Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 95421 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95421 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
“She’s still pissed that I wouldn’t accept her apology and pretend it never happened.”
“I still can’t believe she brought that idiot to the wedding.”
“I can. She feels like she won because she had a date and I didn’t. Everything is a contest to her. It wasn’t enough to end our partnership. She had to steal all the staff and take all the equipment so she felt like she won. I’ve seen her be this ruthless for her clients, but I never thought I’d be on the receiving end of it.” I sighed.
“Think of the bright side.”
“I didn’t realize there was one.”
“Your receptionist’s nasally voice drove me fucking nuts, and now I won’t have to hear it when I stop by. Win for me.” Ben patted my shoulder. “And it’s better you found out now what she was capable of than a few years down the road.”
We spent the next ten minutes sitting in the lobby, watching the movers go in and out. There was an awful lot of boxes, so I was pretty sure there wasn’t even going to be any toilet paper in the bathroom. But it would be worth it to get rid of her. She’d made the last few months since we split pretty miserable.
“That’s it,” the moving guy said.
“You sure? I think there’s some lint in my pants pocket you didn’t take.”
“Sorry. Just doing what we were hired to do.”
“I know.”
He waited a few uncomfortable heartbeats, until I realized he was looking for a tip. “Dude, the tip comes from the bitch who hired you. Not me.”
He frowned, but didn’t argue.
Ben chuckled as the guy left. “You want to get out of here and go drown your sorrows at the bar?”
“Pretty sure she took all the chairs in the office, so I don’t think we have a choice.”
He eyed Sheldon. “What about him?”
“I have his carrier. The owner won’t care. Sheldon smells better than half his patrons.”
O’Malley’s was a dark and dreary old-man bar. A handful of guys sat alone drinking, spaced apart from each other like they weren’t looking for conversation. The depressing setting felt appropriate for my mood. I ordered a vodka seven and Ben ordered a beer.
“So how’s married life?” I asked.
He smiled. “Great.”
I smiled back. It might’ve been the first genuine happy feeling I’d had since I got back from Michigan. Unless you counted the too-many times I’d showed my laptop my teeth while looking at pictures of Naomi.
“How was Italy? Where’d you go again?”
“We started in Rome and then drove down to the Amalfi coast.”
“How was that?”
“Nice. But those people drive like lunatics. They make New Yorkers seem tame.”
The bartender brought our drinks. Ben lifted and sipped. “So what happened after the wedding? You left so early the next morning, I didn’t get to talk to you. Lily said you and Naomi shared the cabin.”
I nodded. “We did.”
“And…”
“And nothing. I slept on the couch, and she slept in the bedroom. I got up the next morning and left.”
“Really? I thought for sure you two would hook up. I saw you sucking face out on the dance floor.”
“That was to piss Emily off.”
“Looked like a lot more than that from where I was sitting.”
I sucked back my drink. “Nope.”
Ben rubbed the stubble on his chin. “You know, Naomi is looking for a job.”
“You mentioned that before.”
“And you need a paralegal.”
“I thought she was looking to change careers?”
“She is. She worked as a paralegal in Virginia for a few months before she left.”
“Why would she want to do that? She’ll make half the money an attorney would for doing all the grunt work.”
Ben shrugged. “Does it matter why? She’s smart and available, and you need someone.”
But the last thing I needed was to mix business with pleasure again. And if I told my buddy that, I’d be admitting I thought of Naomi as pleasure, and then he’d tell his wife, and she’d sink her teeth in and never let it go. I loved Lily, thought she was great for Ben. But she loved doing coupley things, and she’d be relentless if she saw an opportunity for her friend and her husband’s best friend to potentially get together.
“No thanks. I’m hiring an all-male staff.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because the men in my life don’t abandon me for ten grand extra and an expense allowance.” I shook my head. “I still can’t believe Margaret did that.”
Ben grinned. “It would take at least twenty for me to ditch you.”
“Thanks, buddy.”
“I’m not going to harp on the subject, but Naomi could take a lot off your plate. She can do more than just a paralegal—graduated second in our class, and Lily says she’s the best researcher she knows.”
“Oh yeah? Then why don’t you or Lily hire her to work at the DA’s office? They’re always looking for people.”