Page 4 of Take What You Want

So when I got hired here right out of law school, I thought this was going to be it. My golden opportunity. Everything I ever wanted.

That couldn’t be farther from the case.

I’m one of only two women at the entire firm and the both of us are constantly overlooked, talked down to, and left out of the boys’ club that runs this place. Case in point, Liam getting hired and already working with some of our highest clients while Hallie and I still work with our beginner models and amateur athletes.

Now, him getting these opportunities would rub me the wrong way regardless. I’ve paid my dues, I’ve put in my time, and I’m capable of handling higher caliber stakes.

But it definitely doesn’t help matters that Liam also happens to be my ex-boyfriend. And he knew I worked here when he joined the team. I was here for over a year by the time we broke up and we’re still mutuals on social media, so he knows I haven’t left the firm.

Now, I’m not saying he started here just to fuck with me. He’s not that type of asshole. But I don’t think he considered how I might feel about having my cheating ex-boyfriend of almost six years coming to work at the same place.

“And lastly, progress is still being made on our expansion in Los Angeles. I’ve secured a lease on an office and will be movingforward with that location and looking into partners. Further details to come as those details fall into place but wanted to keep you all in the loop. Any questions?”

I scan around the room, silently pleading that no one pipes up with a question to further prolong this staff meeting. Thankfully, everyone seems just as ready to get out of here and there’s a lot of shaking heads and quietno’sbefore Chester stands and dismisses us.

I round the table, avoiding Liam’s stare, and walk out of the conference room with Hallie.

“Did you know he’s already working with the NHL roster?” she asks me, keeping her voice low as we pass a line of desks, heading to our own. I don’t know if it was on purpose or by divine intervention, but our desks face each other at the far left of the office. The sun that beams in the morning gets hot, but it’s nice to be tucked away from some of the bigger assholes who sit closer to Chester’s office on the other end.

“Why would I know that?” I say, tucking my laptop tight to my chest. “It’s not like we’ve talked since he started.”

“Seriously?”

I give her a dumbfounded look. “Seriously.”

She brushes a tight curl over her shoulder and lets out a relieved sigh as she sinks into her chair. I don’t have to see it to know she’s kicking her heels off underneath her desk as we speak.

“It’s bullshit,” she says, eyes flicking over to where Liam stands, chatting it up with a few other associates outside of the conference room we just vacated.

“I know.” I slide into my own chair, plugging my laptop into my docking station and pulling up my emails. There’s no use in dwelling on it. Liam is here, and clearly here to stay.

“If you need to talk about it at all…” Hallie trails off, the rest of her offer not needing to be spoken. I shoot her a grateful smilebefore turning my attention to my computer. We’ve been best friends since being students at Harvard Law. She took a different job out of school, but eventually wound up back in Boston a couple of years ago and got hired here. So she has been around for all of the ups and downs of my relationship with Liam.

Speak of the fucking devil…

“Ladies,” Liam says, striding up to our desks and putting on his most saccharine smile. As if we haven’t seen him passed out drunk with vomit stains on his shirt.

That I had to remove the next morning, might I add.

“It’s like a class reunion around here now,” he says, not picking up on thefuck offvibes both Hallie and I are shooting his way. Or rather he is, and simply doesn’t care.

“I thought those weren’t supposed to happen for a decade after we graduated,” Hallie says, crossing her arms over her chest as she leans back in her chair. “You’re many years too early to the party.”

He smirks at her but doesn’t deign her with a response. Instead, he turns his full attention on me and I hate the way I want to shrink in on myself under his critical gaze. His eyes scan me from head to toe, taking in my baby pink blouse to my black skirt to black pumps that I never take off, unlike Hallie.

As always, his eyes catch on my chest and linger for a moment, heat filling them. He always did like my breasts. That, at least, he never complained about. The one benefit to him being with someone my size.

The rest of my body? My rounded hips and stretch marked stomach and thighs? He always had something to say about them.

But faking a confidence I don’t feel while he assesses me and threatens to undo every bit of growth I’ve tried to do in the years since we’ve broken up, I toss my sheet of jet black hair over myshoulder and meet him head-on. “Did you need something?” I ask, tone bored.

He doesn’t rush the rest of his perusal as he slips his hands in the pockets of his slacks. Slowly, he shakes his head and starts to walk away. “Just wanted to say hi. Thought if anyone was going to welcome me in, it’d be my former classmates.”

Hallie chokes on a sip of coffee and the moment he’s out of earshot, she’s spitting, “Is he serious? Calling you a former classmate? And why in the absolute hell would he think that his ex-girlfriend and ex-girlfriend’s best friend would be welcoming to his sorry ass?”

I clench my teeth, trying to keep a reign on the anger that he just sparked. He did it on purpose, I just know he did. He always loved baiting me into a fight. It used to be fun. We’d get a kick out of each other with it and it kept things interesting between us. Now, I just hate it.

“Can we just pretend like he doesn’t exist?”

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