Page 29 of EverGreene
Let me check my calendar to make sure I don’t have any plans tonight.
I sent the message knowing damn well my plans tonight consisted of watchingJeopardywith Vinny and eating a Lean Cuisine for dinner. You know, the plans of a single woman thirty years my senior. V didn’t need to know that, though. Who was I kidding? I’m sure he already did.
A ping from somewhere inside the office drew my attention back to Loche, who was frantically digging inside his desk for something, pulling out a phone.
“Weird. I sent a message to someone, and your phone pings.”
“It was a calendar notification.” I just didn’t realize my volume was turned up.” I’d never seen Loche so uncharacteristically flustered as he threw the phone back in thedesk drawer.
“And here I was thinking it was the girl you were with last night letting you know your card had been declined.”
“Funny, Nevermore. But I don’t have to pay women for them to have a good time with me.”
Loche looked up, his eyes moving from me to the door, his grin fading. I looked over my screen at the door, noticing Conrad standing there, looking anything but amused.
“Interesting conversation to have at work.” Conrad walked into our office and over to Loche’s desk. “I’m going to need you to summarize those witness depositions for trial before you leave today.”
“I’d love to, Mr. Harrison, but I’m working on the trial exhibit list and the eighty other assignments you’ve given to me that you could have delegated to other members of the trial team, including Ever here.”
My mouth dropped, and I looked from Loche to Conrad, both of whom were staring the other down in some twenty-first-century masculinity standoff. Instead of whipping out their dicks and comparing sizes, unbreakable, heated glares were exchanged. Under normal circumstances, I would be rooting for Loche’s downfall, but since Conrad Harrison was on the other side, I reluctantly had to side with Loche.
“I have the time today,” I chimed in, breaking their display of manhood. “I’ve done countless deposition summaries for Jack. I think I can handle it.”
“See,” Loche motioned to me, “Ever is perfectly capable of doing the job the law firm hired her to do.”
Conrad clenched his jaw, further cementing the fact that Thanksgiving was going to be awkward as fuck at the Greene/Harrison household.
“I’m sure she is. After all, our firm rarely makes mistakes when hiring our staff. Well, almost.” Conrad shot one last rapid-fire round at Loche, who was now the one sporting thefamilial jaw clench. “Ever, try to get all the witnesses for the first day of trial done first, preferably today.”
I nodded. “Sure, Mr. Harrison.”
Conrad let out a sigh as he walked out of our office to spread his effervescent rays of sunshine elsewhere.
“Prick,” Loche muttered.
“Must run in the family.”
“I stand up for you, and that’s what you have to say to me?”
“Gee, I didn’t realize your being a decent person for once in your life came with stipulations.” I sighed as I scanned the deposition transcripts for the Sawyer matter, printing out the first transcript to tackle. “Look, I appreciate the vote of confidence you’ve been giving me lately, but we all know summarizing depositions is more tedious than mentally challenging. My skills go well beyond reading comprehension and taking notes. And oh, by the way, I have seven transcripts to read and I can’t work over tonight, so I’ll be hauling ass the whole day to get these done with no lunch break.”
“What do you have going on tonight?”
I met Loche’s eyes. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I have someone coming over.”
An amused expression lit up his face. “Is it your boyfriend?”
“Maybe. I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”
“Well, tell him I said hello.” Loche got up from his desk, more likely than not going to the break room to get his morning cup of coffee. He paused when he reached the doorway and turned around. “Oh, and summarizing depositions is an integral part of a trial. It helps attorneys quickly find information they need when witnesses are on the stand without having to thumb through an entire transcript. It’s not busy work, and you know that. What I don’t understand is why you can’t accept the olive branch I keep extending to you.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but was shut down by Loche, who apparently hadn’t finished his thought.
“Take your lunch, leave on time. I’ll pick up where you leave off.”
At precisely sixo’clock on the dot, I opened my door to one of the largest humans I’d encountered outside of V.
“What is in the water in this town? Why are you and V so massive?”
