Page 11 of Resisting the Fall

Renee walked to a desk where a young man sat. She said something to him, gestured to us, then handed him the note. He stood immediately and headed toward the door.

“Is there anything else I can help you with?” she asked, her gaze settling on Ben.

“You’re done signing?” I asked him.

He nodded.

I flipped through the forms, just to double-check all the signatures. We needed no other setbacks. “We’d like to file these.”

She accepted the stack and began sifting through them as well, pulling some out and turning them over. “I’ll just need a copy of both of your driver’s licenses or another form of government ID.” Her gaze roved over each paper to ensure all the information and signatures were there. “And a check or card for the filing fee.”

I slid my driver’s license to Renee, along with the check I’d already filled out.

Ben’s gaze paused on me briefly. “I’m the plaintiff. Shouldn’t I pay the fee?”

“You paid it last time.”

He pulled out his wallet and set both his license and his credit card atop mine, then returned my check to me. “You can grab the tab on the next round.”

I rolled my eyes.

Renee, however, bit back her smile, her fluttering eyes fixed on Ben in a way that made my insides squeeze. How unprofessional. The man wasn’t even divorced yet!

“Fine.” I casually tapped the desk to pull her attention back to the matter at hand.

Renee ran Ben’s card, then placed both of our licenses through a small scanner while she waited for the payment to process. “I’ll get everything recorded,” she said, returning our cards and having Ben sign the receipt. “If the two of you want to take a seat, we’ll let you know when we hear from the judge.”

Ben nodded, offering a small smile. “Thanks.”

Overlooking how the woman’s gaze lingered on Ben, I found a seat and waited for Ben to take the one next to me. “The judge will be disappointed if she doesn’t see me?” I questioned.

The corners of his mouth twitched. “Absolutely.”

I leveled him with a look. “They’re going to figure out pretty quickly that I don’t know her,” I whispered. “And then what are we supposed to do?”

“Oh, you know her.” I didn’t like the way his lips were pulling into a full-blown smile. “Judge Rost.” He said the last name slowly, waiting for me to make the connection. “The wife of your favorite teacher, Mr. Rost.”

I lifted a hand to cover my gaping mouth. “She’s a judge? I thought she was an attorney.”

“She was sworn in last year.”

I leaned back in my seat, my head spinning through my encounters with her. None of them had been good. “Why didn’t you say anything? You know she hates me.”

“You pulled a few harmless pranks on her husband, but that was years ago. I doubt she even remembers most of them.”

I shifted toward him in my seat. “She threatened to press trespassing charges when she caught me releasing those bags of feeder fish into their pool.”

“Probably because you dechlorinated the water.”

It had actually been because the Rosts had long suspected my part in the sporadic rearranging of Mr. Rost’s collection of garden gnomes around their yard. A tradition that had spanned years. “I didn’t want the fish to die.”

“They were feeder fish. It’s their lot in life.” When I didn’t respond, he gave a small smile. “At least she never suspected you were the one who borrowed their chickens for my class’s senior prank.”

“Me? I was just the getaway driver.”

Ben lowered his brow accusingly. “If that’s what you have to tell yourself to sleep at night.”

It was easy fighting off my smile when I thought about the forthcoming conversation with Judge Rost.