Page 2 of Don't Quit the Day Job

"He scares them away because he—" Kingston starts and I glare at him.

"I don't scare anyone away. I'm a great boss. It's not me, it's them. I didn't realize I had to nurture these assistants like they were plants. But now that I do, I can guarantee that I will never have another assistant quit. It doesn't matter who they are. I can take anyone and teach them to be an amazing assistant and ensure that another one never quits."

"Never?" Remington laughs loudly, slapping his hand down onto his thigh. "Wait until I tell Gabriel." Gabriel is the fourth partner at the firm. Even though he isn’t a named partner, he still has full equity.

"If HR had informed me they were hiring snowflakes, I would have?—"

"Let's make a bet." Kingston grins as he opens up his cognac-brown leather wallet and pulls out a stack of hundred dollar bills and places them on the table. "I bet you a thousand dollars that your next assistant quits within one month."

"Oh, you're on..." I smirk.

"Wait, I'm not done." He grins. "You say you can take anyone and teach them to be an amazing assistant, right?"

"Yeah, don't you know who I am?" I nod slowly, wondering what I'm getting myself into. Kingston loves to bet about everything. If he were anyone else, I'd be worried he had a gambling problem, but I've known Kingston Chase since the first year of law school and the only issue he has is with commitment to anything other than work. In fact, all of us partners are dedicated to the law. That's why we all came together to start a firm a few years after we graduated law school and that's why now, seven years later, we have one of the most successful firms in the city. The law is our life and very little comes before our jobs.

I know none of us have great work-life balance, which Marie says will lead to an early grave, but right now, all that matters to each of us is becoming the best law firm. Forget Skadden, forget Latham, Chase, Parker, and Spector are here to dominate.

"You're the Max Spector." Kingston winks at me. "Valedictorian of his high school class, graduated with a 4.2 GPA from Vanderbilt University, editor in chief of the Harvard Law Review, order of the coif, top ten sexiest single lawyer in New York City..."

"I'd say top three." I can't help but laugh.

"Perhaps, behind me and Remy..." He chuckles while flexing his biceps in a way that would make most people think he’s a douche. "And I'd say Gabe comes before you as well."

"So I'm fourth then." I shrug. "I'll take it."

"So, Mr. Hot Shot, I say you have to hire the first person you meet tomorrow that comes to the job fair HR is holding tomorrow." He grins. "You can't look at age, gender, or experience. If you're so brilliant, any one of them will do."

"Is that it?" I shrug. "Anyone coming to a job fair at a law firm will have the requisite experience. And yes, I can turn any of them into the best assistant the firm has ever seen." I hold my hand out. "You're on. You may as well give me that grand now."

"I think not." He smirks. "They have to last at least a month before you see this cash."

"Are you going to hire the first person you see as well to be your new assistant?"

"No, I'm not crazy or full of myself." He smirks and his smile widens as he looks ahead of us. I turn to see Kitty sashaying back to us with a small tray filled with three glasses of whiskey. There's a thin smile on her lips as she makes eye contact with me and I can see that she’s pulled her top down to expose even more cleavage. I can practically see her nipples. If she thinks that's going to make me want her, she really has never dealt with a man like me. I like the chase. The easier they come, the less I want them.

"So we're on?" Kingston offers his hand and we shake on it. "First applicant you see tomorrow is your new assistant."

"You're on." I lean back into the chair and try not to think of all the work I have to do later tonight. "You'll all be begging me to train your assistants next. Once you see how I can churn out the best assistants in the world."

"From the worst to the best." Remy shakes his head. "Now this I gotta see."

"Trust me when I say, my new assistant will be the envy of the legal community." I take my glass of whiskey and nod my thanks to Kitty before taking a long gulp.

I watch as a group of women to my right start singing and dancing to the pop song that is blasting out of the speaker behind them. They look as if they haven't got a care in the world as they shimmy their behinds and giggle. For a moment, I think about jumping up to go and dance with them, but I stay seated. As I always do.

Unbeknownst to everyone in my life, even Marie, there is a part of me that wants to be a bit more carefree, but that part never comes out. I don't have time to throw caution to the wind. I have a carefully planned trajectory for my life and I cannot let anything upend it.

Chapter Two

Lila

“You’ll never have my heart, Rodrigo Alejandro Suarez.” I clasp my hand to my chest and look to the right dramatically, my lips trembling in tortured emotion as my shoulder-length blonde hair bounces against my back. “I will never forgive you for sleeping with my sister.” My voice catches and I blink rapidly, desperately trying to get tears to fall.

Zero tears fall. My eyes are drier than the Sahara Desert.

I pinch myself with my newly manicured pink nails and start again. “You’ll never have my heart, Rodrigo Alejandro Suarez. I will never forgive you for sleeping with my sister. Just because I am a paralegal doesn’t?—.”

“Your man slept with your sister?” The older lady sitting next to me on the train looks up from her phone. She speaks with a slight Southern twang, and I try to ignore how disgusted I feel as she chews her gum loudly and droplets of spit go flying everywhere. There’s a look of pity in her blue eyes and I quickly shake my head.

---