Chapter 368

The afternoon session of the trial plodded along at the same pace as the morning. Garrison was thorough in establishing the facts of the case, and without a jury to pander to it behoved him to take his time.

That didn’t make it any less dry.

When the afternoon recess was finally called, all four of you interns needed to stand and stretch. “Eric,” Sabrina said once you all filed out of the courtroom. “I need to talk to Gemma and John about something personal - could you give us a few minutes?”

“Sure,” Eric agreed. “I’ll hit the vending machine on the third floor again.”

He left you, and Sabrina led you and Gemma down to the first floor of the atrium so there wasn’t a chance of Garrison or one of the associates overhearing as they walked past you. Once you’d found a bench, Sabrina gestured for you and Gemma to sit while she remained standing.

“So, I have a request,” she said.

“Baby, I have a feeling-”

“Wait!” you hissed, your eyes going a little wide as you spotted someone through the crowd, currently walking up the ramp from the first to the second floor. You got up and grabbed a hand of each of them, practically dragging your girlfriends with you as you ducked out of the atrium and into one of the corridors leading deeper into the first floor of the building.

“John, what is going on?” Gemma asked once you stopped about fifteen yards in, now out of sight.

You blew out a breath and shook your head. What were the fucking chances?

“I saw a friend of ours,” you said. “I guess we aren’t his only legal situation. That idiot DeezChains guy was out there.”

“No fucking way,” Gemma said, turning and looking back out at the atrium.

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” Sabrina sighed, shaking her head. “What are the chances?”

“That’s what I was thinking,” you said. “Look, sorry for just moving like that. The last thing we need is some sort of a confrontation with him, right?”

“No, it’s fine,” Gemma said. “Not that I wouldn’t mind putting him in his place again, but Garrison would be pissed.”

You turned to Sabrina. “I’m sorry, baby. What did you want to ask us?”

Sabrina took a breath and let it out, nodding to herself for a moment. “So, Alita could use a hand to get through her shitty lawsuit problem, and we can’t exactly offer her any help on the legal front. But, what I can do is help her with some cash - not charity, I don’t think she’d be comfortable with that. But, do you remember what we joked about that time you met her, John?”

“I do,” you said and blew out a breath.

“You want to see if she would film with you, so you can pay her,” Gemma guessed.

Sabrina nodded. “I’m asking permission to tell her my, um, ‘Of’ secret and offer to film with her. And I know this isn’t exactly what we’d talked about in terms of how we handle things, and maybe she’s too close to home literally right now, but she won’t be in just over a month, and Becks feels closer than she is.”

“Well, the first question is, do you think you can trust her?” Gemma asked.

“I think so,” Sabrina said. “Like, I don’t think she’d have a bad reaction or anything, and I don’t think she’d be all high and mighty and try to out me. But I also have no clue if she would actually do it or not. She makes some sexual jokes, but that might just be her humour.”