will – Never Short On Words

The twin stacks of paper weighed the table down under thousands of g’s of emotional weight. Gary looked at the left one. That one was the last will and testament of Charles Davis the senior, the recently deceased sausage king of Trenton, New Jersey. The second was the divorce papers for Charles Davis the junior and his wife of twenty-four years Gwen Davis, soon to be Gwen Paris. Gary had crafted hundreds of both types of documents during his time as a family practice lawyer, but never had to deliver both in the same day.

The door to his office opened up and his secretary, Janice, poked her silver haired head in. “Ms. Davis is here,” Janice said. “Where would you like me to seat her?”

Gary looked at those two stacks of paper and shook his head. “Might as well bring her in here,” he replied. “Make sure to let Charley in as soon as he gets here.”

Janice nodded. “Will do,” she said as she pulled her head back outside his door.

A moment later Gwen marched through the door. The black dress she wore might have been something one would wear to a nightclub, but on Gwen it took on aspects of a suit of armor. She cowered behind it as she took the seat Gary pointed out for her.

Gary looked at those piles of papers again. “Look, Gwen. I should recues myself from this. I…”

“That will not be a problem,” Gwen said, cutting Gary off at the verbal legs. “After these past few weeks I would like to keep this amongst us. I trust I will not have to worry about your professional integrity, or will I?”

Gary shook his head and stared at those documents. “No,” he said.

The room was silent for what seemed like thirty minutes, but was really closer to three until Charles came through the door. Charles was in his usual suit and tie, but he was disheveled and the smell of whiskey softly permeated the room. He gave Gary a weak smile and shrug of the shoulders. “Sorry about that,” Charles said. He took off the suit coat and hung it on the coat rack. “I was toasting Dad with the guys from the plant. I got a bit too into it and almost forgot.”

Gwen folded her arms and looked down her nose at Charles as she looked up at him. “Memory problems?” she asked. “Sounds typical.”

Charles looked at Gwen at turned red. “Yeah, well I got here, so let’s get this crap over with,” Charles said. He then looked back to Gary. “I don’t mean you do crap. It’s just this'” he gestured at Gwen, “is never going to go well.”

Gwen gave a short staccato laugh. “You should have thought about that before picking your grave. Now you get to lay in it,” she said.

Charles flinched, and his eyes began to water. “That’s the Gwen I know. Full of finesse and tact,” Charles sneered. “Want to go spit on the old man’s grave stone?”

“No, only yours,” Gwen replied as the temperature of the conversation dropped by fifty degrees. “Your father was a gentleman, unlike his pathetic two timing son. What about you Gary?”

“Look guys, I think this is a bad idea,” Gary said. “I really need to recues myself. I could lose my license to practice over this.”

Gwen snapped her eyes to Gary’s and he felt them boring into his soul. “We already discussed this. I am not going to talk to some stranger about my personal business. You owe me at least that much dignity.”

Charles took the other seat in the office. “You’re Dad’s executor. You need to at least do the will.”

Gary pointed at the pile of papers representing the last will and testament of Charles senior. Without that damn thing Gary wouldn’t be in the trouble he was in. Of course that wasn’t true, it was his own foolishness. Still he had to figure out a way to get out of this. “I can ask a different partner to adjudicate the will,” Gary said. He turned to Gwen. “They can use the documents I’ve drafted. You won’t have to talk to anyone except the judge when it gets to court. Your dignity will be intact.”

Gwen shook her head no. “We do both here. Now get started. You are wasting my time,” Gwen said. Gary looked over to Charles from some help, but Gwen cut in, “Unless the two of you need a moment alone.”

Charles was about to explode, but Gary cut him off with a look. Charles went from pissed to bemused in less time it took Gary’s heart to skip a beat when he realized saw he had lost more than he had expected.

Gary pointed at the pile on the left. “Okay, first the will,” Gary said.

Two hours of hell later, Gwen walked to the door. She paused before opening it. “I expect my copies of the documents by the end of the week, and I want my part of the trust to be available in a month. I have some travel planned.”

Gary put his hand up. “I can’t get things through that quickly,” he said. “I can’t promise that.”

“You moved pretty fast when you had the proper motivation,” Gwen said. “Make it happen.” She then left the room, the door slamming closed the final punctuation mark to end the conversation.

“Btich!” Charles exclaimed. “Now you see why I did it. She is such an ice queen.”

“That’s the reason you did it?” asked Gary. “Really?”

“What, wait what’s wrong with you?” Charles asked.

Gary shook his head. Too bad he didn’t use that part of his body more often lately. “It was all about getting back at her, wasn’t it?” Gary asked.

“Don’t you go all girly on me,” Charles said. “Not you too.” Charles got up and swept the papers and books off of Gary’s desk. “Not you too.”

Gary looked at the contents of his desk on the floor. “One dumb move after another. He got up from his desk and headed to the coat rack. “What are you doing?” asked Charles.

Gary took Charles’ coat off the rack and held it out to him. “It’s time for you to go. I’ll send a courier over with your copies,” Gary said.

Charles took the coat from Gary. “Look, I didn’t say it right. I’m sorry. Please come over.”

Gary opened the door. “You are sorry, but not about us,” Gary said. “I was stupid for falling for you in the first place.”

Charles flipped Gary the bird. “We could have been something,” Charles said as he stormed out of the office.

Gary closed the door slowly. “Yeah, but I would have been Gwen.”