CHAPTER THREE
Meet Melissa
I can see Stacy’s car already in the parking lot this Wednesday morning as I drive up. I park my car and as I am exiting the vehicle I can see Stacy sitting with a couple with a baby stroller at the tables that have been drawn together. There is a blonde baby boy sitting in a baby seat at the table, his face showing the remnants of the food he just finished, the floor around the baby is filled with cookie crumbs, half eaten banana, some raisins, and other debris.
As I approach, Stacy makes an introduction for me;
“Larry, this is Melissa and Craig” Stacy says, “they have been away for a few months.”
Melissa is tiny bleached blonde girl, thinly built with large sagging breasts and sunglasses. Seems like everyone in Boca has had a breast enhancement and Melissa is another one of them. Melissa is about 5 ft. tall, wearing light blue color sweatpants and a faded Ed Hardy pink t-shirt. Her husband Craig is a big guy. He is about 6’2” fairly stocky with a full shaved head. Craig has a mobile telephone receiver in his ear and is dressed extremely casual like a tourist, with Bermuda shorts and a collared golf shirt. He shakes my hand as I approach and says: “ Hi, Larry nice to meet you.”
Craig and Melissa had just returned from a 4 month visit in New Jersey with Melissa’s ill father. Her father was dying and Melissa was staying with him to the end and through the funeral.
Craig and Melissa live a few doors down from Wendy and Howard. When Melissa and Wendy are together they look like sisters. Both are the same height. Both have a similar body shape, and both with bleached blonde hair. As I am told, they are the best of friends.
I exchange some brief pleasantries before I go inside the café for my coffee. Melissa is feeding Hunter as we have our introductions. I go inside to grab a coffee for a few minutes. When I return, Melissa has just about finished feeding Hunter and the floor around the table is filled with fallen food from Hunter’s breakfast. The table has a stack of napkins from the café, enough napkins to wipe the hands of 20 or to clean the spillage expected from a young child. Stacy is working on the crossword puzzle and Craig is texting on Blackberry.
I take a seat in between Melissa and Craig, and resume my conversation with Melissa for a while. Melissa does most of the talking.
Melissa tells me she is an attorney, although not really practicing now that she has Hunter, her baby. Melissa and I speak about the legal profession a bit. She advises me that her specialty was with worker’s compensation. That she recently closed her office and now works from home. She has a website to advertise her services still, but is about to close that as well. I speak about my past experience as a litigator up north and some of the things I am currently doing. After almost 8 years of not practicing law, I am still uncomfortable about discussing what exactly I do for a living. I seem to have so much going on at any one time.
Melissa and I continue our conversation and I discuss the fact that I have several situations where a Florida bar license could be helpful for clients that I have for my consulting work. I have a Used Car business that I work with that could use the services of an attorney and I also have a debt consolidation business as well. We discuss how we can work together possibly in the future on some simple matters. Melissa seems quite enthusiastic about the additional business. I am not sure exactly what kind of business I can send her way, except asking her to just sign off on work that I have done already.
A few weeks later I would ask Melissa to help me in a bankruptcy matter for a client of mine. The owner of the Used Car business was trying to recover a car from a customer that had defaulted and filed bankruptcy. I asked Melissa to appear with me at a creditor’s hearing, on a motion for relief from the bankruptcy stay. We drove to Court together, a 45 minute drive. By the time we got to the Courthouse, I realized Melissa was completely clueless as to what was necessary. Moreover, she would not stop talking in the car. The full 45 minutes was a non-stop conversation with only one person really talking. When we were in the Court, and Melissa had to stand up and speak, she froze. No words came out of her mouth. Moreover, she did not know what to say and finally the Bankruptcy Trustee put words in her mouth and told her to talk to one of the other creditor lawyers in the courtroom for some free education.
Craig is looking to get involved in a business. I am not quite sure what he previously did prior to living in New Jersey for a few months. But, it appears that he is looking to purchase a coin Laundromat.
Stacy and Melissa carry on their own conversation as I speak with Craig. Melissa is complaining about some estate and probate issues she is dealing with. Her father had died and left money to his new wife. There appeared to have been a last minute change in the Will leaving most of the estate to the new wife instead of the children; Melissa and her brother. Stacy lifting her head periodically from the crossword puzzle as they talk. Melissa with her hands on Hunter’s food as she feeds him. Not really watching what Hunter is actually eating or dropping as she talks about her issues.
Craig starts to talk to me about my business, almost a halfhearted attempt to learn some gossip, but I have none to tell him. We do speak about some “deals” that I have been presented with and Craig tells me about a lender he is working with that is looking to loan money for commercial projects.
I tell him I believe that I have some good solid deals I can refer to him.
I actually had several deals. I referred to him two of them. I ultimately learned his source was too good to be true. And while there were a few moments of dreaming how to spend the commissions we would share on the deal, there was no chance of receiving any finance money from Craig’s source, who was himself a broker.
Jackie is walking up as I am talking with Craig, she says hello as she strolls past us into Starbucks for her morning tea. I pull another chair over so there is room for her to sit.
Jackie comes to the table with her tea. There is food and left over food from Hunter all over the table by Melissa and the floor under the tables. One would think an army of kids was being fed.
Jackie tries to find a “clean” area to sit.
Melissa is oblivious to the mess. She is doing several things at one time, but not really doing anything. She is however talking a mile a minute.
Stacy is with her crossword puzzle and has the rest of the newspaper in front of her as well. Stacy is particularly happy today as she is signing her divorce papers. Jeff, her ex-husband, wanted to reconcile before the divorce was final but Stacy had refuse. Jeff was apparently abusive during the marriage and Stacy was happy to be able to finally move on. Zohan was such a good lawyer that, notwithstanding the abuse, it was Stacy that paid to get the divorce. It was Stacy that turned title to a Porsche truck over to Jeff in their settlement.
“I would like to celebrate my freedom. Who is up for a party at the Blue Martini next week, Friday night”? She asks. One by one we all seem to be free and think of it as a good idea.
Richard strolls up to the table. He says a quick hello, sees a baby and walks inside to get coffee. He does not stop to massage Jackie, nor does he even ask if anyone wants anything. He sees Melissa and the baby and just walks into the café.
Melissa starts to pack up her stroller. She places the box of wipes in the stroller bag; the baby’s drink cup is also placed in the stroller. Hunter is pulled out of his highchair and given to Craig to hold as, Melissa puts the remaining items away. Craig puts Hunter down, he is not ready to walk on his own but the big bruiser of a baby stands on his own holding the seat of one of the metal chairs from the café. Hunter begins to push the chair, using it as a walker; he pushes the chair and walks away from Craig. Everyone around can hear the loud noise of the metal legs scratching the concrete floor. Craig like a typical proud parent, smiles as his boy is taking his steps. Totally disregarding the noise the boy was making at such an early hour.
After a few minutes of pushing that chair, Hunter is red in the face and obviously tired. Melissa and Craig start to pack up the rest of their items and make their good byes. Just as Richard comes outside, Melissa and Craig start to walk away. Richard seemed to time the arrival perfectly.
Richard sits down and looks at the stack of napkins left behind and the food and garbage left under the table for someone to clean. Richard was annoyed with the wasted napkins and takes the stack back inside the café. “How can they just leave this mess and walk away?” he asks.
We are all pretty much in agreement, although only Richard voiced his opinion on the matter.
“Richard, next Friday night we are all meeting at Blue Martini. Bring your girlfriend”. Stacy says. “Actually I think I can make it, I will check with Tina”. He responds.
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