Page 29 of Fall Wedding With the Mountain Man
We both knew those visits would be few and far between, if they happened at all.
Our lives were in different worlds, never destined to connect again.
I stood there and watched her walk away until she turned the corner and out of view. Then I stood there for another five minutes while the security guard bitched at me, and I tried to swallow the lump that had developed in my throat.
Real men don’t cry. So I kept it in even though it felt like I was being ripped into pieces.
Chapter 15
Elizabeth
Work sucked.
Or I should say, the amount of catch-up work I had to do sucked.
Every reason I’d initially fallen in love with law had now vanished.
I’d gone into the field because I loved to win. Debate class had been the highlight of my high school years. While other girls had chosen frilly dresses for date nights, I’d prepared my counterarguments with glee.
Studying hard for university had felt like I was a warrior preparing for battle. Every A was a conquest. Every B a failure.
Then I’d found Shelby. We’d sat next to each other during our Advanced Legal Research Corporate and Securities class. Then again, during Deposition Strategy and Practice.
After those two classes, we’d been bonded together like twins. Both of us competitive and striving for more.
We were going to be the two best lawyers to graduate from law school. The firms would fight over us. We’d win every case.
Then, when we’d graduated and landed summer associate spots at Wiliams, Phelps and Harmon, beating out five hundred other candidates for the coveted spots, we’d done our victory lap.
After that, reality had struck.
From summer associates, we’d moved up to junior associates. Finding a permanent spot at Williams, Phelps and Harmon, no matter how low the position, was a dream come true for both of us.
Then had come the real toil.
You don’t just miraculously rise through the ranks at a place like that.
You work hard for it, then work evenharder.
All the sacrifices we’d both made over the years were now intensified. The missed dates and dances. The parties we didn’t attend unless they were industry events designed to move us towards our goals. The dates we didn’t go on.
Pounds had piled on for both of us as we’d skipped the gym in favor of hastily grabbed morning danishes and coffee.
But we’d been twins together in our fight for success.
And that had made both of us stronger.
Shelby and Elizabeth against the world.
Then Shelby had inexplicably dropped out, quitting the firm and taking an internship in the middle of nowhere, Arkansas.
Shelby said she only wanted to do it to take a breather. But we both knew the truth.
No one took a breather from Williams, Phelps and Harmon and came back again.
“What the fuck are you doing, Elizabeth? We’ve got a deposition starting in less than an hour and you’re staring off into space?” Rick gruffly asked me.
I’d moved on from junior associate to associate. Working to achieve senior associate. Both Rick and I were in line for the nextopening, competing with each other to see who would get the coveted spot.
