“Good mood this morning?” I laid the card down and straightened, reaching for the files as she took a few steps forward. I gestured, hurrying her to hand them over, and she shrugged.
“Sometimes I like to look good.” Ivy shrugged and handed me the files, leaning over my desk as I took them. She eyed my empty coffee mug and reached for it, so I held a hand over it.
“No more, thanks. I’ve had enough today. I’m starting to read faster than I can turn a page, and I think my insides are jittering so much they’ll turn to jelly any minute.” I thumbed through the first file folder, reading Andrew Barber’s brief. Ivy’s hand retreated and I pored over the brief, ignoring the fact that she remained planted firmly in front of my desk.
Hooking this guy for a full retainer should be a cakewalk, we just had to play it right. I knew the firm across town was competition. Being run by all women they were snaring our clients left and right. We had lost several.
“What’s this?” Ivy’s tone was accusing, with a hint of curiosity. I looked up at her over the brief and realized she was holding Katherine’s card.
Not wanting to seem fussed by it, I continued reading, ignoring her, but I wasn’t retaining what I was reading. My eyes flew over the paper, my mind swirling with possible answers as to what that was and where I got it.
“New client?” she asked, sitting down in the chair adjacent to my desk.
“Trying to read.”
Dropping the files to my desk, I kept my eyes fixed on them, though at this point I was not even seeing the words. Ivy was going to grill me about my love life; I could just tell. Given her bite was worse than her bark—I knew this based on our history—I braced myself, and folded the files shut. Her glare with one raised eyebrow amused me.
“What?” I leaned back in my chair and the spring squeaked.
“Are you dating, and you didn’t tell me?” She mothered me in college too, so this wasn’t an unexpected question, despite the fact that it was none of her business.
“A business card on my desk and you think I’m dating?”
“This says Dayton Symphony Orchestra… I saw that woman’s instrument case next to her at the restaurant… The young one. Her name is Katherine?” Ivy put the card down on my desk and reached into her pocket, pulling out her cell. She typed away furiously on the phone as I replied.
“Yeah, Katherine Scott. Why? I bought her a drink, and she thanked me, and gave me her card.”
The card was just out of reach of my hand, so I leaned forward to retrieve it and Ivy smacked me. “Ouch!”
“I need that still.” She looked down at the card and then back to her phone. “This says she is the soloist, first chair in the DSO. That’s impressive. She went to Julliard on a full ride, which means she’s good, and given that she’s performing in London and New York over the next few months, she must make a fuck ton.”
Ivy’s eyes continued to scan her phone screen, making me wish I’d thought to Google Katherine too. I snatched the card back before she could smack me again and put it in the top drawer of my desk for safe keeping. I hadn’t intended to use it—at least I didn’t think I had—but hearing this new info about Kat, I began to wonder what it would be like to catch up.
“She’s 25.” Ivy grimaced, that cringy look someone gets when they are appalled. Her eyes bore down on me, a cat with its prey. She leaned forward, splaying her hand across the files, palm up. “Give me that card.”
“No, what for?”
“I’m going to destroy it before you destroy your reputation.” She wiggled her fingers, her scowl deepening.
I chuckled at her and crossed my arms over my chest. “I’m not giving it up. And who I entertain in my spare time is of no concern to you.”
Ivy retracted her hand and locked her phone. She cocked her head sideways and huffed out a sigh. I’d seen this before. She wasn’t about to let up and I was reaching my limit for the day. The relationship we had was a delicate one, bordering on being too friendly for work, but Ivy had been there for me in tough times, so I permitted her to cross that line at times just to keep the peace.
“You know, Victor, this girl is a girl. She is a baby. It would be like you’re dating your daughter.”
I glowered at her. “Hardly. I wasn’t even interested in girls at 14, Ivy. I was still climbing trees and hanging posters of monster trucks on my wall. Back then I wanted to be a fireman.”
“You know what I mean. The press would have a field day with this. It’s not like Dayton is that big. A lawyer as prominent as you has a reputation to uphold. You have some very conservative clients who would pull their business the very second, they see you in bed with someone that much younger than you. Think of that Jamie Simpson incident—the news media destroyed his entire career and reputation over one impropriety. What will they do to you?”
I sighed. Ivy was partly right, though Simpson sort of had it coming. Still, nothing had happened between Kat and me yet, and it would always be my decision, never Ivy’s. I calmed my face and leaned forward, folding my hands over the briefs on my desk.
“I truly appreciate your concern here Ivy, but I have to get back to work. I think we should leave this conversation for after work hours from now on. And we will be happier at work because of it.”
She rose to her feet, smoothing her pencil skirt and pursed her lips. “Don’t bark up that tree. You will regret it.”
As she shut the door behind her, I sat back and pulled the card out again, reading and rereading the number. I had it memorized now—but the way Katherine’s name beckoned me to continue looking. As if by some strange twist of fate our futures had been entwined with one another despite the past. My better judgment told me I should be running, that she was just like her mother, but I still held that card entertaining the idea of calling her.
Sitting in my office surrounded by bookshelves and hundred-year-old first editions of books wasn’t exactly the place to fantasize about a woman, but I found myself picturing her at that restaurant. I could have said something, made a move, or at least spoken to her, but it all happened so quickly I didn’t know what to say. And then she was gone.