"You are very capable," she says. "I've been impressed with your work so far."
She paid me a compliment. Wow. "Thank you, Raisa."
"I feel I can trust you with a special assignment. It requires total confidentiality. I'm relying on you, Elena, so don't disappoint me."
No pressure there. None at all.
My stomach is twisting into knots, but so what?
"I appreciate that," I say. "I won't let you down."
Could she be about to let me in on the Hazelton case? It's the biggest divorce in New York in a decade, maybe longer.
"Here's what I need you to do," Raisa says. "Convince Chance to come back to me."
For a couple seconds that feels like an hour, I gape at her---on the inside. A good paralegal never shows her true horror. "I don't quite understand what you're asking."
I understand, but I can't believe it. Maybe I hallucinated it.
"Chance and I belong together," she says. "Letting him go was a terrible mistake, and I know I can get him back. With your help."
"Um, what exactly do you want me to do?"
"First, find out if he's dating or sleeping with anyone. If so, I need all the details you can wheedle out of him." She eyes me like I'm a cow being auctioned off for meat. "You're passably pretty. Use your feminine wiles to get him to open up to you. Honestly, I don't care what you do as long as you find out what I need to know. Then we can move on to step two."
As much as I really, really don't want to know, I ask, "What's step two?"
"You talk me up to Chance and convince him he belongs with me."
Fabulous. This is exactly the career move I need, becoming pimp and marriage counselor for my boss.
Who also happens to be the ex-wife of the guy I let bang my gavel Friday night.
Yep, I'm cursed.
"What do you think?" Raisa asks, looking at me expectantly, almost excited.
Jeez, what can I say? She's my boss, and getting fired after three days will not improve my resume. "Sure, I'll do it. Anything to help."
"Thank you, Elena." She leans forward, her tone and expression turning conspiratorial. "This is strictly between us. Confidential."
"Of course." I make a zipper motion across my mouth. "My lips are sealed."
While I push myself up out of the chair, Raisa rushes around her desk to where I stand.
And she throws her arms around me.
"I knew you were the kind of woman who would understand," she says while clinching me tighter. "I'm so grateful, Elena. You're an angel."
Yeah, I feel like total crap inside. Like I'm the scum that grows in a toilet that's been ripped out and tossed into a garbage dump in a swamp. That's me, Elena the green, slimy scum. What kind of "angel" agrees to help her boss win back her ex-husband, when that "angel" has done the deed with her ex-husband?
Cursed. Damned. Nauseous. I'm all those things.
I'm so getting fired.
Raisa lets go of me, and I swear her eyes are shimmering with almost-tears. She retreats behind her desk, swiveling her chair to face the window, to face away from me.
After about thirty seconds of silence, I decide she's dismissed me, and I leave.