When Joan got to her place of work the next morning, she met a woman with a bruised face sitting by the reception. She was on a call so Joan couldn't speak with her.
"Good morning."
Her assistant welcomed her with a cup of coffee, and helped her to carry her bag to her office.
"Oh thank you Mercy, just what I needed," Joan said as she took the cup of coffee from her and took a sip.
"You are welcome, how was your weekend and how did your birthday celebration go?" Mercy asked in her usual cheerful tone.
Joan scoffed as she handed Mercy the cup of coffee, and then took off her jacket.
"Trust me, you don't want to know," She said as they walked inside her office and she placed her jacket behind her seat before sitting down.
Mercy suddenly had a worried look on her face. "Did something bad happen? Did anyone fall sick?" She asked in a concerned tone as she set down the cup of coffee in front of Joan. Because Joan always relates with her like they were sisters, and not just an employer and employee relationship, Mercy always tried to look out for her.
"No Mercy, no one fell sick."
Joan picked up the cup with one hand and sipped from it, before setting it down to massage her temple which had been aching since Saturday morning. "Let's just say my weekend was anything but fun."
"Are you okay? You seem stressed out." Mercy asked her, as she noticed the way Joan continued to knead her temple.
"Yeah something like that, but I am okay." Joan looked up with a smile on her face, "Enough about my weekend. Please tell me what is in my itinerary for the day."
"You have a meeting by..."
Joan raised her finger to interrupt her, "Who is that woman at the reception?"
"That is Mrs. Bakare. She is being charged to court for a case of an attempted murder against her husband. She came to see if you will be willing to represent her in court, since the lawyer who was representing her backed out from the case."
"Why?"
"Her husband is a top politician in the state, and rumour has it that he has been threatening every lawyer who tries to represent her in court." Mercy explained. "We are her last option."
"I see. So did she tell you why she tried to murder him?" Joan asked thoughtfully.
"It's a case of domestic violence, her husband has constantly abused her not just physically but sexually as well. This time around while he was beating her, she fought back by hitting him with an iron on his head."
"Hmm," Joan flipped through the documents in the file Mercy had left on her table before her arrival, "It shows here that they have been married for just three years."
"Yes."
"Okay you can send..." Joan was interrupted by an incoming call on her phone. "Excuse me for a moment, Mercy. I have to take this call. You can send the woman in, after 5mins."
"All right I will." Mercy said before leaving the office.
Joan took a deep breath before answering the call. "Hello Steve!" She tried to sound carefree as she would have, had their parents not tried to ruin their friendship with this whole marriage talk.
"Hey Joan! Good morning." Came Steve's ever sexy baritone voice.
Had she always thought his voice was sexy, or was this a recent development? Or perhaps a side effect of her birthday night? She shook her head to get rid of the thought.
"Good morning. What's up?" Joan asked him, trying not to dwell on his voice.
"Just calling to check on you and also to know how your meeting with my dad went, since I didn't hear from you. Were you able to meet with him yesterday as planned?"
"Yeah I did. Sorry I didn't call to let you know how it went."
"No problem, I'm guessing he refused to change his mind?"
Joan sighed. "You are very correct."
"Did he at least tell you the reason they are doing this?" Steve asked, trying not to let his frustration show in his voice.
"No, he didn't. He asked me to go and ask my parents, it seems they were the ones who initiated the idea. I'm sorry."
"God! I can't believe this!" Steve sounded pissed.
"Me too, I guess the only shot we have left is for you to go talk to my parents they might listen to you since they adore you," Joan suggested.
"And what if they don't? What if they still insist on us getting married, what do we do then?"
"I don't know. I'm sorry," Joan said in a resigned voice.
"Don't be sorry it's not like it's your fault, you didn't plan this whole crazy thing with them. We need to come up with a better plan. I don't know about you, but I really do not want to marry you..."
"Hold on, hold on a second," Joan quickly stopped him, "Why are you sounding like I'm pointing a gun to your head forcing you to marry me?"
"No, Joan. You are getting it wrong. That's not what I meant....."
"Oh really so what did you mean?" Joan asked in anger.
"I was just trying....."
"Steve in case you have forgotten, this bombshell was dropped on us both! I never knew about it until the same day you were told!"
"Joan please calm down, you are blowing this whole thing out of proportion, let me explain..."
"Like hell I'm blowing it out of proportion! Do you think I want to marry you? Well news flash; I have no intention of marrying you too!"
There was silence on both ends, and after some seconds Steve spoke, "I'm sorry. I guess that didn't come out well." He said calmly, trying to be the reasonable one.
"Yeah, it sure didn't. I have to go now." Joan said.
"I will let you know how it goes with your parents," Steve told her, before hanging up the call.
Joan knew she shouldn't have gone off on him the way she had done. She should have allowed him to explain himself instead of attacking him like he was the enemy, "Oh God what is happening to me, what have I done to deserve all this?" She groaned under her breath, and looked up when the office door opened and the woman from earlier walked in.
She gave the lady a forced smile and asked her to sit down. She was going to set aside her personal problems for the meantime and focus on her job. She needed the distraction anyway.