“Not a problem,” I repeat. It really wasn’t a big deal, so I don’t get the fuss. “Nothing anyone else wouldn’t have done.”
“You’d be surprised. Some people here are so…” She sighs and rolls her eyes. “Considering the screwups I’ve seen with late filings you’d think they’d be nicer. Like just this week, we nearly had a meltdown in Managing Attorneys because of the Abernathy Trust.”
That perks my ears up. I know Todd is working on that with David.
“The Abernathy Trust?”
Her eyes go wide and her cheeks color as she realizes she may have said too much. She certainly did. As much as the curiosity eats at me, I don’t want to get her into trouble or upset her by pressing the issue.
“Never mind,” I say with a quick smile before returning to my pizza.
As I walk back to my seat my attention is caught by Emily standing by the food table. She’s staring my way with a smile of amusement on her face as she holds her plate.
She wanders over to my table and gestures to the place seat next to me. “Is this seat taken?”
“All yours,” I say, feeling emboldened.
This is certainly a good sign.
Who needs Honey? It should be easy enough to win Emily back on my own.
“What happened to your cheek?” Emily asks with that same mix of alarm and excitement Allison showed. I see her hand instinctively come up to touch it, but stop before she makes contact.
This is too easy.
“I was helping my neighbor out with something,” I say, hoping Emily remembers it was my neighbor who left the pink feather on my collar Monday.
I do feel like a bit of a hypocrite, especially after telling Honey in no uncertain terms that I didn’t need her help to win Emily over.
Especially when Emily so easily takes the bait.
She sniffs and sits up straighter, her mouth tightening in displeasure as she responds. “I see.”
“It was nothing.”
She flashes a quick smile and slides her eyes to the back of the room. “She likes you, you know.”
I blink in surprise, at first thinking Emily is talking about Honey and wondering how the hell she could figure that one out.
Then I follow her eyes and find Allison still staring my way. Her face brightens when she sees me looking back.
“Allison?” I respond, turning to Emily completely bewildered. “She just asked me to help with the projector. I assume because I’m tall.”
“Yes you are,” Emily says, for some reason rapidly blinking her eyes. “But that’s not why she asked.”
“She’s barely out of college.”
Allison is cute in a blonde, pixie sort of way. Now that I think about it, she does have a habit of asking me to help out at the CLE presentations and calling me on the phone just to double-check a filing I’ve sent down to her department. I’m twenty-nine so the age difference isn’t scandalous, but it’s still a bit too large for me not to feel like an ass just from considering it.
Emily laughs. “All the more reason for her to have a crush. I forgot how dense you can be when it comes to women. I practically had to bonk you over the head and drag you back to the cave myself just to get you to ask me out.”
I narrow my eyes, even though she’s right.
I remember how tactlessly frank Emily could be sometimes.
“Is that how you got Tyler to join you in New York?”
Her face goes red with embarrassment but before she can respond, the partner scheduled to present today is at the podium to begin the presentation.
When it’s over, I pull myself out of the same slump I suspect everyone else in the room has fallen into after that sixty official CLE minutes of boredom.
“Jesse,” Emily says, stopping me as I gather my paper plate and empty soda can. “I was wondering if I could borrow your ear about a few things.”
“Sure, what is it?”
“Do you mind coming to my office? I’d rather talk in private and I’d hate to be away from my desk too long, especially since I’ve just started.”
“No problem.”
I follow her down to her floor and back to her office.
The first thing I see when I enter is a huge bouquet of roses. It’s so large it blocks her head when she takes a seat behind her desk.
“Sorry about these. They’re a bit obnoxious aren’t they?” She laughs and pushes them aside. “From Tyler of course, a nice little surprise to celebrate the weekend early.”
Tyler is apparently the considerate type of boyfriend. No doubt the flowers are to celebrate her first week at work. They probably have a more formal celebration planned for the weekend.
“You of all people remember how much I hated this sort of thing, don’t you?” She says, though I note how her eyes dance as she looks from me to the bouquet and then back to me again.
She obviously loves it now.
“You said you wanted to discuss something with me?”
She blinks in surprise, as though she forgot why she asked me to come down.
“Oh, yes,” she says, brushing her hair back with one hand, the way she does when she’s momentarily flustered. “Please, sit. If you don’t mind closing the door? I really don’t want anyone to hear me sounding incompetent.”
So she really does want some advice.
I nod with understanding and close the door behind me, then take a seat. “What’s the problem?”
“I just thought I’d pick your brain a little about the environment here. It’s so different from government work and, well, I really want to make a good first impression.”
This doesn’t sound at all like the Emily Becksworth I remember. That girl never showed a hint of vulnerability or insecurity.
“You were hired on as a third-year associate so someone obviously thinks you’re capable.”
“Yes, but you’ve been here four years. If you’re still here, you must be doing well. I’m sure you’re thinking about making partner soon.”
I raise one eyebrow in acknowledgement.
She leans in and presents those
