Love Proof (Laws of Attraction) - By Elizabeth Ruston Page 0,92
what Ryan was asking.
Do not place heated appliance directly on any surface while it is hot or plugged in.
Do not operate appliance where aerosol spray products are being used.
Keep away from cosmetics and hair products, as these may be flammable.
A whole list of warnings, and Ryan Sollers was covering them one by one, while pretending to have a conversation.
The guy was smooth.
By the time Ryan thanked Ms. Townsend again for her time and her patience, Sarah realized he’d already asked many of the questions she normally did. The only area left to cover was the frequency of use and the period of time the young woman had owned the product before it caught on fire.
It was only quarter to eleven when the deposition ended. They wouldn’t have another one until the afternoon.
“Pretty fast,” Sarah complimented Sollers while Joe and his client were out of the room.
“Well, there’s not that much to this, is there?” Ryan answered. “Shouldn’t take too long. I’ve been meaning to talk to you and Joe about that. I think we might want to revise the deposition schedule, now that I’m taking over.”
Joe came back into the room.
“I was just telling Sarah,” Ryan continued, “that I’d like to make some changes to the schedule. Mr. Chapman was . . . ”
Ryan turned to the court reporter. “Actually, Wendy, would you mind leaving us alone in here for a little while?”
“Oh,” she said, looking a little flustered. “Sure.”
“It’s nothing against you,” Ryan assured her. “I just have a few boring details to discuss with the other lawyers here, and I’m sure you’d rather take an early lunch break than be stuck in here with us.”
Wendy smiled. “Okay, sure. Thanks. I’ll be back at one.”
Ryan waited for her to leave before resuming. “Paul Chapman has a different philosophy about this case than I do,” he said. “I assume I can speak frankly?”
Sarah and Joe both nodded. Sarah resisted shooting Burke a look. What was Sollers up to?
“Let’s just say his case load isn’t as heavy as mine. Paul . . . well, he might be more in need of the billable hours than I am.”
Now Sarah and Joe did exchange a look. Normally lawyers didn’t talk about their colleagues to their opponents in a case.
“I’m not interested in spending five days a week flying to every podunk airport on the map,” Ryan said. “I have better things to do with my time, as I’m sure you do, too. So I’m prepared to cancel the current schedule and propose a new one where we only fly to cities with major airports, and only places where there are at least four plaintiffs in the area. I’m talking about Dallas, Atlanta, New York City. No more flying for six hours just to take one or two depositions in a small town. What a waste of time and money.”
“I agree,” Sarah said, relieved to find someone sane on the other side. “I don’t know if Chapman told you, but I was going to add some cities myself—”
“He did,” Ryan said. “That’s why I wanted to discuss it with you first, Sarah, before I did anything. And you, too, of course, Joe. I think we can make this a lot simpler for all of us.”
Sarah glanced at Joe again, and saw him regarding Ryan with an odd expression on his face. Was it suspicion? Wariness? She couldn’t quite read it.
“Let’s take a break now,” Ryan said, “and I’ll have my office e-mail me the proposed schedule over lunch. Does that sound all right?”
He smiled at both of them. Sarah noticed Joe did not return the smile.
“Now,” Ryan said, standing, “Sarah, can I buy you lunch? Sorry, Joe, defense side only.”
“Sure,” Joe said, “no problem.” But something about his tone didn’t sound right to Sarah. Something was up.
“Sarah, I understand you’re a vegetarian?” Ryan asked, moving now toward the door. He held it open for her while she took her time putting her laptop away. She continued wondering if Joe was trying to send her a signal of some kind, or if he just didn’t particularly like Sollers.
“I am,” she said. “Where’d you hear that?”
Ryan smiled. “I always do my homework. We’ll see you at one,” he told Joe as they finally left the room.
“Sushi all right?” Ryan asked. “I noticed there’s a place nearby. I used to date a vegetarian girl. Sushi was always our compromise, since we could both get what we wanted.”