“Hi Trinity,” Beck said. “Can I do something for you?”
“Um—no,” Trinity said. Her assistant was one of the best in the whole firm. Beck Dax could work for any of the partners in the law firm, but she stuck with Trinity. She was honored that Beck didn’t try to use her to climb the corporate ladder and Trinity was sure that she could count Beck as one of her friends, although they were hard to come by for her. She didn’t really have any good friends and what did it say about her that she counted her assistant as a “friend”?
“What’s up, Trinity?” Beck asked, standing to round the desk. She looked so concerned that Trinity almost wanted to giggle.
“Nothing bad,” Trinity said. “I just need to run an errand and I’m cutting out a little early today. If you need me, I’ll be reachable by cell.” She turned to leave the office and then changed her mind. “You know what—never mind. You should play hooky for the rest of the day. Have some fun,” Trinity ordered.
“But I have all this work and—” Beck started to protest and Trinity held up her hand, effectively stopping her.
“And it will all be here in the morning. Just go, Beck. You need a day off once in a while,” Trinity insisted.
“Well, that’s rich coming from you. You don’t take any personal time off, Trinity,” Beck accused. “You sure you’re okay?” she asked. She thought it was sweet that Beck seemed concerned for her, but she also knew that telling her assistant about her looser sister would open a door into her private life that she’d sooner leave closed. She didn’t tell anyone about her childhood or her sister; it just wasn’t something she liked talking about. A part of Trinity worried that if she opened up to someone and told them about her crazy family, they’d judge her unjustly, and that was something she couldn’t allow.
“I’m fine,” she lied. “I just have a few errands to run and they can’t wait until quitting time. Here are Mr. Johnson’s divorce papers. Can you make sure they get sent over to him and that he knows where to sign? I want to get this one wrapped up as soon as possible.”
Her specialty was criminal law. Hell, it’s what she went to law school for. She wanted to put away the bad guys and help the good ones. But that wasn’t how things were working out for her. No, the firm had her stuck in divorce court hell. She was carrying a case load that made her frustrated enough to want to quit most days, but she wasn’t a quitter. Trinity knew she was being punished. She pissed off the senior partner, Mr. Hopkins. He asked her to dinner and she foolishly turned him down flat in front of a few other office staff members who were nosing around the break room. She used to believe that was his fault for asking her to dinner in such a public place, but she could have handled things better than she did. Trinity had heard the rumors. She heard about the predator in the firm that preyed on new lawyers wanting to work their way up. But she wasn’t desperate enough to sleep with the senior partner. She wanted nothing to do with climbing her way up the corporate ladder by sleeping her way through the office. Saying no to dinner was something she had regretted every day since saying it to Mr. Hopkin’s face. She should have just gone out with him and figured things out on the fly, but she let her foolish pride and ego get in the way of making better choices. And now, she was paying daily for making him look the fool by turning him down flat in front of some of the staff.
“Will do, boss,” Beck said. “I’ll see you in the morning. You have court at eleven,” she reminded.
“Yeah—I’ll work on that stuff tonight after I get home from running my errands,” Trinity said. Taking off early to check on her niece was going to cost her some of her downtime later. Oh, who was she kidding? She wasn’t sleeping much lately and she usually worked well into the early morning hours, even falling asleep with her laptop on her chest, sprawled out in her bed.
“Don’t work too late,” Beck called after her as she got onto the elevator.
Trinity smiled and waved back at her. “No promises,” she said, just as the elevator doors closed.