Page 77 of Don't Quit the Day Job

I leave Lila at her desk and head toward Kingston's office. I can tell that she's slightly annoyed with me, and I'm not really sure why. We'd had an absolutely fantastic evening and an even better morning, but maybe she was starting to wonder if I was going to think about her differently.

"Hey, morning," I say, as I walk into Kingston's office without knocking. "You left a note on my desk."

"Yeah, it's 11:30 AM," he says, frowning.

"Okay, and?"

"I'm just going to cut to the short of it. Max, did you have contact with Mrs. Whittington last night?"

"What?" I stare at him in shock. How could he possibly know?

"Did you or did you not have contact with Mrs. Whittington last night?" He shakes his head. "Close the door, dude."

"What's going on?"

"Jack called me this morning. He's been having her followed. There's a private detective taking photos and videos of her twenty-four-seven and sending them to Jack. He saw you in some photos at some gym with her and then at a smoothie place." Kingston crosses his arms. "Jack is pissed, dude."

"He's having me followed as well?" I say. I'm fucking pissed.

"He's not having you followed, he's having?—"

"Yeah, he's having his wife followed, fine, but when I get caught up in the mess, it’s not okay. That is not acceptable, Kingston. I don’t need him reporting my movements to other people. I understand why he’s following his wife and I understand that he would find out that I had contact with her, But he’s crossing the line reporting my actions to you. He either trusts me as his lawyer and comes to me with his findings or he doesn’t.”

"I know. Look, I'm just saying that because of the cheating, he's already upset."

"He's the fucking one that set it up, Kingston. She's not cheating on him because she wants to, he wanted to spice up the fucking relationship and he brought another man into it. He set this whole fucking thing up so he can take her down without having to pay her a penny."

Kingston stares at me for a couple of seconds.

"That's what you think?"

"That's what I know. Lila?—"

"Lila?" Kingston growls. "How does Lila know any of this?"

"It doesn't matter. I'm just saying that I don't think I'm interested in representing Jack Whittington in his divorce case. I don't want his business."

"But—"

"But nothing."

"What the fuck is going on, Max?"

"Who do we want to be, Kingston? Do we want to be a firm that's going to represent any scum for money, or do we want to stand on principle?"

"Ah, fuck." He looks at me. "You sound like you did on the first day of law school. I thought the law got into your thick head. The law is not about principle, it's about upholding the black letter of the law. It's about ensuring that?—"

"You're not going to play professor to me, Kingston. I don't want to be the guy who takes on any client with pockets deep enough to afford me. What are we going to do, take on the mafia and drug lords next?"

Kingston presses his lips together.

"Obviously, I don't want us to take on any and everyone, but is this about Jack Whittington, who you didn't even really know of until a couple of days ago, or is this about that girl?"

"What girl?" I say, folding my arms, pretending that Lila hadn't gotten into my head.

"Your new assistant. Look, Max, forget the bet, okay? You don't have to turn her into the best assistant. You don't even have to have her as your assistant anymore. Fire her, get yourself someone good, and let's move on."

"I'm not going to fire her. She may not have the most experience in the world, but she's not that bad and she really cares about upholding?—"

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