Ying Yang

Our coffee's poured as the six of us sat in the hugest booth in Sam Mother's Diner...we hadn't seen much of our boss lady in the past few weeks...We all had been busy with our cases and with helping out in a class action suit...Now that we were done and had some lag time...It seemed Ms. Yvette was gone...Meeting with one of the partners, Micheal Pratt....

Since she lived walking distance from us now..She invited us all out to breakfast this morning at Sam Mother's Diner on her...We all had the feeling a big announcement was about to be made...

Bee Bee and I had French Toast..

We smiled at each other sheepishly as we ate....

Sofia and Khalil both had a Cheddar Omelet...

Olivia, Beverly and Ms. Yvette's Favorite...

Ms. Jade wasn't hungry...She was satisfied with just coffee...

as was Ms. Yvette, who smiled at us....

"Look at yall...I am so proud of you guys....You give me life....I want to give you so much more.,..so much more than this..." said Ms. Yvette..

"You've given us our careers....we are thankful for that..."said Bee Bee...

''A couple of people who graduated with us...still haven't found jobs and are thinking about leaving town to look elsewhere...We are lucky we got this job and got to stay together.."said Sofia..

''Which is why I brought you guys here this morning...One of the partners has thrown me a big case...A huge case...A case I'm going to need all five of you to help me with....It's supposedly a career making case...I suspect a career making case for him more so than anyone else...but he asked for our help...It means a little more cash in all of our pockets and pocketbooks.."said Ms. Yvette..

"You're so good to us.."I said jokingly...

Yvette laughed at me snarkily...

"Aren't you so lucky?" she said.. We had become such good friends...She and I, that we could josh around like that....

''So what's the case?" asked Khalil...

"I'll go over that when we get to the office...I can tell you that it's a murder case, the client is well heeled...So it's like that....Not the kind of cases we've been passionate about...Women's issues, Black Lives Matter, Immigration...Wage discrimination and what not...but a case never the less that puts money in our accounts.."said Ms. Yvette..

"Nothing wrong with that."laughed Jade Lee as she sipped her coffee...

II-

"I like that you four are still together..That you stayed together throughout law school....."said Ms. Yvette...

"Believe it or not...I had a tight knit crew too when I was in law school...but after we graduated and passed the bar...We went out in the world and lost touch with each other..." Yvette sighed..

"Was Ms. Olivia part of your crew in Law School?" asked Sofia..

''She was...

Olivia was my room mate and my best friend....As you've figured out by now...You couldn't know Olivia and not know her niece, Beverly...

Her niece Beverly was still in high school...but she used to come up to campus to hang out with us...She listened intently to every word we said and asked a million questions...She said.."I'm gonna be what you guys are...I want to be an Attorney." 

and I knew she would be...I knew Bev would be a good one too...I could see it then..."said Yvette..

Olivia's friend from High School , Sharon Ferrell was also part of our crew....

and rounding our crew out was Tony Hopkins.......He loved Sharon so much, but back then...Sharon was checkin for someone established...someone fly....Funny how things turn out...Today they're married....and work together.....

"So you guys were tight like us huh?" said Khalil.

''We were.....but we all had different ideas about how our lives were going to go....I felt the worse for Tony....

He has a very analytical mind...He was easily the smartest of us...but he had a family problem and a financial hardship...He dropped out the semester before we all would have graduated....He went in the police academy and graduated and today is a Detective in the Criminal Investigation Division of the Philadelphia Police Department... I saw him in Josie's recently...He told me he's back in Law School..He's in an accelerated program at Drexel...The same program , Josie Boyd is in..

He should have his degree sometime next year....I told him to call me when he gets ready to study for the bar.."said Yvette...

"And Sharon??"asked Bee Bee..

Sharon was smart also....She'd of made a great trial lawyer...She graduated with me and Livy...The three of us passed the bar together... She met a slick talking guy from the FBI, who talked her into becoming a special agent...and his bed....Her career in the FBI lasted...She distinguished herself..Her relationship with him didn't..He was married and his wife was six months pregnant!

She went off to Quantico and became a Special Agent...She did well in the FBI and she worked in Atlanta, Then in D.C. and Then in New Orleans....She came back to Philly and resumed her relationship with now Detective Tony Hopkins..

They moved in together and eventually got married... Today she is the Philadelphia Deputy Special Agent in Charge of the FBI...She and Tony work in the same building...."said Yvette..

"So Olivia??....You two were room mates and best friends...How did you two lose contact?" I asked.

"That is one of the things I regret the most..."sighed Yvette..

Olivia Bennett was the ying to my yang....She was like the sister I never had ,but always wanted...I loved her...Still do...

She was always a pretty little thing...We clicked the day we met..Our Mothers brought us to Penn to register for classes and both of us were kind of complaining that we were 22 years old and no longer needed our mothers to hold our hands on the first day of school...But our moms were proud that their daughters were in law school...We knew that...Liv and Sharon had graduated from Girls High and Temple....Tony Hopkins had graduated from Central..They all went to Temple..I graduated from North Catholic and I attended Lasalle.

Olivia was so cute... She used to go away to New York to model to make extra money on weekends.....

Sharon and I used to hang out during those weekends...

After we graduated and passed the bar, Olivia and I resumed our friendship and we did hang out for awhile..Sharon had left for Quantico and the FBI academy...and Tony Hopkins had just slipped off the radar...

We went to job interviews together....We clerked for the same judges for a time...I got this job at McCluskey/Connor and Cozen as it was known then...a year after we graduated and Olivia went to work for the Public Defender's Office...I should have followed her..We both were passionate about defending the defenseless...but I also liked money and I started making  good money and bought a nice apartment and a nice car...

Olivia met a guy, an Attorney named Elwood Barnes...I hated him...He was a skirt chaser...Never met a woman who he didn't feel he should liberate from their bra and panties..

I hated him....

He hated her niece Beverly and talked to her and treated her cruelly....She in turn despised him...

Olivia was ambivalent about marrying him right up to the end....She had heard the stories about his womanizing and had found a bra and a pair of panties that weren't hers in his apartment  and in his car...but she went on and married him and they moved out in the suburbs into a nice big house...

He was a pretty successful Attorney and worked for a well heeled firm..Liv wanted to live the good life and work her passion...

I never went to visit Liv after she married, I couldn't stand her husband...He didn't care for me much either... and with both of our jobs demanding so much, we just drifted apart...She left the Public Defenders Office and went to work for an established Law firm right down the street from where we worked..We met for lunch once or twice...We promised to meet again...but we never did..

Years later...I heard through the grapevine that she'd had two miscarriages...and finally tired of Elwood's many indiscretions...She divorced him and cleaned him out...She bought the Duplex/Office that she and Bev live in with Donnie Ray and Nelson and work out of..

Her niece Beverly had become an Attorney,,just like she said she would...

and left the Public Defender's Office....She and Olivia started a law practice together and began to take on some pretty significant cases....

My girls were in the news every time I turned around.. and seemingly overnight they became celebrities...I was proud of them both...Olivia met a nice guy, an ex- Homicide cop named Donnie Ray Alexander while vacationing in New Orleans... and remarried... He became her firm's investigator.

As luck would have it...

A young Lady accused Elwood ,Olivia's ex husband of fathering her soon to be born baby and  became my client....

Olivia,shockingly represented her ex-husband...And We met again...This time as opposing attorneys.

He kept telling Olivia that I had it in for him.....He was scared to death...

This time we swore we would keep in touch....That was right before I hired you guys... And thank god..Olivia and I have rekindled our friendship.....

"How'd the case turn out?" I asked..

"For once...Elwood was innocent..."said Ms. Yvette.

We all busted out laughing....

The bill came...Yvette paid the whole thing on the company credit card....

"I'm going to say this was a Business Meeting... And it was!" she said and laughed...



III-

Back at the office....We all sat down with Ms. Yvette...We were anxious

to know about this new case...

Ms Yvette walked in...

''Wow...Look at you eager beavers.." she said and smiled..She had the sexiest , devilish grin....

"I figured it would be better if you guys actually met the client....Here to do that,Here to introduce our client is our partner, Micheal Pratt..."she said..

Micheal Pratt came in with shades and a Black suit...No tie on... 

Bee Bee whispered  to me..

"He was out partying last night...He smells like Hennesey.."

I smiled..

So did Khalil...

He seemed to stare at Sofia , a little too long..

She looked like she felt uncomfortable...

"Hi guys...Yvette ,you've got such a nice looking group....uh, Let me uh get right to it...This is our client...Neil Leghan.." he said...

An older man, very immacculately dressed and with a killer fragrance emerged from Yvette's office...Everything about him said money.....His Suit, his shirt...His Rolex....His diamond studded tie clasp.....

"Hello Everyone...I did not expect such a ah...how can I put this...colorful group..Heh ,heh, heh..."said..

Welp! Now he'd done it....He'd lost me with that remark...What did he mean by Such a colorful group? Was it because none of us was white?   Hell his tan made him look non-white his damn self...

Bee Bee, Khalil and Sofia had simular feelings to mine...He had lost us with that colorful group remark..

Even Ms. Jade cringed a bit...

But it was funny when you thought about it...This rich white man was trusting his future to Three African-Americans, An Arab, A Latina and an Asian.....

"My case is simple...I am being accused of shooting and killing my mistress.....I did not do it...The police have recovered no murder weapon....However, they do have DNA...I was with the woman, Laura Preppon earlier on the afternoon ..We had sexual relations....It was one of the times I did not use a condom, so a considerable amount of my DNA and fingerprints are in the room...but no gun...

I am not proud of having an extra-marital affair...In fact we were having break up sex...I had decided to end our relationship and return to my wife...Only to have her tragically shot to death that day...

There is video footage of me arriving at the condo...and of me leaving and of me returning.., not realizing she had been shot to death...I had left one of my watches in her condo and had returned to retrieve it,when I was unceremoniously arrested by Homicide Detective, Lt. Arthur Tragg...

Yes...I plan to sue him and the Philadelphia Police Department for false arrest after this matter is cleared up.." he said.

He peered at the women in the group...

"Beautiful and exotic women... None of you is married..??" he asked..

 "No but I'm in a serious relationship.."said Yvette..

"No, I am not married"was all Ms. Jade would say...

 "I'm not married ,but I'm in a serious relationship.."said Yvette...

"Same here...I'm not married ,but I'm in a serious relationship.."said Sofia.

"You all sound like a broken record..You've got on High Heels, Make up and Lipstick....Go out here and find yourself a husband...! You'll be happier...It'll make you a nicer person...Like me.." he said..

"Right now I'm having a hard time believing that.."said Yvette under her breath...

Bee Bee giggled...

So did Sofia..

Micheal Pratt cringed...first at Neil Leghan's racist remark and now at his sexist remarks...

"Uh okay...We know what we have to work with....I'll need police reports and an autopsy report..crime scene photos if you can get em...Yvette, I'll meet with you and your team after dinner tonight and  we'll start working on strategizing a defense..."said Micheal Pratt..

Yvette didn't think they'd be starting this soon...She looked at us with a "I'm so sorry look"

"It's okay Boss Lady...We haven't been doing anything for the past few days...After dinner...I'll be back..."I said..

 "Yeah, we'll be back.."said Bee Bee

 "But not in these heels..."said Sofia...

"I like you in those heels..."said Khalil...

"You like me comfortable too don't you?" said Sofia...

"I do."said Khalil..

"Then you like her without heels..." laughed Bee Bee...

I whispered in Bee Bee's ears...

"I like you naked.."

She blushed and smiled..

"You are sooooo nasty." she remarked..and giggled.

We all walked out...We were going to take naps and shower again and have dinner and begin working on this case...

IV-

"Nice kids..." said Mike Pratt...

"Yes....I looked at their doziers...All four graduated at the top of their class...Had high Bar scores and have been doing excellent work in a number of areas since they began practicing...I like them..I'm glad they are on the team..."said Neil Leghan...who pinched Ms. Jade on the behind..

"Ouuu...Watch your hands...That is not one of the perks of the job..."said Jade angrily...

"The mouth on her...HAhahahahahahaha..."he laughed..

"Neil,please...Cool it..." said a very nervous Micheal Pratt....

Neil ignored him and followed Yvette into her office...He was a large man and practically had her hemmed into the wall..

"Who is your boyfriend?" he demanded to know..

"I don't think that has anything to do with your case..." said Yvette.. His cologne and his hot breath was practically sucking all of the air out of Yvette's space...

"I find you very attractive...Tell him we might have to share you..." he said..

Yvette moved him out of the way...

"Mr. Leghan...Keep your mind on your case...And not on anything else...Okay?" said Yvette as she gathered her briefcase and left the office,,,,

"Neil, would you please cool it..." asked Mike Pratt...

"Me? Cool it.?? Funny coming from you after what you did in London..."said Neil..

"I don't want to talk about that..."said Mike Pratt..

"I'll bet you don't..."Laughed Neil...

 The four of us sat in my apartment relaxing...

 "Man this guy is a class A jerk.."I said..

 "Not to mention a sexist....What did he mean by get yourself a husband?" said Bee Bee.

" And did you catch that remark about..."Quite a colorful group you have here..."laughed Khalil.

"I know...I hate him...."said Sofia...

But like him or not...He was our client and we had to defend him...

(TO BE CONTINUED)