The courthouse in Santa Barbara was an old, historic, 1920s Spanish-style edifice that took up most of an entire city block. A grand building, with the traditional red tile roof and white stucco, you walked on large, terracotta tiles to your courtroom, and as you did this, your heels clicked and echoed in the corridors. It was the ultimate indoor-outdoor building, with virtually no security because many of the downstairs hallways lacked a wall on the inside, instead opening to a courtyard in the middle. In keeping with the style, heavy, dark wood furniture, massive doors, and signs painted in the distinctive Santa Barbara font served as decoration. It was a tourist destination, centrally located, where one could go in and look at old murals and tapestries, or walk in the gardens with lush landscaping. But if your fucking ex, who didn't care about the welfare of your child, forced you to go here during Christmas break, it sucked balls.

I walked up to the courtroom with Amelia, who was pulling a wheeled black briefcase behind her that clacked over the mortar of the terracotta flooring. She looked tough, no nonsense, in a dark skirt suit. I felt proud and confident that she was my lawyer, but I was still scared at what was going to happen today. She gave me instructions.

"No matter what happens, I don't want you to have any reactions to what Carlos says. I don't want you to roll your eyes or sigh or do anything like that," she said. "Remember that the judge is watching you and you want to be on your best behavior."

I nodded, but it was going to be difficult to do what she said. The challenge arose immediately because Carlos stood outside the courtroom, to the left of the door, presumably waiting for his attorney. Jake stood to the right of the door. The league of men in my life.

Twelve years after we dated, Carlos remained very handsome, although now he gave off the aura of a used car salesman. He had always dressed nicely, and today was no exception. Clearly wanting to impress, he wore a shiny, light gray button down shirt, with a matching tie and black slacks. He reeked of cologne or aftershave, with a sharp haircut and a slim physique.

Following Amelia's instructions, I ignored him. That was hard to do. I really wanted to tell him that he had no right to do what he was doing. That I thought he had an ulterior motive. That I didn't believe him. That he had not shown one iota of interest in Roberto until recently, and that this was just a ploy to stop paying child support. I kept my tongue, however.

While to me, Carlos looked like a bit of a snake, Jake, on the other hand, looked really imposing. He wore business suits as if he had been born in them, but today, he looked like a statesman. Grim, he shook Amelia's hand, but barely acknowledged me. Amelia had made me sign a written consent for Jake to testify, which I had done early that morning. It felt so strange to have him here when I had hardly talked with him. But I crossed my fingers and hoped that it would turn out okay. I had my excellent attorney and my regal neighbor on my side.

At least I assumed Jake was on my side. I hadn't talked with him about the testimony. Last night, Jake took the papers, stared at them, then muttered a "goodnight" to me, closing the door behind him before I could properly thank him for watching Roberto. I went to bed dreading the next day. While if I lost, it didn't mean that I lost Roberto forever, it would mean that this Christmas, I wouldn't have him with me and my heart could not take any more bruising.

The bailiff unlocked the courtroom and we filed in. Amelia explained that our hearing was the only matter "on calendar" that morning so we sat at the tables in front of the judge. Since Jake was a witness, he did not come in with us. Carlos sat at the other table with his attorney, an older man.

And the clock ticked.

Carlos whispered in his attorney's ear and his attorney whispered back.

The clerk shuffled papers.

Amelia sat, calmly waiting.

My heart rate went up.

I did not want to cry. I did not want to cry. I would not cry. I would not let him see me cry.

After an eternity, the judge, a woman, took the bench.

"Castro versus Figueroa," said the judge, calling our case name and number. A court reporter sat to the side, using a laptop with one of the old-fashioned stenographer machines hooked up to it. I wondered what the print out looked like? "Are the parties ready to proceed?"

"Yes," said Carlos's attorney.

"Yes, Your Honor," said Amelia.

"Proceed," said the judge. "I have read the parties' briefs. I am not convinced that this is an emergency requiring ex parte notice, but I understand that the holidays are coming up. Do the parties waive opening statements?"

Both attorneys said yes. I had almost no idea what they were talking about. It was all going so quickly now. The judge continued, "First witness, counsel?"

Carlos's attorney spoke. "We would like to call Carlos Castro to the stand."

Shit, Carlos was going to testify. I did not want to have to listen to him. But I did it.

For the next half hour, Carlos told the court how much he wanted to be with his son, and how he had rights as a father, and how he just wanted to spend some time with his son and I wouldn't let him.

If any of that were true, I wouldn't have a problem with it. The thing was, it wasn't true. Carlos didn't care about Roberto. If he had cared, he would have been there when Rob was young. This was about money, not about Rob.

Guided by his attorney, Carlos testified that he was gainfully employed, but he wanted Rob to spend more time with his family.

If it wasn't such complete and utter bullshit, I would have believed it, too.

Carlos's attorney asked him about the years that he had not spent with Roberto. Yeah, I wanted to know that, too.

With crocodile tears in his eyes, Carlos said, "After years of not having it all together, I'm now, you know, in a place where I really want to see my son. I want to be a part of his life. And I think he wants to be a part of mine. And it's in his best interest to spend more time with me. And I really want to see him at Christmas."

I almost had to walk out of the room.

God, exes. If only they would go away and you never had to see them again. But Carlos just kept ripping the wound open again and again.

The judge asked Amelia if she had any questions for Carlos, but she said, "No questions at this time, Your Honor."

Finally Carlos got off the stand and his attorney said, "Petitioner would like to call Jacob Slausen to the stand."

The bailiff went out to the hall to get Jake.

Not looking at either me or Amelia, Jake strode confidently to the witness stand and sat down. He raised his right hand and was sworn in by the clerk.

"Mr. Slausen," said the attorney, "isn't it true that you are Lucinda Figueroa's neighbor."

"Yes."

"And isn't it true that you are dating Ms. Figueroa?"

"No."

"Isn't it true that you have a sexual relationship with Ms. Figueroa?"

Amelia stood up. "Objection. Irrelevant."

"Overruled," said the judge.

What did overruled mean? Did it mean we won?

Jake answered. "No." I guess we didn't win. But what did he mean, no? Well, I guess we had a sexual relationship but that was in the past. So Jake was telling the truth.

"No?" said the attorney.

"No," said Jake firmly. "I answered the question."

"Mr. Slausen, have you ever had a sexual relationship with Ms. Figueroa?"

"Objection. Irrelevant," said Amelia, standing up again.

"Sustained," said the judge.

Amelia sat down. I guess that means he didn't have to answer the question. She looked a little smug. She whispered in my ear, "that didn't go the way Carlos's attorney wanted it to go. The judge agreed that your past relationship with Jake doesn't matter. And it doesn't. So we don't have to go there. His plan to smear you backfired. He just got shut down. That's what that means."

I let out a sigh of relief.

"No further questions," said the attorney.

"Your witness, counsel," said the judge to Amelia. She stood up.

"Mr. Slausen, have you ever spent time with the minor child, Roberto Figueroa?"

"Yes."

"In what capacity?"

"I babysat him."

"Did you have the opportunity to observe Ms. Figueroa on any other occasions with Roberto?"

"Yes."

"Did you form an opinion of Ms. Figueroa as a mother?"

"Yes."

"And what is your opinion?"

Jake let out a breath. Then he looked straight at me, blue eyes blazing. "Lucinda Figueroa is the finest mother a child could want. Her child is well-cared for. She loves him and he loves her. Roberto is a respectful and polite kid. But he's sweet. He's playful. And he's very intelligent. He told me he gets good grades. Ms. Figueroa has clearly done everything she could to make sure that her child was raised right."

"Did you have the opportunity to speak to Roberto about his father?"

"Yes."

"When was this?"

"Yesterday."

"What did he tell you?"

Jake paused. "He told me that he wants to stay with his mom. He told me that when he's with his dad he doesn't see his dad that much because he works on weekends." This was news to me. "He says he's mostly watched by his grandmother. He told me that he was scared that he was going to have to choose between his mom and his dad. I tried to reassure him that California courts don't make children choose between their parents anymore."

"Anything else?" asked Amelia.

"He told me that he loves his mother more than Minecraft."

"No further questions," said Amelia.

Jake stepped down from the stand.

"Any further witnesses?" the judge asked Carlos's attorney, who looked annoyed.

"No."

"Rebuttal," said the judge to Amelia.

Amelia called me up to the stand. In a blur, I answered all of the questions that we had practiced yesterday. About how Carlos had not been around for Roberto's birth or early childhood. About how I had to fight him for child support in the beginning. About how I didn't think that it was in Rob's best interest to be uprooted at Christmas. And about how Carlos and I tried to keep it together in front of Rob.

When I was done, I let out a sigh of relief.

Then the judge started talking. And she was angry and talking to Carlos. "You mean to tell me that after all this time, you want to take Roberto? This is not an emergency hearing. It should not have been brought on an ex parte basis right before Christmas. Further, the court finds that the evidence shows that the minor child has been cared for by his mother, almost entirely, for his entire life. The test is 'best interest of the child.' It is not appropriate for the father to be awarded additional custody during this time. I will award one day of visitation extra, during the Christmas break, on the day after Christmas. But the remainder of the holiday, except for the regular weekend visitations, is to be unchanged. It is so ordered."

Carlos lost.

Well, he got one more day with Rob. And I would have given him that if he would have asked.

I let out my breath that I had been holding. I needed to go home so that I could let out the tears, too. I looked at Amelia and gave her a hug. "Thank you so much," I whispered. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," she said. "This is just this emergency hearing. We still have a later hearing to handle, but we will have time to prepare. For this one, I talked with Jake for a long time last night and we came up with a strategy to protect you."

"Jake helped," I said. "I didn't know how you knew all that."

"He called me," she said. "We worked on it until really late last night."

Oh my god. He had been helping me.

"Excuse me," I said. I ran out of the courtroom. Jake was waiting in the hallway.

"What happened?"

"Basically, we won," I whispered, excitedly. "Carlos gets one extra day with Rob during Christmas break. That's it."

"Excellent," he whispered back. "Listen, can I talk with you?"

I nodded.

He pulled me aside, down the hall, and down into a corridor out of the way.

"Lucy, I tried to stay away. I knew this was going to happen. I wanted to protect you and Rob. I know how these family law things go. They look into everything and ask you all kinds of questions about your business. Anything could have been twisted and used against you. I wanted to be able to answer the judge honestly. If I would have done what I wanted to, pound on your door every day since we had that fight, then that private investigator hanging out all the time would have had a lot more information and innuendo. There was no way I was going to jeopardize you and Rob. So, I stayed away."

My eyes widened.

"But I can't do it any longer."