Damaged Goods

Chapter 9

Everything went smoothly, as planned for the next three months. Lyla returned home, and continued her life as it had been and TJ continued his. It was a little different for TJ, because it was no secret that he had gotten married. The situation with his father's will, the requirements for TJ to maintain his stake in the company, and the requirement to get married were essentially common knowledge. It was a bit awkward for him, as people who weren't intimately involved with the ins and outs of the situation would occasionally ask about his wife, or how married life was treating him, so he routinely shied away from those conversations, but other than that, life moved on as normal until he received a gala dinner invitation from one of the other shareholders of his company, which included a personal note congratulating him on his recent nuptials and hoping to meet the lucky woman at the event.

"Well, what should I do about that?" TJ asked Travis, as he tossed the invitation across the bar to Travis, who was pouring drinks.

"Hold up a second, let me take care of these customers and I'll take a look" responded Travis, as he expertly finished the drinks he was creating and passed them to a couple of ladies sitting at the bar just a few stools down from where TJ sat.

"I knew it would just be a matter of time until something like this came up" TJ continued, somewhat oblivious to the fact that Travis wasn't really close enough to hear over the din of the bar noise. "We talked about this sort of thing, and she seemed open to flying out if it was necessary, to be on hand for this sort of thing. It was part of the agreement, but I was hoping there wouldn't be a need, at least not this soon."

"Ok, what's the problem?" Travis asked, coming back over to the section of bar he was serving, where TJ sat, gloomily staring off into space.

Travis picked up the invitation TJ had tossed in his direction and let out a little chuckle as he read it.

"Sounds like a great excuse to call the wife" Travis teased.

"It would be easier if I didn't have to" TJ groaned.

"Could you just tell them she couldn't make it? A previous engagement or something?" Travis asked.

"In theory, yes" TJ replied, "but these guys are underhanded. They know enough about my dad's stipulations that the shares are almost up for grabs. Legally, they can't touch them, but I don't want them digging around either, trying to find a loophole that would shine a light on this sham of a marriage in any way that might prevent me from collecting at the end of the two years. When I had my lawyers going over everything, trying to find a way for me to not have to get married to receive my trust, we found that some of the intent was weakly worded. So if they really wanted to, there's potential that they could make a legal claim that my marriage to Lyla isn't fulfilling my father's intent, and thereby cutting of my claim to everything. It isn't a likely scenario, but like I said, I don't want to provide any reason or opportunity for anyone to go sniffing around and looking at things closer than they already are."

"So then give her a call, tell her it's an all-expenses paid vacation for a couple days, and a fun formal event for the weekend, then send her home" Travis said, always seemingly able to simplify everything.

TJ rolled his eyes at Travis, then glance down at his vibrating telephone. It was Lyla, and she was calling. She had never called TJ before. All their communication had been via text or email, or from TJ calling her, but she had never called him.

"Speak of the devil" he said to Travis, as he picked up the phone to answer it.

"Hi Lyla, what can I do for y..."

He was cut off mid sentence by Lyla's panicked interruption, "TJ? It's Lyla, I'm sorry..." she started.

"Umm, I feel really stupid, I mean can I..." she stuttered and stopped speaking for a momet.

"What is it? What's wrong? Is everything ok?" TJ asked, getting up from his stool and heading outside to be able to hear her better.

"I'm, I was, ummm would it be ok if I came out there for a while?" she asked. "I just, I didn't know who else to call" she said, as she tried to suppress her tears.

"Yeah, absolutely" he responded, without hesitation. "Lyla, are you ok?" he asked again. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"I'm sorry, I feel really foolish, I just... I would really appreciate it if I could go out there for a little bit, if that's ok" she said, starting to calm down a little bit.

"Lyla, of course. When do you want to come? Just send me your flight information, and I can meet you at the airport."

"Well, I'm on my way to the airport now" she said. "I wanted to get the first flight I could. Would that be alright? I can send you the information as soon as I have it."

"Yeah, definitely. Just let me know. Call me back if you need anything."

"Thank you, TJ. And I'm really sorry, but thank you" she said, and then hung up.