Page 19 of Smooth Sailing

They were fucking.

I suspected she was younger than me by several years.

Gross, but still…no surprise.

I did not wonder if she called him “Mr. Armitage” when he was doing her, because just skating over the thought gave me the serious skeeves.

Instead, I shared, “He gets a new PA every year, and the old ones don’t get moved to another attorney in this firm. Think about that, Janie. Your time is limited, and I can assure you, you will not win him over where the others failed. You will not be presented a ring and then plan a fancy wedding and move into his big Paradise Valley house. You will not carry his children and admire what an energetic mature father he is. He doesn’t want children. There were times I wondered if he even wanted me. He doesn’t want a partner, he wants a status symbol. There’s only one end to this sad tale. You will get nothing you’re promised, and nothing you wish for. Instead, when he’s done, you will simply be replaced.”

I felt terrible because she looked about ready to cry, and I belatedly reconsidered being so blunt about it.

But bottom line, even if she was pretty, and he was attracted to her, she wouldn’t have the job if she wasn’t good at it.

She needed to find another job where the expectations were a lot more realistic, on both sides.

And with that, my work done, I left my father’s practice.

2

WE DOIN’ THIS?

Diana

I drove home from Dad’s office pretending I wasn’t being tailed.

Mortifying Fact: One could say I’d been overly emotional when I decided to wade into the whole Suzette Snyder/Imran Babic situation.

Or, perhaps, highly delusional.

I’d read in the Arizona Republic about the woman who’d all but dragged herself into a hospital emergency room after a brutal attack.

At the time, I couldn’t say I had much of a reaction to it, except vague distress, considering the appalling fact it wasn’t a rare occurrence, and as such, I, along with the rest of society, was inured to that kind of thing.

I’d then heard she’d named her attacker, he’d been arrested, and it was big news, because he was reportedly some Tony Soprano-esque player in Phoenix, and due to that fact, his arrest was a big win for law enforcement.

After that, I’d read my father was taking his case.

I’d successfully avoided my father for a long time.

The only thing that leaked in was when he defended Rogan Kirk after he stole all those people’s pensions a few years ago, and that, too, was big news, so Dad was in front of the cameras a lot.

But I could ignore that, because Rogan Kirk was just a greedy jerk who stole from people.

Not a sexual predator who stole even more precious things from people.

So Dad taking this particular case was when things got overly emotional (or delusional, take your pick).

Alas, yes, I knew I was not only regularly tailed, they’d had eyes on my condo since I’d moved Suzette into it (don’t ask how that happened, it involved some Google sleuthing that wasn’t all that appropriate, some fancy dancing with hospital staff, some girl-to-girl conversations that might, on my part, have been mildly manipulative, and some angry cops who felt it was their responsibility to provide protective custody for Suzette—one in particular, Detective Rayne Scott, was not over it and frequently phoned me in an effort to change this situation).

I didn’t lie to Dad about the security in my building.

I had a great job, even if it would never make me a millionaire. Still, it was a niche market that served rich people who paid for the care and conservation of stuff that mattered to them, and they paid a lot for it.

Experiencing a rare wild hair, a few years ago, I’d let some video poker winnings ride on thirteen black on a roulette wheel at Talking Stick Casino, and to my shock, when the little ball dipped down into that particular slot, I won a crazy amount of money.

Immediately after, I cashed out. And as one who had learned not to push her luck (except for when, say, I got another wild hair and decided to stick my nose into the dangerous situation of a woman I’d never met), I walked away from the casino, never to return to it, or any casino, again.

This, along with the nice, but not outlandish, inheritance Gramps left me, gave me a down payment that would make the mortgage (and ridiculous HOA fees) manageable in a really nice condo complex close to Fashion Square Mall in Scottsdale.

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