Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 29192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 146(@200wpm)___ 117(@250wpm)___ 97(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 29192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 146(@200wpm)___ 117(@250wpm)___ 97(@300wpm)
“Knitting.”
“Huh?”
“I’m knitting.”
“I don’t know what that is.” Graham’s face shows only confusion. “Like is it some kind of drug or new sport?”
“It’s with needles and yarn. Knitting. Like making scarves and shit.”
“Knitting?” He repeats the word like it’s foreign and he’s never heard of it before.
“And she’s right. I don’t really care about practicing law anymore. I’m not taking any new clients and I’m winding up my existing cases.”
“To knit?”
“Yeah. I think I’m going to open a yarn store. There’s a small one on the Upper East Side but none in Midtown, not even in the Garment District.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah.”
He lapses into silence and then blurts out, “Your hands are like lion’s paws. How are you knitting? Do they make special needles for men?”
I guess the human trafficking was more understandable to Graham than a man who knits.
Chapter Two
NATALIE
“The next time I say I’ll take a construction case, please shoot me.” I drop into the empty chair around the circular table at Hot Spot. A waiter shows up almost immediately, wanting to take my order. “A dirty martini with three olives. I haven’t had any dinner and I’m starving. Did you guys order anything?”
“A whole platter of sushi,” Frankie, my best friend, assures me. Hot Spot is packed, as it always is, and not because this place is so grand. It’s a bar that looks like every other bar in the city—a row of bottles lining a glass wall behind a long stretch of glossy wood. The main seating area is a mix of tables and curved upholstered benches. The music is trendy top hits, and everyone here is wearing power suits or dresses. The raciest garments here are the too-tight suit pants on some of the guys which show off way too much or the too-tight white button-downs that a few of the women are wearing. No one needs to show more than an ankle or a decolletage because everyone is here for the same reason: to find someone to hook up with and let off some steam. Our careers are stressful, and we need a release.
Not that I’ve ever had a release like that. Oh, I’ve given myself a release, but I’ve never been able to cross that hump of taking my clothes off for someone else. Like, what if we get up to their room and he decides to dismember me? What if he’s married with two kids back home? What if he has a disease? There are so many variables that run through my head, and when it’s hookup time, I talk myself out of it. The shower head is all a girl really needs. At least that’s what I tell myself.
“Who else is coming?” I nod toward the two empty seats on the other side.
“Luna is bringing a new friend. Tell me about the case.”
“It’s not the case. It’s the client. He might have been unlawfully terminated because of his age, but he’s inappropriate at all times. As we were sitting in the conference room, he said he was glad there was a woman on his team because law is so boring and he needed something nice to look at.”
“Cut off his balls, metaphorically of course.” Frankie isn’t a labor lawyer like me but works in the corporate law department of a steel production company. It’s a sausage fest there with the men outnumbering women by ten to one, even in the corporate headquarters. She’s smarter than everyone in her office put together and tougher than the metal they sell.
“I want to, but this is my boss’s uncle-in-law.”
We both make a face—me in frustration and Frankie in commiseration.
“This is why happy hour exists.” She raises her glass. “To drink and bitch about the things we wish we could change but can’t.”
“You guys started without us?” Luna appears with a small blonde wearing a red knit dress that somehow manages to look both sexy and professional at the same time.
“It was that kind of day, sorry.” I push the bar’s digital drink menu over. “But the service here is good, so you should be caught up quick. Hi, I’m Natalie, and this is Frankie.”
“Sorry, yes, Nat, Frankie, this is Julie. Julie, this is Nat and Frankie. We all went to college together. Nat practices labor law, Frankie is in corporate, and, as you know, I’m working on my MRS.” Luna waves her five-carat ring around.
“Stop. You’re blinding us.” Frankie pushes Luna’s hand to the side and shakes Julie’s hand. “Nice to meet you. Where’d you and Luna meet?”
“Pilates. Luna joined my favorite studio and started going to the five a.m. class. There are only six of us there, and we started chatting.”
“Julie’s a big fan of spy movies.” Luna places an order and passes the device over to Julie.
“Huge fan. I can’t get enough of them. I might have been a detective in a former life. I can usually guess an entire plot in the first episode.” Julie snaps her fingers.