Acts of Desperation(17)
“Good. There’s a new cute lawyer at my office that I’ve got my eye on.”
“Now, that sounds exciting. I’ll have to live vicariously through you. You’ll have to tell me more about that later. That should help John become a faded memory.”
“Yeah, if he’d stop being weird. He keeps calling and texting me a lot. Hopefully he’ll give it up soon. It’s getting old.” I pulled into the firm’s parking lot. “Oh, by the way, I checked the Clerk of Courts website last night before I left work, and there still wasn’t anything posted on your ruling yet.”
“Thanks for checking,” she said.
“It’s no problem. I’ll let you know if I see anything.”
Chapter Eight
When I got to my office, I half shut my door and plugged in my phone. I did a quick, obsessive check on the Clerk of Courts site, but there still wasn’t a ruling posted on Sarah’s case yet. As soon as I started my work on the Bellamy’s file, I heard Jax’s voice in the hallway. I looked up and made out his broad shoulders through the crack in my door. He was speaking with June, another associate at the firm. She was exceptionally beautiful with long auburn hair, pouty red lips, and skin like porcelain. I could have disliked her on that principle alone, but right after I introduced myself for the first time, she said, “I hope you’re smart honey because you’re not going to get by on just your looks around here.” Then, she gave me a once over and faked a smile. After that, I maintained a professional and polite relationship but kept my distance.
As they stood outside my door, I eavesdropped on their conversation. I could only assume they were talking about a case June was working on judging by her tone and the snippets of the conversation I picked up. She asked him a few questions and, after he responded, she said things like, Oh my gosh, I never thought of that! You’re sooo smart. You’ll have to teach me your techniques, followed by little throaty giggles.
I rolled my eyes and looked back at my forms, fighting bitter tinges of jealousy. If he was going to go for a girl like that then that would speak volumes about the kind of person he was. I mumbled quietly under my breath. “Oh Jax you’re sooo smart. You’re sooo handsome. I bet you have an enooormous penis, pleeease show me your enormous penis.” Subtlety was not her thing.
“What was that?” I heard and my heart stopped. When I looked up, I saw Jax’s smiling face as he leaned into my office. I had no idea how much of my mockery he’d heard, but I hoped it wasn’t as much as I thought.
“What?” I said, blankly staring while I racked my brain to come up with something rational. The best I could come up with was, “I…I’m hungry, and I was making a mental note that I need to stock peanuts in my desk. Peanuts are protein. Helps keep you full and from snacking on junk all day.” I knew my cheeks were bright red and giving me away completely.
“Ok, if you say so,” he chuckled. “You got a sec?”
I perked up. “Sure.”
He walked in and shut the door behind himself. “Speaking of hunger, how’s lunch sound today?”
“Oh,” I said, acting nonchalant while internally doing cartwheels. “That sounds nice.”
“Good.” He smiled. “I’ll come by around twelve.”
I thought for a second. “Make it twelve thirty? I have kind of a busy morning,” I said with a smile. He didn’t need to know that this morning was no busier than any other. But, my mom always said it was good to make a guy wait a little. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, I supposed.
“Sure. No problem.” He grinned, and before I knew it, he was out of sight.
I went through my morning and tried to keep my head out of the clouds as the minutes ticked away until lunch. In true Sember fashion though, I plowed through my morning then had to invent things to do to fill my time until twelve thirty. I did some pre-date primping—brushing my hair and touching up my lip gloss. Just as I was putting everything back into my purse, there were a few light taps on my door.
“Ready?” he asked.
“I am,” I said, admiring his long, deep gray wool coat and matching Burberry scarf. “I just need to grab my coat.” I walked around to the front of my desk and as soon as I turned around, he was at my back and grabbing my coat from the chair. He held it open as I slipped my arms into the sleeves. His hands lingered on my shoulders, and the warmth of his breath washed over my ear, lighting a fire under my skin. “Thanks,” I said.
We took a crowded elevator ride down to the lobby, and, as we walked toward the glass doors leading outside, I saw a black Lincoln Town Car with tinted windows waiting at the curb.
“That’s ours,” he said with a nod of his head.
“Oh,” I said. I wasn’t raised in a cave or anything, but having a driver take me somewhere was far from an everyday occurrence. “I thought we would take a cab or your car, but that works too.”
“No. I hate cabs,” he said, holding the door open for me. When we stepped out into the cold, the crisp breeze froze my cheeks. Cars were angrily voicing their annoyance by honking their horns and swerving around our vehicle whose hazard lights were steadily blinking. As we approached the car, a stalky, gray haired man got out of the driver’s seat, wearing a long black trench coat.