Friends With Extra Benefits (26 page)

"And what happened?"

"Well, I walked him to the court, and there
wasn't a scene, but Soros got mad at her and led her away, so they
could talk. After that, she told me she got him all worked up and
angry, and he left. And then after that, Natalie told me she waited
on the trail back to Brian's dorm, so she could mess with him, too.
Sure enough, Brian saw her, and they had a fight."

"At the deposition, you testified that you had
no direct knowledge of Natalie's boyfriends other than Brian and
Rob."

Cindy gave the judge a distressed look. "I,
uh... well, I didn’t want to say anything bad about my friend
and—"

"You knew you were under oath?" Stanley
asked.

"Yes, I'm sorry, but there are some things that
I didn't know when I testified back then that I know now."

"Like what?"

Cindy stared angrily at Natalie. "Like that...
Natalie had sex with my boyfriend, Mitchell, behind my back."

"I hate to ask you this, but are you aware of
the type of sex that she had with your boyfriend?" Cindy glanced
around the courtroom shyly and then looked to Stanley for support.
He smiled apologetically. "It's okay; just take your time."

After taking a deep breath with tears forming in
her eyes, she said softly, almost inaudibly, "Anal."

Stanley widened his eyes as everyone leaned
closer to hear the witness. "Could you move to the microphone and
repeat that?"

Cindy moved forward and said loudly, "Anal sex."
The words blasted through the courtroom. Pointing directly at
Natalie as the anger boiled over inside of her, she added, "That
bitch let my boyfriend, you know, do her in the ass."

The members of the jury looked at one another as
the spectators began gasping, laughing, and murmuring.

Judge Maxwell banged his gavel. "I will have
order in this courtroom!" As the disruption continued, the judge
stood glaring at the crowd as he slammed his gavel down hard,
sending the block shooting to the floor. The room quieted as the
bailiff scurried after the wood block.

Maxwell remained standing with
his eyes floating angrily around the room. He shook his head before
returning to his seat. "Miss Taylor, while I realize this trial is
rather
unique
in
its subject matter, please… watch your language."

"Yes, Your Honor. Sorry."

Maxwell motioned to Stanley. "Continue, Mr.
Parrish."

"Thank you, Your Honor." Stanley returned to the
witness. "How did you come to learn this?"

"I heard a recording of Natalie admitting it,
and then I asked—"

Josh jumped up. "Objection."

Glaring at Parrish, completely annoyed, Maxwell
said, "Counsel, approach."

Josh and Stanley made their way to the bench.
The judge covered his microphone, and the three discussed the
matter for almost two minutes. Everyone looked on curiously as they
conferred while the courtroom speakers emitted white noise.
Afterward, the lawyers returned to their tables, and the judge
said, "We will break for ten minutes."

Brian, Jillian, and her legal team followed
Judge Maxwell, Natalie, and Josh into the judge's chambers.

The Judge began, "Mr. Nash, you made this
recording?"

"Yes, Your Honor. I was leaving a voice mail for
Jillian's son, Rob, and Natalie stormed into the room and
confronted me."

"So, you did this without her permission?"

Brian raised his hands up. "I didn't know it was
recording. I thought I had disconnected after I left the message.
It wasn't until later that I realized—"

"Do you know recording someone without their
permission is a violation of the law in this state?"

"As I said, Judge, I didn’t even know it was
recording."

Stanley Parrish said, "We believe Miss Brookhart
should have reasonably assumed that her conversation with Mr. Nash
was being recorded. She interrupted him on the phone, and he
clearly stated to her that he was trying to locate Rob
Grayson."

Maxwell scoffed. "That's a stretch,
Counselor."

"We would like to play this recording for the
jury," Stanley said.

Josh grumbled, "You can't be serious! There is
no way—"

Putting his hand up to silence Roth, Maxwell
stared at Stanley, "Do you have the recording with you?"

"Yes."

"Okay, let's hear it."

Stanley pulled out a digital tape player and
started the recording. Natalie seemed unfazed by all of it, as
Jillian looked on, half smirking and half mock-horrified. Josh was
a little more than turned on.

When the recording finished, the judge glared at
Natalie. "Miss Brookhart, is that your voice on the recording?"

"Uh, well you see..." she began. She switched
gears almost psychotically and stared angrily at Brian. "You
unemployed boy toy! I can't believe you would—"

Jillian interrupted, "Look, Butt Girl, call him
a boy toy again, and you'll be spitting out teeth."

"Knock it off," Maxwell growled. "Control your
clients."

Both Josh and Stanley whispered into their
respective client's ears.

After shaking his head, Maxwell made eye contact
with Natalie. "I'll ask again. Is that you on the recording?"

"Yes," she replied sheepishly as she stared down
at the carpet.

Maxwell sighed. "I'm not sure
if you're having trouble with the semantics here, but when defense
counsel asks if you have ever had sex, and you testify
under oath
that you
haven't, that you were still a virgin at the time in question, then
if you are lying, that is perjury, and my dear, I assure you the
court does not look upon that lightly."

He stared at her until she looked him in the
eye. "Now, I know a former President seemed to be a little confused
as to what constitutes a sex act, but in my courtroom if you've had
a man's penis in your mouth, your vagina, and yes, even your anus,
that does qualify, so to avoid a perjury conviction, I suggest you
answer future questions about your sex life truthfully."

"Yes, Your Honor."

Stanley said, "We have a new list of witnesses
as a result of Miss Taylor's, uh, memory returning to her."

"Let's see it."

Stanley produced a list consisting of a half
page of names. He handed a copy to the judge and one to Josh.

Natalie snatched it out of his hands and began
reading. Nodding, she studied a particular name curiously and
smiled. "Oh, I forgot about him."

Natalie glanced up and found everyone giving her
an odd look. She snarled back, "What?"

"What? What do you think?" Jillian shot
back.

"Why don't you go f—"

Maxwell interrupted, "Shut up, Miss Brookhart,
and keep your comments to yourself, Ms. Grayson."

"Yes, Your Honor," both women replied
softly.

Maxwell said, "Why are we just seeing these
now?"

"As I said, we've just been made aware of these
names ourselves. We've been working the entire weekend to track
some of these witnesses down," Stanley replied.

"What kind of relationship do these witnesses
have to the plaintiff?"

"They are all former boyfriends of Miss
Brookhart."

"I wouldn't call them boyfriends," Natalie shot
back.

Maxwell ignored her comment and then asked, "And
why weren't these names revealed during discovery?"

Stanley said, "Miss Brookhart failed to provide
the names."

Returning his gaze once more to Natalie, Maxwell
gave her a tired look. She simply shrugged. "I didn’t even know
some of their last names. I..."

Maxwell shook his head and then turned to
Stanley. "So, who gave them to you?"

"Miss Taylor."

"And why did Miss Taylor fail to provide these
names previously?"

Stanley cleared his throat. "Well, Your Honor...
for instance, she had no previous knowledge of her ex-boyfriend's
involvement with Miss Brookhart until she heard the recording and
confronted Mitchell with it. Once she did, he was able to provide
some other names, and well, there may have been some lapses in
memory—"

"I suggest you stop talking, Mr. Parrish!"
Everyone sat silently while Maxwell took a moment to ponder all of
this. He shook his head in disgust and then finally said, "The
recording is out. I will not allow it to be played." He glared at
Stanley. "Do not reference it again in my courtroom, got that?"

Josh began, "Then I move for a mistrial on the
grounds the jury has been prejudiced by the mention—"

"Shut your mouth, Mr. Roth. There will be no
mistrial. If you have an issue with this, I suggest you take it up
on appeal."

"Yes, sir."

Maxwell continued, "It sounds like we've had way
too many issues with lapses in memory during this case. I would
suggest, counselors, that you inform your clients and witnesses of
this little thing we like to call perjury and how damn serious it
can be."

"Yes, Judge," Stanley replied.

"Yes, Your Honor." Josh nodded.

Maxwell said in a loud voice, "We'll deal with
these perjury issues after this case is finished, but if I even
have the slightest impression that such behavior is continuing on
either side, some of you will be spending the night in jail. Got
that?"

All nodded in unison.

After studying the list once again, Maxwell
glanced up at Stanley with a weary expression. "How many of these
witnesses do you actually plan on calling?"

"At least five. We have people trying to locate
the others now."

"Let's wrap this up as quickly as we can, Mr.
Parrish."

"Yes, sir."

Josh glanced at the list and frowned. "Judge,
I'll need some time in order to properly prepare to question these
witnesses."

"How much?"

"A week."

"I'll give you two hours."

"Two hours?"

Maxwell narrowed his eyes. "Oh, do you not want
the two hours?"

Swallowing hard, Josh stammered, "No, uh I think
I can—"

"Good, now let's go back out there are try to
act like adults and finish this. We'll wrap up Miss Taylor, and
then Mr. Roth can take his two hours."

The Judge instructed the jury to disregard what
they heard about the recording and that no such recording was
entered into evidence, nor should it be considered during their
deliberations. Josh cross-examined Cindy Taylor, blasting her with
questions about why she had changed her testimony since the
deposition. He accused her of lying now in order to hurt Natalie.
The jury appeared to have sympathy for her, and Josh's bullying
left her credibility only slightly damaged.

During the two-hour recess, Josh sat with
Natalie in a conference room, poring over the potential witness
list. She was aloof and bored during the discussion and offered
little, if anything, that might help him during his
cross-examinations. What she did tell him left him mostly holding
his head in disbelief.

When court was back in session, the defense
called its next witness.

After Mitchell Garrett was sworn in, Stanley
asked, "How do you know Miss Brookhart?"

"I was dating her roommate, Cindy, and that's
how I met Natalie."

"While you were dating Miss Taylor, did Miss
Brookhart ever make a pass at you?"

"Almost from the first day we met. Whenever
Cindy would leave the room and I was left alone with Natalie, she
would make me feel uncomfortable."

"How so?"

"She would change right in front of me. One time
she took off all her clothes and got into her bed completely
naked."

"With you watching?"

"Yes."

"And this began when?"

"I'd say in the fall of 2009."

"And you never mentioned any of this to Miss
Taylor?"

"No, um, it was all kinda harmless flirting at
first, and, I mean, I felt weird about it, but I didn't think Cindy
would've believed me. She was crazy about Natalie, and Natalie just
seemed so innocent and pure, you know... At one point, I thought
that maybe I was misinterpreting what she was doing. She never
touched me or said anything inappropriate. She was just naked a
lot. I thought maybe that's how she was raised or something... I
don’t know."

Stanley asked, "Did things escalate at some
point after that?"

Mitchell glanced at Cindy, who was sitting with
the other spectators. He cleared his throat. "Um, yes... one night
we had all been drinking and Cindy had way too much and was pretty
drunk. Natalie and I helped her back to the room and put her in
bed. She was out cold. "

"And then what happened?"

"Natalie took off all her clothes and began
touching herself. I, uh, told her I was going to leave and when I
went to grab my coat, she moved in front of the door and sorta
blocked it. She did this thing..." Mitchell's eyes bugged out of
his head as he continued, "She did this reverse hand stand with a
split thing... I mean, I knew she was flexible and all, but my God,
she... remember, she was completely naked. I'd never seen anything
like that in my life. She has a perfect, like... dancer's body, you
know."

Natalie beamed as Jillian sneered at the
comment.

Mitchell said, "So there I was looking down at
her, you know... that way... and I was drunk, and I just..."
Mitchell gave the crowd an embarrassed look.

"Just tell us what happened."

"Then Natalie got back on her feet and kissed
me. I didn't stop her. She moved down to her knees and started
rubbing my, you know... penis, and I was really drunk and not
thinking clearly. She pulled my pants down and began kissing it....
After that, she led me to her bed."

"And all the while, your girlfriend, Cindy,
Natalie's roommate and best friend, was passed out just a few feet
from you?"

"Yes," Mitchell said softly.

"And then what happened?"

"She told me we could have anal sex, only anal
sex. She said she was some kind of a virgin thing that I don’t
remember exactly, but that she only did it that way."