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“I work here,” she interrupts.
Pure ice goes through my veins. Sheworkshere? She’s myemployee? Did she know this last night when we met? When she came to my home? When I?—
“I didn’t even know your name!” She hisses, her expression scrunching in anger. Like she read my mind—or more likely, my expression—she answers my fears. “I didn’t even know your name so, no, I did notplanthis. I’m not—I’m not that kind of girl.”
“Except you are,” I reply instantly. I regret it, but it came out too fast for me to stop.
She looks down at the floor. “Yeah.” She breathes out softly. “Yeah, I guess I am.”
I feel like I might be sick. “I’m not that guy either,” I tell her. “I’m not the guy who sleeps with his employees.”
“Except you are,” Laura says.
The rest of the elevator ride is silent.
When we get to my floor—the top floor—I make a decision. I can fix this.
“Where are you going?” I ask. “I’ll walk you so they know why you’re late.”
Her eyebrows raise. I bite the inside of my cheek, embarrassed and irritated.
“Okay,” I admit. “Notwhy.But that it’s my fault.”
“I can find my own way,” she says. Then Laura pauses, just for a second, and I think there might be something unsaid between us.
My head hurts. I nod to her, and then walk through the door separating the hallway from the rest of the floor. My office, in the corner of that floor, is a safe haven that I have to stop myself from sprinting towards.
When I get back inside, Piper frowns at me. “Where’s your laptop?”
Shit.
“Damon’s bringing it up,” I lie. “He was… getting gas.” Then I hide behind my desk, texting Damon just that, and try to hide.
“Want to run over the schedule?” Piper offers. She brings me a cup of coffee and sits on the arm of the chair across from me.
I accept the coffee, nodding. “Yes, thank you.”
“So, you’re meeting with the new attorneys soon. There’s two of them, and there’s a luncheon. You’ve also got the meeting with Jennison later, and you were going to call about discovery for?—”
“For the Allens case, yes, thank you.” It’s coming back to me now. Piper smiles and hands me the list she just wrote of my duties for the day. I don’t usually ask her to make these, but I appreciate that she’s seen how flustered I am today. I just hope she doesn’t figure out why.
As I’m running through the list, sipping my coffee, I start to feel back to normal. After all, Laura has worked here for god knows how long. I never saw her before—I probably won’t see her again.
Piper taps her desk twice with her long nail. It’s a bit of a shorthand that we’ve developed over the years. I sit up straighter in my chair, cracking my neck once, before turning towards the door with a smile?—
And there she is.
Laura.
“Hi,” Piper says, her eyes shooting over to me. I can tell from the way she pinches her lips together and furrows her brow that I’m being rude.
Unfortunately, I am also on the brink of panicking, so I’m going to have to remain rude for a bit longer.
“I’m Piper, Mr. Donovan’s assistant.” Piper rises from her desk and takes Laura’s hand. They share a handshake—professional, professional, professional,my mind chants—and then Piper leads her over to my desk. The look on her face is unmistakable: get yourself together. “You must be Laura James, our new attorney.”
God, I am being punished.
I scramble up from behind my desk, knocking my knees on the inside of the desk. It hurts, and my coffee goes flying. Piper jumps back, hands on Laura’s elbow, but she doesn’t get her back in time. The coffee splashes all over Laura’s beige suit.
