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I really wanted to be in her good books. I was already good with Jim. He had hired me after all. I figured if I could get on Ann’s good side, that would be both of the founding partners. Which was also mostly why I was so resolute in sticking to my promise. I really didn’t think Ann would be happy if I let her down, and Jim wouldn’t be over the moon either. It was quite possible that if I backed out, like I was beginning to want to, my career at Howell and Howell might be over before it really had a chance to start.
I hadn’t really become a lawyer out of some burning desire to dispense justice. I knew there were people like that, but they tended to work for legal aid and non-profit NGOs. Even though I respected their dedication and the difference they could make, I had had no such luxury and really needed the money they were paying.
Cold dread growing in the pit of my stomach, I headed back to my comfy office with the too-nice-view, to try and figure out how the hell I was going to pull this off.
“Russ, right?”
Jumping only a couple feet off of the fine rug, I turned around to see a well-tailored, blonde man I recognized as Leo, one of my new coworkers.
“Yeah, Leo?” I replied.
“You remembered my name.” Leo smiled his perfectly straight grin. “How’s your first week going?”
“Weird,” I admitted, desperate just to say it out loud.
“That’s a new one,” Leo said, raising his eyebrows.
“No disagreement here,” I said.
“This I gotta hear,” Leo said, making his way into my office and taking the chair in front of my desk.
“Well, not only am I still working on a case that I carried over from private practice —”
“An oddity to be sure,” Leo agreed.
“Vicky sort of corralled me into a meeting with Ms. Howell, it being highly recommended that I agree to go to a wedding with her and pretend to be her date.”
“Did the word fiancé come up at any point?” Leo asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah, it did, how do you — did you put her up to this?” I stammered.
“Hey, calm down, big guy,” Leo said, holding his hands up in surrender.
“Sorry, I’m just a bit on edge,” I said, trying to calm down.
“Being coerced into a conspiracy of lies and subterfuge will do that,” Leo said, surprisingly understanding.
“I-I don’t think it’s quite that bad. I mean, I understand where Ann is coming from. My family is similarly conservative, and I just figured anything that I can do to get into her good books would be helpful in the long run,” I admitted.
“Nothing wrong with a bit of self-preservation,” Leo said with a shrug.
“Exactly,” I agreed.
“But,” Leo said, prompting me to go on.
“Why are you psychic?” I asked, slightly spooked.
“I’m not, just insightful,” Leo said.
“And humble,” I said.
“Very,” Leo agreed with a big grin.
“I’m just not sure what would make her think of me,” I admitted.
“I have a few guesses,” Leo said.
“Yeah, I can guess,” I said.
“Vicky often starts trouble, but she really does mean well. You’d be surprised how many people here met pretending to be fiancés for social graces. After a while, the firm is going to feel like one big family,” Leo enthused.
“That actually sounds pretty nice,” I admitted despite myself.
I had never really been known to work well with others. There was a reason I had tried private practice when first getting out of law school, which I did at the shockingly young age of twenty-four, starting college a seventeen and taking a two-year undergrad before going on to law school. Despite this asocial history, I kind of liked the idea of working at a firm that felt like a family. It wasn’t really too surprising that there was such a dynamic at Howell and Howell. It had been founded by siblings, after all.
Still, this was unlikely to happen with me. I would work there for sure and try my best to be friendly but more than that didn’t really seem possible, I had too much to protect.
Chapter Five
Ann
The best-laid plans could often go wrong, but we really didn’t have a plan to speak of, which was surprisingly comforting under the circumstances. Russ seemed a bit shocked when he found out the wedding was in Santa Rosa, which to be fair was almost in Oregon. He couldn’t know that I was planning to fly out. Mostly because I hadn’t told him. Despite his hesitation, he had insisted that he wanted to go with me, and I figured it was probably best to go along with the plan. He really was smokin’ hot, and it was more than likely that things would turn out well — and not just with the wedding.
I was buzzing with the excitement that always came with total victory in the battlefield of justice. I couldn’t help feeling a bit righteous. I sat at my desk with a satisfied sigh, letting my case fall where it will.
