I'll Look After You

Chapter 5

You made up your mind to leave it all behind
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"What type of friends are we?" George asked as they all watched Meredith like a hawk. "Our friend just got divorced and we take her to a bar to drink away her pain. And we even go through great lengths to set her up with someone." George looked at the others and waited for their reply. "She just signed the papers two days ago! TWO days!"

"We're good friends, that's what we are. Derek Shepherd should rot in hell," Alex muttered, his eyes never leaving Meredith's back. The door opened and Alex's eyes went wide and he moved excitedly in his seat. "He's here. The bugger actually came." They all looked at the door and did indeed see the man in the suit they called earlier from the business card they got from Meredith's pockets. Izzie pretended to be Meredith on the phone as they talked to him. All their eyes and heads moved to the same direction as the guy approached Meredith.

"The guy's still wearing a suit," George muttered. "He's in a bar and he's still wearing a suit."

"He's a lawyer, George," Christina stated the obvious. "Of course he's in a suit." It was her idea to set Meredith up with the lawyer. She wanted her to move on as quickly as she could and what more than a gorgeous lawyer to keep her mind off of Derek. She smiled wickedly at herself and knew this was going to work out when the guy sat down Meredith. This was going to work out perfectly.

Meredith was on her third glass of tequila now. The drunkenness that was supposedly be affecting her by now was nowhere in sight. She was starting to be get immuned from tequila. She was thinking of what to drink next if she did start getting immuned from tequila when an unfamiliar voice came from behind her. She turned around and was surprised to see the guy from the other night.

"Hi," his voice was the same smooth voice from last time. Meredith thought it was just a side effect of the alcohol she drank that night. "I'm sorry I'm a bit late. Thinking up an excuse to get out of a meeting was much harder than I thought."

"Umm... Late?" Meredith raised her eyebrow as she looked at him with confusion. "I don't remember us setting a time... I don't remember us setting a date, actually." Then a horrible thought crossed her mind and she looked at him with horror. "I didn't call you when I was drunk, didn't I?"

He laughed and shook his head. "No, you didn't. But I'm betting your friends did. It was obvious that it wasn't you I was talking to. They actually thought I'd fall for it. But I really wanted to see you so I came either way."

"My friends?" Meredith frowned a little. "They set us up?" He nodded. Meredith turned around and looked back at their table and they all suddenly pretended to be busy with something, too guilty, she shook her head. She looked back at the guy and smiled at her apologetically. "Sorry about them, they don't do that often, this is a first."

"Well, I'm glad that I'm the first," he smiled. "So? Can I sit down?" He waited for her response and when she nodded her head, he sat down and offered his hand towards her. "I'm Layton, by the way."

Meredith looked at his hand for a second. She knew the moment that she shook his hand, it'll be one step forward for her, on step further from Derek. She wanted more than a step further from him, she wanted to run. She smiled and shook Layton's hand briefly. "Meredith."

He was the exact opposite of Derek. Derek was a doctor. Layton was a lawyer. Derek had black hair. Layton had blonde hair. Derek kept quiet on most of their conversations, lightly butting in when he teased her lightly about her opinion, he didn't share his opinions, only at times when he was angry. Layton was very outspoken, and he openly told Meredith that he disagreed with her and placed his two cents in.

Layton Matthews. That was his name. He was a lawyer, in Seattle for a business trip, a case he said, but he didn't go into details. He lives in Washington, D.C.. 37 years old. That was all he said about himself, he said the rest will just reveal itself as they went along.

"So are you seeing anyone at the moment?" he finally asked the question Meredith was dreading since the start of their 'date'. He was smiling and she expected him to be frowning by the time she told her the truth.

"I'm in the middle of a divorce, actually," she replied.

"How middle are we talking about here?" To her surprise, he held his smile in place and a playful side to it even showed.

"Seriously?"

He shrugged and took a sip of his whiskey. "I'm a lawyer, Meredith. I've been around a lot of people in the middle of a divorce. Most of the time when they admit they're in the middle, it's over. So is yours over?" His eyebrow hiked an inch.

"Mine's actually just beginning, we just signed the papers the other day," she offered him a sympathetic smile. "So you're a divorce lawyer?"

He shook his head. "No, I'm more of a criminal lawyer, actually, but I lieu way to divorce and corporate sometimes." He took a sip of his whiskey once again and then turned to her with a teasing smile. "You know... If you both already signed... It's not just beginning. It's over."

"I guess you could say that," she nodded. "But his signing? It's not really whole-heartedly. We kind of just tricked him into signing it."

"Tricked him? What, you got him drunk and made him sign it?" he asked with obvious interest. He laughed at his own joke and Meredith couldn't help but smile.

"Yeah, kinda like that," she nodded. "Is that legal?"

"Well, let's just put it like this," he breathed deeply as if he was going to do a closing argument. "You know all those people who get drunk and get married in Las Vegas?" She nodded and he continued. "All of their marriages are legal and they need to go through the law to have it annulled. So..."

"So even drunk people's signatures count," Meredith summarized. She was the one who breathed deeply this time. "So my marriage really is over?"

"Your marriage is over."

"It's over," she murmured.

It really was over.
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