“You’re overreacting,” I said. “It’s one f**king case.”
“One f**king case that you’re on the verge of losing.”
“I never lose.”
“I know.” He patted me on the shoulder. “Go home, Andrew. You’ve actually never taken a vacation anyway. Maybe it’s what you need right now.”
“No.” I grabbed my briefcase. “I’ll see you at the Reber consultation tomorrow morning.”
He called after me, but I ignored him. I sped back to GBH, prepared to immerse myself in more work. I was avoiding my condo as much as possible lately; I could hardly stand to be there.
Unopened condoms lined my wet bar—a reminder of how long it’d been since I had pu**y, empty liquor bottles lined all of my window sills, and my Cuban cigar selection was long gone.
“Are you okay, Mr. Hamilton?” the main secretary asked as I walked through the firm’s doors.
I ignored her. Too many people were asking me that question lately and I was tired of hearing it.
I shut myself inside my office and pulled my phone’s chord out of the wall. I didn’t need any distractions.
For the rest of the morning, I read over my files in utter silence—not even answering emails from my own clients.
“Jessica!” I called her once the clock struck noon. “Jessica!”
“Yes, Mr. Hamilton?” She walked in right away.
“Is there any reason why you suddenly decided to stop organizing my case files by date?” I slid a folder across the desk. “Any reason why you’ve decided to stop doing your goddamn job?”
“You think I actually have time to organize all your case files by date? Do you know how long that takes?” She raised her eyebrow. “That was Miss Everhart’s idea. I told her it was a waste of time, but I guess not. If I have some free hours in between the Doherty case next week I’ll try to do that.”
“Thank you.” I ignored the fact that my heart skipped a beat when she said Miss Everhart. “You can get out of my office now.”
I pulled the papers from the file and began reorganizing them. As I clipped all of the witness testimonies together, Jessica cleared her throat.
“You miss her, don’t you?” she asked.
“Excuse me?” My head shot up.
“Aubrey,” she said, smiling. “You miss her, don’t you?”
I said nothing. I just watched as she sauntered over to me, slowly raising the sides of her skirt to show that she wasn’t wearing anything underneath.
Smiling, she picked up my coffee cup and took a long, dramatic sip.
“Jessica…” I groaned.
“You don’t have to admit to it.” She plopped her bare ass atop my desk. “But it’s clear that you haven’t been yourself for quite a while...”
“Are your ass cheeks touching my desk right now?”
“You don’t even insult me the normal way that you used to,” she said. “I actually miss that.”
I pulled out a box of Clorox wipes.
“She doesn’t stay in her old apartment anymore, you know. I think she moved.”
“What makes you think I care about where an ex-employee lives?”
“Because the address you gave me for that envelope and red box delivery belonged to her.”