The Associate

She turned halfway to him and hissed, "What are you doing here?"

"I’m eating lunch, same as you."

"Would you please leave?" Her voice was barely audible, but one of her co-workers turned around and glared at Joey.

"No. I’m just getting a sandwich."

Nothing else was said as they ordered and moved down to the pickup counter. Elaine hurried off to a distant table and ate quickly with her two friends. Joey ate alone at a small table near the front door. The note was already prepared. It read: "Elaine: I’d like to talk to you about what happened. Please call my cell at 412-866-0940. I’ll be in Scranton until 9:00 tomorrow. Joey Bernardo." He hauled his tray back to the counter, then walked to her table, handed her the note without a word, and disappeared.

Two hours later, she called.

At 5:00 p.m. sharp, as agreed, Joey returned to the sandwich shop. He found Elaine at the same table she’d used for lunch, but instead of sitting with a couple of friends, she was accompanied by her attorney. Icy introductions were made, and Joey sat down across from them with a knot in his throat and a strong desire to maim Kyle McAvoy. Where the hell was Kyle anyway? He was the lawyer.

Elaine’s lawyer was an attractive middle-aged woman. Everything was black  –  pantsuit, thick coral necklace, boots, eye shadow, and, worst of all, her mood. This woman went for the throat. The business card Joey was holding and glancing at proclaimed her to be Michelin "Mike" Chiz, Attorney & Counselor at Law. She began matter-of-factly: "My first question for you, Mr. Bernardo, is, what are you doing here?"

"How many questions do you have?" Joey asked in his finest smart-ass manner. He had been assured time after time by his psuedo-lawyer and near co-defendant, one Kyle McAvoy, that there was no danger in this chance meeting with Elaine Keenan. Any legal action she wanted to initiate could have been commenced long ago. Five and a half years had passed.

"Well, Mr. Bernardo, may I call you Joey?"

There was almost no chance that she would allow him to call her Mike, so he abruptly said no.

"Very well, Mr. Bernardo, I have just a few questions. I have represented Ms. Keenan here for some time now. She actually works part-time in my office, a fine paralegal, and I’m familiar with her story. Now, what are you doing here?"

"First of all, I don’t have to explain a damned thing to you. But I’ll try to be nice, at least for the next sixty seconds. I work for a brokerage firm in Pittsburgh, and we have some clients in Scranton. I’m here to see these clients. I got hungry around noon today. I chose this four-star restaurant at random, walked in, saw Ms. Keenan here, said hello, she freaked, I wanted to chat, and now I’m taking questions from her lawyer. Why, exactly, do you need a lawyer, Elaine?"

"You raped me, Joey," Elaine blurted. "You and Baxter Tate, and maybe Kyle McAvoy." By the time she finished, her eyes were moist. Her breathing was heavy, almost heaving, as if she might lunge at him at any moment.

"Maybe this, maybe that. You never got your story straight."

"Why did you want to talk to my client?" Ms. Chiz demanded.

"Because it was a misunderstanding, and I wanted to apologize for the misunderstanding. That’s all. After she cried rape, we never saw her again. The cops investigated, found nothing because nothing happened, and by then Elaine had disappeared."

"You raped me, Joey, and you know it."

"There was no rape, Elaine. We had sex  –  me and you, you and Baxter, you and most of the other boys at Beta  –  but it was all very consensual."

Elaine closed her eyes and began shaking as if chills swept her body.

"Why does she need a lawyer?" Joey asked Ms. Chiz.

"She’s suffered greatly."

"I don’t know how much she’s suffered, Ms. Chiz, but I do know that she suffered very little during her days at Duquesne. She was too busy partying to spend time suffering. Lots of booze, drugs, and sex, and there are lots of boys and girls perfectly capable of refreshing her memory. You’d better get to know your client before you pursue some bogus legal action. There’s a lot of bad stuff back there."

"Shut up!" Elaine snarled.

"You want to apologize to her?" the lawyer said.

"Yes. Elaine, I apologize for the misunderstanding, whatever the hell it was. And I think you should apologize for accusing us of something that did not happen. And right now, I want to apologize for even being here." Joey sprang to his feet. "This was not a good idea. So long."

He walked quickly out of the deli, strolled to his car, and left Scranton. Driving back to Pittsburgh, when he wasn’t cursing Kyle McAvoy, he was hearing her voice again and again. "You raped me, Joey." Her words were painful and free of doubt. She may not have known precisely what happened in their apartment five-and-a-half years earlier, but she certainly knew now.

He hadn’t raped anyone. What began as consensual sex, at her suggestion nonetheless, had now been transformed into something far different, at least in her mind.

If a girl consents to sex, can she change her mind once things are underway? Or if she consents to sex, then blacks out halfway through the act, how can she later claim she’d changed her mind? Difficult questions, and Joey wrestled with them as he drove.

"You raped me, Joey."

The mere accusation carried a heavy dose of suspicion, and for the first time Joey questioned himself. Had he and Baxter taken advantage of her?

FOUR DAYS LATER, Kyle stopped by the mail room at Scully & Pershing and picked up a letter from Joey. It was a detailed summary of the encounter, complete with their choice of sandwiches and a description of Elaine’s hair color and matching tattoos. After setting out the facts, Joey offered his opinions:

EK has definitely convinced herself that she was raped by several of us, JB and BT for sure and "maybe" KM. She is weak, fragile, emotionally unstable, haunted, but at the same time carries a certain smugness in her victimhood. She has chosen the right attorney, a tough broad who believes in her and would not hesitate to start legal trouble if she could find any evidence. Her finger is on the trigger. If that little video is half as damaging as you say it is, then by all human means keep it locked away from these people. Elaine and her lawyer are two cobras, pissed and coiled and ready to strike.

He finished with: "I’m not sure what my next little project might be, but I’d rather not go near Elaine again. I don’t like being called a rapist. The entire episode was unnerving, plus I had to lie to Blair to get out of town. I have two tickets to the Steelers-Giants game on October 26. Shall I call you with this news so your goons will know about it? I really think we should go to the game and hash out our next moves. Your faithful servant, Joey."

Kyle read the letter and summary in the main library while hiding between shelves of ancient law books. It confirmed his worst fears, but he had little time to dwell on it. He quietly tore the sheets of paper into a hundred pieces, then dropped them in a wastebasket as he left the library. Immediately destroy all written correspondence, he’d instructed Joey.

The hotel nearest his apartment was the Chelsea Garden, a fifteen-minute walk. At eleven that night, Kyle dragged himself along Seventh Avenue, looking for the hotel. Had he not been so exhausted, he might have enjoyed the cool autumn night with leaves sweeping across the sidewalk and half the city still awake and going somewhere. But Kyle was numb with fatigue and capable of only one thought at a time, and that was often too much.