AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Magda sighed and followed me to my office, slowly trailing along behind me. She acted like she really didn’t want to be here, and that irritated me further.
“Sorry for interrupting your little date,” I snarled, unable to help myself, and Magda closed the door behind her, setting her jaw as she glared at me.
“Don’t start, Roarke. What is this all about?”
“You’re not supposed to date people in the office. I’m sure there’s a clause somewhere,” I said, although I knew there was no such clause.
“You couldn’t have possibly called me in here to complain about Mark Windham,” she said flatly, and I rubbed a hand across the back of my neck, clearing my throat and trying to organize my thoughts.
“No,” I said finally. “I wanted to tell you that I’m recommending you for partner.”
Magda’s eyes went wide. “What?”
“You heard me. You deserve partner, but that doesn’t mean that I forgive you.”
“I’m not asking for your forgiveness,” she snapped.
I looked up at her. “Maybe you should be.”
“My personal life is none of your business,” she shot back.
I swallowed down all the angry words I wanted to say. “Fair enough.”
Magda blinked. “What? Is that it?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know what else you want me to say.”
Magda looked at me for a long moment, her blue eyes wet with what looked like unshed tears. Her chin jutted up as if she was looking for a fight. That was what we did. We fought, we argued, we were competitive. Now, I didn’t feel like fighting at all. I was just tired.
“So, that’s it, then?” she repeated, and I looked away.
“That’s it. I just wanted to tell you that we’ll be working together a lot more and clearing the air.”
“Consider it cleared,” she said harshly, and opened my door, not bothering to close it behind her before she went back to her office and a waiting Mark.
I groaned inwardly and looked down at my desk, focusing on the huge stack of paperwork to sign. I just needed to throw myself into work and forget about Magda Riley.
MAGDA
Roarke had wantedto “clear the air" but nothing felt very clear to me at all. If he didn’t want me, couldn’t forgive me for my little omission about being his best friend’s daughter, then what did he want from me?
He clearly didn’t want me seeing Mark, and I didn’t want to tell him that he had been right about Mark Windham. He’d called him a snake and I had thought he was sweet and charming, that he just wanted to be there for me. Recent events were starting to prove me wrong. Mark had been texting me constantly, demanding I answer him, demanding that we go out, that I owed him. That he deserved a second chance. That we were perfect for each other and sooner or later I would realize that. He was also constantly coming by my office. He had even come to my house twice now, but I pretend I wasn’t home. I was starting to get weird vibes from him and was on the verge of telling him that I was absolutely one hundred percent not interested, right in front of the whole office.
That was the problem, though. I didn’t want to make a scene in my father’s law firm, especially when I was this close to making partner. This had been my dream for a long time, and I wasn’t going to fuck it up over a guy who wouldn’t get no for an answer.
After leaving Roarke’s office, I decided to go immediately to lunch at the cafeteria. There wasn’t much going on with the Martinez case until the hearing, and I had time to kill. I certainly didn’t want to have to go back into Roarke’s office and work with him. I had other cases, of course, but nothing pressing. I thought lunch would do me some good.
As I walked across the breezeway to the cafeteria, I heard footsteps behind me. I stopped, and the footsteps paused. When I turned around, Mark was standing there, smiling at me.
“You caught me,” he said quietly.
“Are you...following me?” I asked nervously.
“Not exactly,” he said. “Just wanted to get some lunch. Are you on your way to the cafeteria?”
I swallowed hard, not liking being alone with him in the breezeway. ”Um, no, I was going to go for a run, actually,” I said, and hurried into the next building to access the parking garage. It was out of my way, but I just didn’t want him following me anymore. I was starting to get really freaked out by him.
I could swear I heard more footsteps behind me but when I got into my car, breathing hard, my heart beating fast, no one was out in the parking garage but me. I took in a deep breath through my nostrils and looked back at my gym bag in the backseat.
