Close of our case

Yesterday morning I was waiting outside my house for DC to pick me up when my neighbour Desp came to speak to me whilst she was waiting for her company taxi. She seems to hate the lady who lives above me.

Couldn't wait for DC to arrive to get me away from that conversation, so felt so relieved when he finally arrived. I lent him Babel because he said he hadn't seen it. After we parked we went to the stationery store where we did some print outs, and DC got stuck talking to an old man, lol. I thought he wouldn't have minded because he liked talking so much, but as we left the place he sarcastically thanked me for leaving him alone.

In court, we played that one call that I had fixed up after work the day before, and then it was onto our computer expert. During the car trip, DC described him perfectly - "a combination of cockiness and insecurity".

So despite these past few weeks wanting to rehearse and asking us for a script of what he was going to say (no mate, you don't charge us $100,000 and then read a fucking script, you have to earn it), he has the audacity to sit down in the witness box and throw the water glass from one to to the other before pouring himself some water. You should've seen the look on the judge's face, lol.

There wasn't much preparation needed on my part for this, but I was nevertheless 100% focused because it couldn't have been more pertinent to us. I did, however, miss a large chunk of it as I was required to go downstairs to print something out which took ages.

Because the expert was in cross, we couldn't speak to him about his evidence, but yet I was asked to take him out to lunch (to get him as far away from GS and DC as possible to avoid ANY possibility of breaching that rule). I thought I'd just pass the time talking about mundance things, but this guy ended telling me all his current relationship problems and what not. Apart from disclosing to me before that he had broken up with his girlfriend of seven years, he was now telling me that he was finding it hard to choose between a controlling 20 year old who was great in bed, and a more mature, sensible and established 25 year old who was a virgin.

Dude...I don't know you that well.

I was so glad when lunch was over, and when he finished his evidence, because it meant I wouldn't have to listen to his whinings any more.

It was a strange moment when his evidence finished and GS said that that was our case. It had finally hit me - this was the end. This was it. This was really it. All this time I had put off serious efforts in looking for a job because I had always told myself in the back of my mind that I would have more time, that somehow, in some way, this dream job would never end. But this was it, the beginning of the end.

It felt even more strange when I was downstairs in the office.

What do I do now?

DC, GS and I stayed back a bit to talk about the case. It was more of a DC session of hammering home some points laymen style rather than a three-way discussion.

I had given myself celebration for the end as an excuse to see the massage girl. Last time we somehow got talking about dim sims, and she asked me to bring her some. Prior to that she had also asked me to bring some other types of food.

I know this is part of the games women play to see how much control they have over you at any particular stage. Like the Fright Night comedian said, one night his girlfriend asked him for a glass of water, so he got out of bed to get her one. Halfway back and holding the glass of water, he thought to himself "wait a minute, I'm not the one who is thirsty!" and when he went back to bed, he heard his girlfriend on the phone to her mother excitedly saying how she got him to do something for her.

But anyway, I decided to play along. I had no intentions of giving her dim sims, but I have for some time now fantasised about giving her a chocolate strawberry. So when I got back to the city, I caught the bus to the suburb where I normally gym, and went looking for it. The fruit shop that usually sells it was closing, and I asked and they said they had no more.

Hmmm. Now where else can I get chocolate strawberries at this time of night?

I checked out the fruit market, highly doubtful but also hopeful that something else appropriate might turn up. Nope.

As I left the shopping centre, I thought about the mini-plaza across the road and tried there. To my surprise the fruit shop there were selling chocolate strawberries!

I bought one and happily caught the bus home. Not long after, I left again, and went to the casino, again using celebration as an excuse. I lost my starting bankroll of $300, and then decided to leave. I called the massage place to make a booking.

Me: Hi is Jenny working tonight?

Lady: (ind)

Me: Sorry?

Lady: Jenny has gone back to Korea.

My heart sank. I didn't think it would. I never thought I'd feel this way if anything like that ever happened. After all, she was just a massage girl.

Me: Um...is she coming back?

Lady: Yes, in two months.

She laughed. I don't know what at. But I thanked her and hung up. I walked around the casino, stunned. If there was a mental equivalent for the loss of words, that was it. I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't know what I was going to do. I couldn't even believe I was feeling like this. I should be saying "so what?"

Could it be? Could it really really be? Had I developed feelings for her?

I pictured her sitting on the plane and wondered whether she thought about me. Does that mean she was serious when she said she was leaving on the 28th of June? Or did she leave after, and I had just let too many July days go by?

I somehow talked myself into gambling again, and withdrew $400. On my first spin I won $530. There was a change of dealers. I stood there and thought about things for the next couple of spins. I cashed out.

I reasoned with myself that I should go to the massage place anyway, as a way of forgetting the massage girl. Maybe seeing another girl would take my mind off her. After all, she wasn't the best looking of the bunch, so maybe you can try one of the other ones. You're free to do that now.

I went and saw a girl called Cindy. I had actually seen her before but she didn't recognise me. She had short hair before, but she said she had extensions now. During the massage, I could feel how distant we were. It just wasn't the same. She was no Emily/Jenny. We were...strangers.

We actually didn't talk for most of the massage. The only talk came when she asked me to turn around and laughed when she thought I was asleep. It was only until afterwards that we started talking. I decided to try and dig out some information from her to see if it was normal for them to go back to Korea. She said she was going soon as well, for maybe a month or two, back in September. That was a bit of a relief. Maybe I'll just have to withstand not seeing Emily/Jenny for two months, like some couples do. Also found out Cindy had a dog called Hero, and that the dog got sick because she was away for so long.

After that I went to get some petrol at that popular petrol station, since it was, as HHH put it, tight ass Tuesday. I then decided to get some milk, and wondered where I could get milk around here.

Of course! The convenience store at the casino! So I went back, and bought some really fucking expensive milk. They sold it for $1.80 whereas I normally get it for $1.

Because I had a bit of time on my parking ticket, I went into the casino mainly to watch. I did end up doing a few outside bets with $25 chips, and stopped when I won $25. I was interested in watching a guy at a table who had some sort of 'system' by placing chunks of chips on numbers at both ends of the table, leaving the middle empty. He lost a few spins and made some notes on his piece of paper.

Doesn't that tell you that yo system ain't working??

Some guys were shaking their heads watching him, because he was losing so much money. There was a young Caucasian couple there, and the guy was just betting the minimum on colours. His girlfriend shook her head in distaste as she watched the dealer sweep mountain loads of chips away after the guy lost.

I would walk off and then return occasionally. He did win some spins, and when he won, he won big. But more often than not he'd lost a lot. I'm pretty sure he was chasing losses, but wondered why he didn't just leave after a big win.

Not that that's something I'm very able to do.