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“It was the best,” I told him.
I wanted more.
I wanted so much fucking more from him.
“Good,” he said. Then he kissed me deeply and when he pulled back, his eyes were twinkling. “I guess this means I win.”
5
David
On Monday morning, I had a meeting with my first client of the week. Zander Reynolds was both the bane of my existence and the highlight of my paycheck this month. He ran an enormous company called TechFlurry. They did everything from developing anti-virus software to computer troubleshooting, but Zander had a little problem. He’d been accused of sexually harassing some of his interns. One of their fathers was a lawyer, and they’d chosen to press charges against Zander. The accusations were totally bogus, of course, and he’d made it clear that he’d never done anything the girls had told the police about, but it was messy.
And I was helping him do damage control.
Not only did I have to represent him in court, but I needed to make sure that if Zander did anything like talk to the press or make public appearances, that he knew exactly what he could and couldn’t do. Sexual harassment charges weren’t a joke, and they also weren’t something that could easily be swept under the rug.
When he arrived in my office, he was 10 minutes late, which was normal for him. Any other client, I’d tell to get lost, but Zander’s company brought in a lot of money for the firm. I hadn’t signed up to be a corporate attorney, but criminal defense was my specialty, and I knew exactly what I had to do to help Zander get past this.
“Busy weekend?” He asked, gesturing at my office.
“Are you calling my office messy?” I asked, looking around. The room was spotless. Felix was always teasing me about being too uptight for my own good, and honestly, he was usually right about that. My office tended to be very neat and tidy with little room for personal touches.
Felix was the opposite. Although he was in criminal defense, as well, he mostly represented teenagers and younger clients who may have been caught shoplifting or committing other smaller offenses. His office was sprinkled with pictures of Lauren, as well as a few pictures of Zoey. The photos of Felix’s sister were all from when she was younger. He didn’t have any current pictures there. I’d never asked why, but I assumed it had something to do with reminding himself that we were all young once, and that we’d all made mistakes.
“No,” Zander said.
“Then sit down and close your mouth,” I snapped. I was irritated, sure. My secretary had told me right before he arrived that even more evidence had come to light surrounding this case, and not all of it was going to be helpful. Correction: none of it was going to be helpful.
Zander must have been surprised at my tone because he sat down and placed his hands on his lap. He looked up at me like I was going to bite. Well, I wasn’t going to bite. I just wanted answers.
“You said you didn’t do this,” I tapped the stack of papers on my desk. It was filled with accusations. At first, there had only been a few, but more and more women had come forward and claimed that he’d threatened their jobs or made unwanted advances. A couple of girls was nothing. Those were accusations we could easily deal with. The more people who came forward, though, the harder the case was going to be to win.
“I didn’t,” he said, blinking.
“I don’t care if you did or didn’t,” I said. That was a lie. If he had, he was a total scumbag. If he hadn’t, well, he was still a scumbag, but I’d care a lot less. “But you have to be honest with me. I can’t accurately represent you if you aren’t.”
“I didn’t do it,” he insisted. “I already told you. Morgan Worthington had it out for me from the moment she started working at TechFlurry. She’s the one who asked me out, and when I declined, she brought these charges against me.”
The story was believable enough to cast doubt on Morgan’s accusations that Zander had threatened to fire her if she didn’t go out with her. It boiled down to a giant game of he-said-she-said, but there was enough evidence on each side that the case seemed to be spinning in circles. Now that there were other women with similar stories, it was going to be more difficult to save Zander.
I didn’t like the way it was going, but it was going. At the very least, it wasn’t stagnant, and that was what we’d been trying to avoid. We wanted the case moving. Ideally, it would be moving out of peoples’ minds and replaced with something else, but as long as it was moving toward a reasonable conclusion, I’d be satisfied.
Zander and I talked for about an hour, and by the time he left, I was already exhausted. This case was sucking the life out of me. I needed to make some phone calls, set up some interviews, and figure out how I was going to argue for Zander in court. There was no doubt that he was an asshole. The question was whether he was an asshole who also hated women.
Tina, my legal secretary, brought in a cup of coffee and a donut. She smiled as she walked in and held up the offerings. Tina was a sweetheart, and she kept me sane.
“Courtesy of Felix,” she said, jerking her head toward the donut. “He brought in a few boxes this morning. He said you were probably still feeling hungover after Saturday.” Tina’s eyes twinkled when she added that bit. Awesome. Did everyone at work know I’d gotten drunk at Felix’s party?
“Ugh,” I groaned, shaking my head. I accepted the coffee and donut. Sinking my teeth into the chocolate-covered sprinkle donut, I sighed.
“Guess he was right,” she chuckled.
“Tell him I said, ‘fuck you,’” I called as she turned to leave the office.
Tina waved, letting me know she’d heard me and that the message would be relayed, albeit in a more professional, polite manner. Leaning back in my seat, I sipped the coffee and munched on the donut. Okay, this was something
we definitely needed to do every single day.
