But Aya’s face remained unmoved, her gaze cold.Okay.If she wanted to be mad, she was allowed to be mad.Maybe he had tried to move on too quickly.Shame, but he understood needing time to process better than anyone.
Aya didn’t call him back when he left.Still, Baz paused when his hand wrapped around the door handle and glanced over his shoulder.“I really am sorry for lying to you.”
“That is not what you should be sorry for.”
Right.With a last smile that went unreciprocated, Baz left.
Aya’s absence meant he had to carry the workload designed for two by himself.
Vanessa Martinez agreed to come in for a meeting next week; Baz assembled all she needed to know about her responsibilities as the lead plaintiff, to be prepped for her testimony.Being the face of a class action wasn’t easy.Ian wouldn’t shy away from attacking her character, and she needed to be ready for that, needed to trust Baz to do right by her.Trust was famously the most important part of any relationship.
Did Sami trust him?Would he ever?Enough to not just seek a distraction, but confide in Baz too?
That wasn’t relevant to the trial prep.Focus, Hadley.
He went back through the discovery, curated his list of witnesses.Doctors, biologists, chemists.Once he received the toxicology report on the Captain Green sample, if it ended up being the irrefutable proof he needed it to be, whoever signed off on that would be a strong witness too.The jury needed to hear that TCDD could only develop in a chlorine-based herbicide during the manufacturing process.
Hopefully, the report would be enough to scare Captain Green into an appropriate settlement and rid Baz of his Sami dilemma.Sleeping with a fellow lawyer couldn’t be held against him when they had no active cases against each other.
That was assuming Sami still wanted him once the case was done.If he only chose Baz for the rush of the forbidden… Well, moving on would be easy when someone engraved the wordpartneron his door.
The clacking of heels pulled his attention to the hallway.Had Aya decided to—Erika.On the associates’ floor.Walking toward his office.Oh, shit.
Baz jumped up.He buttoned his jacket, smoothed out the gray fabric, pressed down on the top of his fingertips.She knocked with the knuckle of her index finger as she entered, polite despite her power.Baz wanted to be her when he grew up.
He summoned his most charming smile, forced his hands into as much stillness as the buzz inside of them allowed.
“Erika.What can I do for you?”
“I received interesting news on the Captain Green case.”
His throat dried out in an instant.“What news?”
Had Aya seriously ratted them out after her speech about how it would harm his career?
“You’re not settling.”Oh, thank god.That set of circumstances, Baz was prepared to justify.
“We tried.Unfortunately, the opposition tried to lowball us, so we’re getting justice at court, which we are gearing up for now.A jury trial will be in our favor.”He nodded as he said it, prayed it would hypnotize Erika into believing him.
“Hm.”It was short and heavy with a judgment Baz didn’t dare to guess what it was about.With that, Erika left.That wasn’t a daunting reaction at all.
Baz sank into his chair.
No shock like the big boss showing up at your office unannounced.
oh shit??
you okay??
what happened to Aya wont say anything
She didn’t.It was about Ian being a dumb idiot refusing to settle.
Too late, he realized this was exactly the kind of thing he shouldn’t be saying to Sami, much less text it.Having black and white proof of such an unprofessional statement could royally backfire—bzz bzz.
did you tell her the sky is blue too or did she have enough life-changing revelations for the day
Baz chuckled.At least they were both in the thick of unprofessionalism together.
