Page 9 of Reckless Temptation

I bit my lip not to smile. Shehatedthat shortening of her name. It wasn’t proper enough for her, I supposed.

“Fuck you,” she snarled.

“Oh, that’s right…” Elise tapped her chin. “It was in the low forties, wasn’t it?”

“Just shut up,” Rachel said, standing up for her queen bee. “Like you should talk. You dropped out, remember? Fricking loser.”

“I changed majors,” Elise corrected. “And evenIscored higher than Tiff.”

Tiffany scowled, looking away.

“If you think about applying for that internship, you’re an idiot,” Rachel told me. “No one’s going to want a trashy scholarship student like you.”

“They won’t?” Elise said.

I bit my lip, wishing she’d ignore them. The sooner they realized no one was listening, they’d move on. It was getting old, hearingthem tease me about being trash—a joke that started because they found out that my dad worked for the maintenance crew andwasa garbage collector. His job wasn’t fancy, but it was necessary. Mom and I were damned grateful that he had the steady employment like that.

“Sabrina scored a 175 on her LSAT. Remember? She’s got straight As. No issues like kissing ass to the profs. And her community project is already making waves.” Elise grinned after bragging about my achievements. “No one’s going to consider anyonebuther.”

“In your dreams,” Rachel said.

“Come on,” Tiffany told her, getting up to leave the area.

Once they moved away, I furrowed my brow at Elise. “Was that necessary?”

“Yes.” She smiled wider. “I know you’ve got your wholeturn the other cheekmentality, but I’m sick of their bullying you. You’re in far better standing to get this internship—or any others—than they are. Because you’re that good of a student. That good of a person.”

“Thanks, but?—”

She wasn’t done, plowing on. “And because you’re that good of a person, that’s why I wonder if you really want this internship.” She held her hand up to quiet me when I opened my mouth. “Yes, I know. It’s Lorsen & Spengler. They’re big names. But they’re not going to give you a chance to work on the kind of cases you truly care about. They represent celebrities and rich, influential people who just want to be let off the hook for whatever crimes they did so they can do it again.”

I winced.

“See. You know I’m right.”

I shrugged. “Maybe. A little.”

“You want to give back to the community. Since junior high, you’ve said that you want to represent the needy, the minorities, the underdogs of society. Not help billionaires use loopholes or assholes screw over the middle class.”

“True. But Lorsen & Spengler would be a solid stepping stone to get me where I ultimately want to be.”

She frowned. “At the cost of how much of your integrity?” She gestured in the direction Tiffany and Rachel had gone. “You really want to consort with people like them?”

Her strong position on viewing the wealthy as the enemy was nothing new. Yet, I had to be practical about this. An internship with that firm would open more doors.

“I wouldn’t be consortingwithher.”

“Just her dad,” she replied.

“Just with her dad’s firm.” Professor Lorsen wasn’t as bad as his daughter. He was proper and self-righteous, but a fair instructor, as far as I could tell.

Elise shook her head. “You’re selling yourself short, Sabrina. Your community project wouldn’t even align with their firm’s mission statements.”

“It doesn’t need to. The community project is only supposed to be an example of taking initiative and acting on it.”

“Yeah.” She started to gather her trash. “And your trying to get fundraising for a new community pool and offer swimming lessons isn’t anything the rich elite like the Lorsens would be impressed by.”

I joined her in getting up, aware that she’d need to hurry more than me to reach her next class across campus. While I wanted to agree with her and admit she had a point, I feared it would sound like I was giving up before I even applied.

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