“To be honest,” he said, “it’s about the only thing I’ve been thinking about all day. But I can’t.”
She made a face.
“You’re such a tease,” she said.
He got serious.
“Believe me, it’s worse for me than you.”
She slapped his ass.
“I doubt that,” she said.
When they got back to her house, she uncorked another bottle of wine and they sat in front of the fireplace and talked until midnight. Then Teffinger retreated to the spare bedroom and tossed for ten minutes before falling asleep.
After a fitful night of twisting and shifting, Aspen woke early Friday morning to a cold and cloudy dawn. She didn’t have a job, but she did have her dignity. Who would hire her now, though, after being fired on her fourth day of work?
No one, that’s who.
Still, she wouldn’t take back her words last night even if she could. Maybe she didn’t have a paycheck or a career, but at least she could look in the mirror without disgusting herself.
She showered and ate cereal.
Then she headed to Einstein Bros and drank coffee alone at a table as she pondered her options. She remembered turning off her cell phone last night, pulled it out of her purse and powered it up.
She had a half-dozen voice messages.
All from Blake Gray.
“We need to talk.”
As soon as she erased the last message the phone rang. When she answered, Blake Gray’s voice came through. Before she could hang up, he said, “First, you’re not fired. Second, Jacqueline Moore was way out of bounds. Third, we need to talk and get this straightened out.”
She almost powered off but didn’t.
“Talk about what?”
“Last night, the future, everything,” he said. “Where are you?”
She told him.
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Don’t go anywhere.”
She tried to warn him that he was wasting his time, but he had already hung up. So instead she got in her car and left.
When she got home, she changed her mind and went back. Blake Gray arrived three minutes later, wearing a wool-blend suit worth more than her entire wardrobe.
He hugged her around the shoulders and said, “Give me two minutes, I need coffee or I’m going to be cranky all day.” She nodded and felt queasy. Whatever happened in the next ten minutes would be a turning point.
He came back, sat down, and took a noisy slurp from the cup.
He looked good.
Powerful.
Yet compassionate.
She wished she had dressed in something other than jeans and a sweatshirt.
“Good stuff,” he said.
She muttered something and waited.
“First,” he said, “Jacqueline told me to tell you she’s sorry. She’ll tell you herself when you see her.” He lowered his voice. “Unfortunately, she’s a damn fine lawyer-one of the reasons the firm even exists, to be honest with you-but she also has her moments. Between you and me, I’m trying to keep her in the firm but she’s making it more and more difficult every day. I don’t know what’s going to happen, if this keeps up.”
Aspen sipped her coffee.
“It’s more than just her attitude,” she said. “I don’t understand why I was called into a meeting to begin with. It felt like the KGB had come to get me.”
He nodded and understood her viewpoint.
“Outsiders see big law firms as rock-solid institutions that have been there forever and always will be,” he said. “In reality we’re very fragile. Personalities, egos, money and a million other things take their toll every day. I know, because my primary responsibility as the head of the firm is to keep it healthy, so we can all make a living and pay our bills.”
He got a gleam in his eye and stood up.
“Come on,” he said. “I want to show you something.”
They took his vehicle-a white F-150 pickup that had to be every bit of twenty years old-to an edgy section of Colfax Avenue, not far from Capitol Hill. They parked on the street and walked over to a comic book store sandwiched between a mom-and-pop grocery and a laundromat.
He opened the door for her, and they walked in.
The musty smell of aged paper permeated the air.
The man behind the counter looked like a throwback to the ’60s, with long thinning gray hair and a goatee. His face exploded into a smile when he saw who walked in.
“I’ll be damned,” he said, “Blake Gray himself. How long has it been? A year at least…”
“Too long,” Blake said. He made introductions and then said, “Mind if I give this pretty lady the tour?”
“Please.”
Blake turned to Aspen and said, “This is where I had my first law office, right out of law school. I had a desk over there, a table there, and a small bookshelf over there. I lived in the back room, illegally. I used to hang out in the front door and pass my card out to people walking by. I didn’t get my first client for six weeks and he stiffed me on the bill. That’s the check I have framed in my office, by the way.”
Blake bought a $50.00 comic, an old Tarzan classic, and they left.
Then they walked down Colfax.