investing.”

“Of course. We can run things through my father for now.”

He paused, then said, “Wait! You’re that Steve Marshall!”

“I probably am,” I said.

“That might have saved me some time,” he said, chuckling. “If you’re the guy that the newspapers say you are, I know you’ve got a good head on your shoulders and have thought this through. That, and I can guess that your friend’s business isn’t a lemonade stand or anything.”

“Nope,” I said, chuckling as well. “That’s all I can say on that, though. I’m not sure he even knows that I know he’ll need investors yet.”

“Interesting. I have a feeling we’ll get along just fine. Um ... so. Your schedule has to be difficult. When should we meet?”

“Depending on where your office is, I can be there in the late afternoon on most weekdays. Weekends are touch and go for me. I’m free at least part of the day on most Saturdays, but not three weeks from now. That’s the only tournament remaining in the fall.”

“For this first one, at least, I can make Saturday work. We’ll stick with that if it turns out that we’ll have more meetings, probably. Well, that and talking over the phone and so forth. A lot of things don’t have to be in person.”

“Of course,” I said. “Thanks. That sounds good. I’m free nearly all of Saturday. Wait ... where’s your office?”

“It’s not too far from the Galleria.” He gave me the address.

“I can swing by tomorrow and pick up an agreement for my father. He’ll be happy to discuss it over the phone, too. It’s just ... well ... he could certainly come along, but it’s a waste of his time to have him just sitting and waiting. He wants me to handle this on my own, so...”

I got another chuckle at that. “If I call your house, will I get him? I need to talk with him a bit before I agree to that, but it actually makes a lot of sense. I’m imagining myself at seventeen, and that’s exactly how I would have handled it.”

“You’ll get him, but you need to call, let it ring once, then hang up, wait a few seconds, then call back. He’s a salesman and distinctly hates getting calls from customers after work hours, since anyone at his company can handle issues that come up overnight.”

“I don’t have that luxury, unfortunately. Twenty-four seven, unless I’m on vacation. The client is king!”

“I’ll try not to abuse that privilege.”

“You do that! Ordinarily, I’d guess that was a subterfuge to get an adult-sounding friend on the line, but I’d have pegged you as an adult, too. I’ll just call the number in the phone book. That’ll work. It’s really ... I do have to be sure on that one. There’s no problem with his consent, but absent that, it’s a matter of legal ethics. There are exceptions, but you don’t qualify, I don’t think.”

“I definitely don’t want to cause you any problems,” I said. “Not at all. Terrible start to a working relationship!”

“I’m looking forward to meeting with you. Let me call your father and ... I was going to say I’d call you back, but I can just leave word with him, right?”

“Yes, that makes more sense. I’m actually at my girlfriend’s house.”

“And you’re spending time calling a lawyer?” he said.

“She’s hanging out with my sister and another friend. We’re going out soon. Besides, she’s actually a party to the lawsuit, too, and will be interested in joining me in some of the investing.”

“Interesting. I don’t think I need to meet her just yet, but I’m guessing I will.”

“And my sister, and our other friend, and ... well. We’re a team.”

“Looking forward to it, I’m sure! I’ll see you on Saturday at ... one?”

“One it is.”

We both hung up. I was pretty sure that, if that meeting went as well as the call, Kyle Branner was my guy. Of course, he’d have to get past the ridiculous amount of illegal gambling winnings, first. That would be the real test, I was pretty sure.

I told Angie, Paige, and Jas about my phone calls over dinner. Paige, of course, didn’t have quite the subtext that the others did, but was still interested. Until (and unless, of course) she was in on the big secret there were things that she simply couldn’t know. For instance, the big pile of gambling winnings was off-limits, as was anything to do with Dell.

After dinner, we (predictably) headed back to Jasmine’s for dessert. Jas and I very much enjoyed ourselves, then snuggled up and talked a bit. Her topic surprised me.

Jas looked up at me and said, “So ... you and Angie are now a maybe?”

“Someone’s been talking,” I said, chuckling a bit and ruffling her hair.

“Girls talk! If you can’t handle that...” she said, grinning.

“You know very well that I can handle it.”

“Good! Just you remember that!”

“I will,” I said, still chuckling.

“I repeat ... so, you and Angie are now a maybe?”

“For good reasons. We don’t know how Paige would react.”

“Point taken. I think Paige will be fine. She didn’t have trouble with me and Andrew.”

“I wasn’t sure if she’d known. Not that I would have brought it up, of course.”

“Of course,” she said, grinning.

“You might be right — probably are — about us, but it’s not a topic we can gracefully get her thoughts on.”

“I’m still good with it.”

“I was pretty sure you’d tell me if you weren’t.”

“Well ... um ... duh,” she said, grinning. “It’s early, I know. You’ve got quite a while. And ... yeah. If it would scare Paige off, that’s an issue.”

“It’s cheating, if Paige is opposed. And cheating is a ‘no.’”

“Well, yes, but I mean, if just the idea that you’re considering it would scare her off. Considering something isn’t cheating.”

“Isn’t it?” I said, shifting. “Suppose I told you that, say, Connie and I were seriously considering sleeping together?”

“I’d ... be seriously opposed ... and I see your point. In order to say that, you’d be saying you’ve already decided you’d seriously consider cheating, which is essentially cheating. But Paige and Angie don’t have that sort of relationship.”

“I’m not sure they don’t. They talk a good game about having an open relationship, but when is the last time either of them slept with anyone else?”

“Um ... a ... long time?” she said, looking thoughtful.

“I’m not saying they’re not still in an open relationship, so much as that, for the moment, something’s changed. They weren’t nearly as serious before. I’m also not sure guys are on the table for either of them right at the moment.”

“Huh! I need to talk to Angie about that. We didn’t get into that topic, really.”