“Love it. I’ll be over there. Should I bring anything in particular?”
“Just that sexy smile of yours, Dustin.”
Right on.
“Perfect. See you there.”
I hung up, and a plan began to form in my mind about how it could go down, but I needed some more information first.
So I dialed someone I hadn’t talked to in a few weeks. She’d been busy with a budding relationship, though. “This is a surprise,” she said. “Should you be hung over all week after last night?”
“How’d you know?”
“Uh, I saw you at three-thirty A.M. and we talked about it. You don’t remember that?”
“It’s starting to come back to me. But clearly, I was right.”
“So what’s up?”
“I need you. Now.”
“For what?”
“The marriage fraud stuff. Please?”
“Thanks for coming today,” I said as she came into my place carrying her laptop with her.
“Any time I can practice law for free on a Saturday, you know I’m there,” she said sarcastically.
“You know I’ll pay you.”
“You know I won’t accept payment.”
Jenny and I held each other’s gaze for a few moments before I waved her over to the kitchen table, where we set up shop.
I gave her the rundown of where everything was at in general.
“So she’s back in Spain ... she hasn’t contacted you since your breakup. Do you want my advice for a divorce? Or what are you worried about, exactly?”
“Marriage fraud. It’s five years in prison and a big fine, or something.”
She shrugged. “They’re not going to convict you if she’s back in Spain.”
I felt my gut clench at that reminder. “And if I go back over and bring her back, what are my options?”
She exhaled a deep breath. “Look, I’m going to have to email a friend of mine with some of these questions because they’re very immigration specific. But if it’s true what Cat said about the video they’ve got with you declaring your Vegas wedding wasa ruse, this is an open and shut case, and you’reluckyfor not getting prosecuted. You shot yourself in the foot by making up that story about having met in college.”
I ruffled my hair in frustration. “I thought you said you could help me.”
She slammed her laptop shut and stood up. “Look, Dustin, if you’re going to be a dick, I’m leaving. I’m not volunteering my time so you can be all condescending.”
“Fuck. I’m sorry. It’s just, I’m hurting a lot right now.”
“I know.”
“I haven’t really talked about the ‘breakup,’ if you could call it that. It didn’t feel like a breakup. It felt like ghosting. And the feeling is all too familiar. It’s like deja vu from that time in college when I met that girl ...”
“The one-night stand you fell in love with. I was there, remember?”
