Players

7. Where Should I Meet You?

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"I am getting married."

I blink. And blink. And blink again.

I simply stare at him. Waiting. Waiting for him to say that this is just another one of his stupid lame attempts at grabbing some attention.

But, he too simply stares back at me, as if he is waiting for me to take in what he had just said.

I still do not speak. I do not what to say.

After giving me less than two minutes to process the whole thing, he speaks up again. "Cass, say something."

I blink again, this time to knock me out of my stupor. "What is there to say?" I croak out.

Jesus, I sound like he is the love of my life who just told me he is getting married.

"I haven't told Mom yet. Well, partly because she does not want to hear anything I have got to say." He says, looking about. I follow his gaze, expecting to see the woman he will be marrying. I see nobody.

"So I am assuming this has nothing to do with you wanting me to give you my blessing?" I take another sip of my coffee. I have not ordered any donuts yet even though that's what I love the most about this place.

"You are the closest thing I have to a sister, Cass." He says and he sounds so miserable that I am almost convinced he has no other ulterior motive to visit me. The keyword is almost.

"Of course, I want you in the wedding. You know that Dad can't come and I don't know if Mom will come, given that I did sell her house for the wedding expenses-"

"You what?" I glare at him and he bites his tongue.

Ugh! I seriously cannot deal with this man! I cannot!

Someone needs to pay me by the hour for even waiting around to hear out all the stupidities that he has to say.

I feel like I am going to cry. This is not the Liam Montgomery I know. This is not the person that my sister married.

I know this is all because of my sister's death but seriously, the way things are going, my sister is probably turning in her grave... ROLLING in her grave.

"Liam..." I sigh, rubbing my hands over my face. "Why are you like this? Why on earth are you like this? If you would just tell me you wanted money for your wedding, I would have given it to you. You know that, right? As long as it is not for drugs, alcohol, and gambling, I would have given you as much money as you wanted."

"I know." He nods. "But I wanted to do this with my own money."

He visibly gulps. And by that, I am sure I have a murderous look on my face.

"Own money, my ass!" I glower at him. "You scammed your own mother out of her house, you piece of..." I swallow the word. Honestly, he does not deserve to be even scolded by me.

"Anyway," I say. "What do you want from me?"

Liam looks at the loss of words for a few moments. He clears his throat, trying to take my hand in his which I oppose, pulling my hand back and keeping them folded on my lap. I have a very bad feeling about this.

"I want Madison to come live with us after the wedding."

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"Hell no!" Jeremy jumps out of his chair as soon as he hears it. "Why the hell should you give your kid away to some addict just because he is getting married?"

I look up at him and give him a flat look. "I don't know, Jim Jam. I think it has something to the fact that he happens to be the biological father of that kid."

"So?" Jeremy asks. "You raised her. And you give her everything that could ever want. You are the best mother to her. And you were there even with cancer and all other s**t going on while he was busy getting wasted with not a moment of care in the world for the kid that he wants."

I sigh, staring down at the wedding invite he gave me. The wedding is in two weeks and I know for a fact that if I don't let him know of my decision, he will go to court with this.

"He is hundred days sober," I say.

If he can prove that he has a stable life and that he can give Madison a stable life, then as the biological father, all odds will be in favor of him.

"We need to prepare for the case then," Jeremy says. "Are you fighting yourself or should I fight the case for you?"

I look up at him.

It is inevitable. A fight is inevitable because I am not ready to give her up. It is true that I raised her with the knowledge that I will, one day, have to give her back to her Dad.

But now that the moment has come - No, I am not willing to. Madison is my daughter. I raised her.

I love her more than anyone else in the world and she does not even know her Dad.

He didn't care for so long. He does not get to take her with him at his convenience. I am not a pushover. And I am definitely not the epitome of selflessness.

Madison will stay with me.

I have decided.

"Well, I thought I will die before I ever admit this out loud. But you are the expert when it comes to the court."

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I c***k my knuckles and yawn. I look over at the desk clock and it says it's past ten. I want to go home. I want to go home to my daughter, but I am just so mad at everything.

Nora is going to be there and if I tell Nora about the wedding and how Liam wants Maddie to live with him, I wonder if she would agree with him. She will, won't she? She is his mother and she has proven time and again that she is the only thing that truly mattered to him.

The desk phone rings and brows raise. Why the hell is anyone calling at this time?

My eyes lazily move to my phone sitting across the room, hooked to the charger. It's probably on mute and I am too lazy to walk there so I pick up the phone.

"Red Cross Multi-Speciality Hospital legal team, Reed and Meyers' office. Who is this?"

"That's a mouthful."

I close my eyes.

No.

Nope. Nope. Nope.

I seriously do not need this right now.

I already am having a shitty day. I do not have the time or energy or mood for his cat-and-mouse game.

"What do you want, Grant?"

His deep voice chuckles on the other side and I am too tired to not admit that this man sounds hella sexy right now. I wonder why? I think I might be ovulating right now. Nothing else can explain the sudden butterflies in my stomach.

Ugh... I hate myself. This is all Sally's fault. That, and the side effects of being celibate too long.

"How about we go get something to eat?" He says, sounding as calm as I am restless. Dude got all the time in the world to be relaxed and here, I have smoke coming out of my ears from all the stress I am in.

"I have work to do." I say.

"I doubt they are going to fire you just because you didn't submit some paperwork on time."

I sniffle. He is right about that. In fact, I do not even have to do this; this is Jeremy's work. I volunteered to get it done and he let me because I needed a distraction. And he told me to leave it whenever I want to.

But isn't it right to just get it done?

I look down at the endless legal jargon in front of me.

Damn it!

I close the file and speak into his patiently waiting ear. "Where should I meet you?"

"I am at the front. Come down whenever you are done there."

I blink and before I can say anything, he hangs up.

What in the world are you doing here?

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