“Did you get any cases? Any students?”
I shook my head. “No, I think cases tomorrow and then students start next week. At least I have a few days to get my bearings before I have to start teaching. Right now I have more questions than answers. I’m not the best mentor. How can I teach when I can’t find my way around and clearly have no idea what shoes to wear?” I joked, but it didn’t feel light.
I took a sip of the vodka drink. It was refreshing with the twist of lemon floating on top.
“But you said you wanted to teach.” Greer looked puzzled. “That’s the career move, right? You wanted to use law in a different way.”
“I do. But everything’s so overwhelming. You should have seen me this morning. I wore those stupid shoes that basically broke every bone in my feet. I almost took the wrong metro. I spilled coffee on the campus shuttle, and I couldn’t find the clinic. I went to three others before I wound up at the women’s center.”
“Oh.” She pulled the glass to her lips. “That’s a rough start. I’m sorry. It’s only your first day here. It’s going to get better.”
I sighed. “It is. But D.C. moves faster than I’m used to. Maybe I’m not cut out for this. I sound like the country mouse has moved in with the city mouse.” The reference made me giggle.
“Hey, don’t say that. You graduated top of your law class. You’ve been at one of the best law firms in New Bern. You know law. You can do this, Elliot. You’re going through the same stuff we all went through when we moved here. It takes time.”
I bit my lip. “I know. I know, but it was a shitty day. I wanted it to be empowering. I wanted the kind of day that would tell me I made the right decision. That I left New Bern for a good reason.”
“You mean one that would tell that you left Garrett for a good reason.” She eyed me.
The guilt clinched the sides of my lungs.
“He needs me. He always has. They all do.” I could feel myself sinking back into the old routine of blame and anger. It was what I knew. How I functioned.
“Your parents can take care of your brother. You need to be here, moving ahead with your own life. You have one of the most prestigious law residencies in the country, with the chance to teach at American. Do you know how fucking awesome that is?”
Her eyes lit up. She would have made a great cheerleader.
I smiled. “I do. And I’m glad you pushed me in this direction. I am.” I didn’t want to turn this night into a counseling session about my family, or my career. I wanted Greer’s enthusiasm to be contagious. I wanted to catch it. I needed it to be part of my new start.
Our waitress reappeared. “Sorry, to bother you two but the guys at the bar sent these drinks over.” She lowered two more Cosmos in front of us.
I looked at Greer as her head whipped over her shoulder. “Wow, they’re cute.”
The guys were hunched over a couple pints of beer. Their ties were loosened at the neck and their sleeves rolled up. I couldn’t tell one from the other.
“Greer!”
She shrugged. “What? They are. They don’t need to know I’m taken, and you aren’t in the market.”
I shot her a puzzled look. Her words irked me. I never said I wasn’t in the market. Of course there wasn’t a worse time to meet someone. My family was back at home in shambles. I still had unpacked boxes in my bedroom. I didn’t know my way around the city. I had no idea where the grocery store was. I hadn’t worked one full day at the clinic yet. I wasn’t in a great position to date anyone.
But I was used to this. Whenever we went out in college, guys always bought Greer drinks. It was standard. It wasn’t that I wasn’t pretty. I knew I was attractive, but next to her I faded into the background. She was stunning. She had a way of looking up from the corner of her eyes that men found irresistible.
She brushed her dark bangs to the side. “Tell them we said thank you,” she reported to the waitress.
“And what do you tell Preston when he shows up?” I hadn’t forgotten he would be here any second.
“He will be glad he doesn’t have to pay forty dollars to buy us drinks.” She giggled.
I held up my glass and we clinked the rims. “Cheers to that.”
“Enough about my shitty day. How was yours?” I asked. I didn’t want the conversation to drift back to my family. “What big bad stuff is happening with the senate committee?”
She rolled her eyes. “It might seem like being a research analyst for the Armed Services Committee is glamorous, but it’s not. Completely not.” She rested her Cosmo on a cocktail napkin. “Today consisted of taking notes while the senators bickered about who was going make the next decision. There was no decision. Just bickering.”
“Sounds like fun.”
“A complete waste of a day. Meanwhile, all the things I am supposed to be working on are piling up in my office because they can’t decide on a to-do list.” She gulped down the last of the drink and moved on to the one sent over from the guys at the bar.