The Juror

I recently had the unfortunate experience of being chosen to sit on the jury for what ended up being a twelve-day civil trial. The jury was a fun mix of young and old, and the deliberations were not half as dreadful as one would expect. But during this deliberation time, I began to take notice of one of my fellow jurors.

During the trial, one of my twenty-something fellow jurors came in at the last possible minute and mostly kept to himself. When he did speak, he usually made a comment about the goofy lawyer or the obnoxious amount of time spent at court. Nothing to make him really stand out.

When listening to testimony was over, the 9 of us returned to the jury room to have a round-table discussion and reach our unanimous verdict. The table was not actually round. Instead it was two rectangular tables placed to form a T. I sat to the side of one of the tables making the T. To my right (and around the corner of the table) was a middle-aged social worker, and to her right, the mysterious juror. On Friday when we started deliberating, he happened to be wearing a rather tight sweater. And since his bicep was in my direct line of vision.... well, let's just say he definitely started to stand out. I discovered later that afternoon that he is a personal trainer. This would explain the biceps.

As deliberations went on, mysterious man, social worker and I became the peanut gallery of the bunch. We often disregarded the other six and chatted amongst ourselves (Fret not justice system, we were reprimanded accordingly by the foreman). During one of our breaks, the Juror showed the social worker and me his "website", which was actually pictures of him. Without a shirt. And let me just say... DAMN! This kid was riiiiiiped. Had I not been in such an official setting (and had I had a few cocktails in me), I would have definitely tried to go and rip off that frivolous sweater. And perhaps his pants as well.

The Juror and I often found ourselves standing up and moving next to each other. And we found out he used to live down the street from me! He loves the neighborhood and still comes pretty often to visit friends. He has the same original iPod nano that I do, but his still works. I told him how mine did not and he told me he could probably fix it. We talked about my upcoming trip to Europe and his experiences there. All sorts of things. Eventually this led to him giving me his card and asking me to hit him up on Facebook. So I friended him and subsequently told him I liked his picture. It was him, once again, shirtless and looking HOT. He said, "Oh, you like that?" and I told him once again that I did. Obviously flirtatious? I don't know. But at this point I really just wanted his muscular body to dominate me. Maybe in the courtroom?

Anyway, we gave our verdict and the nine of us parted ways. The Juror and I did not depart especially different from anyone else. But at least I knew I now had his Facebook friendship, and a reason to contact him. And later that very night, guess who I got a message from!

THE JUROR!

He sent me an article about the case, which I was less than thrilled about. But I told him I, too, had looked it up and felt I wouldn't forget it anytime soon. So I tried as long as I could to wait (45 minutes) and replied with what I thought a witty response. I had been watching Entourage (which we also bonded over) and a character said something often mentioned during the trial. Then I asked him (to keep conversation flowing) if we'd ever be able to get away. That was late last night. But judging by his 97 friends, he's not much of a Facebooker. So we'll see if I hear from him. He still has to fix my iPod after all. I wonder if they'd let us back into the courtroom for some naughty activity. Hm...