Page 42 of Cocky Counsel

“I’ll have toast please, on white bread. And a side of pancakes.”

“You got it,” she said before turning to me.

“I’ll do the same,” I replied, sliding my menu over next to Eva’s. The waitress grabbed both menus from the table and rushed off to put our order in.

“Trying something new?” I asked, fighting to keep my tone serious.

“What do you mean?” She frowned, clearly missing where I was going.

“White toast?”

Her face pulled up into the cutest angry face I had ever seen.

“Ha, ha, real funny,” she mocked as she wadded up a piece of her napkin and threw it at me. I ducked to the side, missing it before it hit the man behind me in the back of the head. He turned around and glared at us as he touched the spot where it had hit him. She clasped her hands over her mouth, and her eyes went wide in embarrassment.

“I’m so sorry about that sir,” I offered, turning to the side to see him better. “However, I am a lawyer so if you’d like to discuss damages or seek legal counsel, I would be willing to help—free of charge.” I winked playfully, only to receive an eye roll from him as he muttered under his breath about stupid kids before returning to his breakfast.

“You’re gonna get us kicked out of here,” I playfully warned, leaning closer to her across the table. “You better stop, or you’ll never know what white toast tastes like.” I leaned back and laughed, watching her shake her head at me.

“I’ve had real toast before,” she countered. “I just happen to burn it more often these days. Maybe there’s something wrong with the toaster in my office?”

I stopped and stared at her.

“What?” she exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. “Maybe it’s not all my fault, maybe you have a faulty toaster… you know, I could seek legal counsel for that…”

“You found the toaster in your office?”

“Yeah,” she replied cautiously. “Why do I get the feeling you’re going to tell me something bad about it?”

I leaned my head back and laughed, trying to hide it behind the palm of my hand.

“You are the only person I know who would have the unfortunate fate of finding that fucking toaster.” I laughed even harder.

“Why? What’s wrong with it?” I could hear the slightest bit of panic in her voice. “Ethan! What’s wrong with the toaster?”

I waited a few minutes for my laughter to subside before I answered her.

“Nothing is wrong with it, other than that thing has been an omen of bad luck since I was a kid. It was the first gift that my grandma bought Garrett when he went off to college. He hated it and never used it, but because it was from my grandma, he kept it. When he started Roberts and Associates, he brought it with him and would have it out in his office when she would stop by. I don’t think that it has ever been used in all the years he’s had it, and honestly, I’m sure he finally just tossed it in one of the offices until it got shuffled around and made it to yours.”

“Well, then I’m glad I yanked the plug out of the wall before it caught on fire,” she admitted.

“You did what?” Suddenly the humor was gone.

“Yeah, it was smoking really bad, and I was worried that it was going to catch on fire. I tried pushing the lever to pop the toast back out, but it didn’t work so I just pulled the plug out before it could catch on fire.”

I covered my face with my hands for a few seconds before looking at her.

“Promise me one thing?”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Please don’t go near a toaster again for the rest of your life.”

She opened her mouth to say something at the same time the waitress came back with our food. She set everything down on the table in front of us and made sure we didn’t need anything before she walked off.

We were quiet for a few minutes while we ate, neither of us bothering to stop to make small talk. The longer we went with the silence between us, the more I felt the pressure to talk to her about Cora. I waited until she had taken a bite before I started talking, hoping that it would be a good way for me to get out what I needed to say without any interruptions.

“I want to talk about what happened the other night,” I said abruptly. She looked up at me, uneasiness on her face as she chewed the bite of pancakes she had just taken.

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