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Finn hangs up, and I’m left alone with a deep pit where my feelings should be. I turn on the television, hoping for a distraction, but there they are again. Finn and Raven, arm in arm, looking like a classy couple. A small voice in my head whispers that they belong together.
Maybe I need to be the one to walk away from all of this. If that could solve everyone’s problems, why shouldn’t I?
I turn off the TV and curl into a ball on the couch. I know what needs to be done. I know what Finn needs, I just need to give him a push in the right direction. It’s the right thing to do, for everyone.
So why does it feel so bad?
18
FINN
“Please, if you’ll just let me explain!” I’m practically begging this oaf of a man to not walk out on us. This time last year, he would be begging us for representation. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
“What’s to explain? I’ve closed my account and that’s that. Go scam some other moron into paying you a retainer.” Mr. Bleakly storms out of the building, leaving one of our receptionists in tears. Of course the man laid into her rather than someone who could actually fight back. Luckily I was on my way out for coffee when I came across it.
“Are you alright?” I ask the girl. She nods, wiping her tears away, and apologizes.
“This just keeps happening,” she says, voice shaking. “How are we going to pay expenses when every client is leaving us? I miss when they yelled at me for just forwarding their calls incorrectly. This feels personal.”
“Did he mention why he was leaving?” I ask, handing her a box of tissues from another desk.
“Oh, um…he said that Ms. Nightingale told him—”
“Right,” I say, holding up a hand. “That’s all I need to know.” I leave, storming up the stairs in lieu of the elevator. I have some rage to work out before I get to my office.
Raven is escalating her attacks. It’s not enough to keep new clients away, oh no, she has to manipulate our current ones into leaving too. She really believes this is the way to a man’s heart, doesn’t she?
I don’t understand why she thinks this way, but I do understand how she thinks regardless. I need to talk her down, convince her we’re no good for eachother. If I can just get her to stop sticking her pretty little nose into our business, I’m sure we can build ourselves back even better than before.
But first I need her to butt out.
I pick up my desk phone and dial her. Of course, she picks up immediately. “Finny, baby, how’s it going?” she coos.
“You know exactly how it’s going,” I say bluntly.
“I take it Mr. Bleakly didn’t appreciate hearing all about your method of rubber stamping every legal document that hits your desk, then?”
“You know we don’t do that.” What other lies can she come up with? We used to represent hardened crime bosses. Of course we go over every single document with a fine tooth comb, not doing so could get our heads chopped off!
“Do I? Hmm. I’m not so sure. It’s hard keeping up with things when you push me so far away all the time.” I can hear Raven’s pout through the receiver. It isn’t as cute as she thinks it is.
“We need to have a real conversation,” I say. “Like real adults.”
“Ooh, lunch then?” she asks.
“Sure. Le Tomate at one p.m.”
“Hm, no. I feel like sushi. Coral at two.”
I roll my eyes. Just one of her usual power plays. “Fine. Coral at two. I’ll meet you there. Understand, Raven? I will meet youthere. Nothere. At two exactly.”
“I heard you,” she sighs. “See you then, my little devil.” Raven hangs up.
“Demon,” I say to nobody. “Not a devil. A demon. They’re two very different things.”
I sit down with an exhausted groan and run my hands over my face. I need to end this and get my life back on track. Every part of it, from work to relationships, is suffering at her behest. It needs to end now.
I get to work, hoping to distract myself from my upcoming date. It works for a bit, until one o’ clock rolls around, and I hear a disturbance outside my office door.
