Page 4 of The B!tch List

I started to walk backward and called. “The usual with a Danish would be amazing. I skipped the food part of breakfast at home.” Come on, two bites of toast weren’t breakfast.

“What do I tell you about it being the most important meal of the day.” Evie rolled her eyes and jotted something down on her notepad.

“Yeah, well, when it’s accompanied with talk of my baby brother’s sex life it’s not so important.”

“Okay then.” Her eyebrows rose and I laughed, turning back around to make my way to my desk. When I lifted my head up, I was surprised to see Antonia, Tate’s legal assistant sitting at my desk. She was usually found in her own office pouring through documents and past cases that might help Tate.

Antonia was around my folk’s age and had just seen her youngest son go off to high school. First, she’d applied for the position Evie now had, but when Tate realized she was a trained paralegal, he’d offered her the legal assistant role instead. She was amazing too. Nothing got passed her and she was a devil for the detail.

“Morning, Shaw.” She smiled brightly and ran a hand over her close-cropped afro.

“Hey, don’t often see you out of your office,” I joked as I sat down to face her.

“I know, right.” She leaned her forearms on my desk and grinned. “I feel a little lightheaded got to say.”

I really liked Antonia as she never made me feel like the stupid college kid who knew nothing. She’d even asked my advice on a case, knowing I’d done Mock Court at college, on something similar only the month before.

“How can I help you?” I asked, turning on my Mac.

“Tate asked if you could do him a huge favor. I offered but I need to go over the documents for the unfair dismissal case he’s going to court with next week. He said you might have time before you start calling the support groups.” Her eyes were pleading. “If you don’t have time, just say so. I can work late. I’ll put John off bringing the kids to meet me from work for an early dinner at Delphine’s.”

“God no.” I objected and frowned. “It’s fine. I have plenty of time to get through my list. So, what is it he needs me to do?”

She sat back in the chair and steepled her fingers under her chin. “The custody case for Meghan Ranger, the lady whose husband took the kids from school one day and now won’t let her see them? He’s going for full custody.”

I nodded.

“Tate wants to know if you could go and talk to the kindergarten teacher. She was the one who noticed how anxious the little boy was when his dad would pick him up. We need to see if she’s changed her mind about testifying.”

“She won’t testify?” I asked, amazed.

Antonia winced. “She’s feeling a little jumpy about it. Turns out Brad Ranger is her husband’s brother’s boss at the Chevrolet dealership in Lubbock.”

“She has a duty of care to the kids though, right?” I couldn’t believe the teacher wouldn’t go to court. “And if he sacks the brother-in-law he sues for unfair dismissal.”

“I agree, but she says she might have been seeing things that weren’t there. You know, because she knew Mom and Dad were divorcing.” Antonia sighed heavily and looked out of the office window to Main Street. “The boy shows no sign of injury and says his dad never hit him. When he wasn’t ignoring them, he just hollered a lot at the boy and his sister.”

I couldn’t imagine being scared of my dad just from him yelling at us. I’d rarely heard him raise his voice, unless it was during Friday night football games. Mom had been the one who scolded us when we were kids, while Dad just gave us that ‘I’m so disappointed with you’ look that worked far better.

“But the teacher’s testimony would help?” I asked.

Antonia nodded. “Sure would. But if she won’t, well maybe talk to the teacher’s aide.”

My blood went cold, and my stomach dropped. Really? Did the world hate me that fucking much?

“The teacher’s aide?”

“That’s right. Tate thinks if we can’t get the teacher but still got her it would be a huge help. Okay,” she said and pushed up from the chair giving me a huge smile. “I’m going back to employment law cases, see if I can’t find something we can use as precedent. Although being fired for posting your boss’s bad taste in bathroom tiles on social media is kind of a new thing to me. See you later, honey and thanks again. Oh, and their addresses are on the file.”

As she wandered back to her own office, I couldn’t help but wish I’d known the favor before I’d said yes. Although to be honest, there was no way I could have said no. I was only a part-time Associate. And, if Mrs. Baker said no, then I was going to be making a visit to the person I wanted to see the least—Nancy-fucking-Andrews with the magical pussy.

Bang, bang, bang.

“Fuck off,” I groaned under my breath, pulling my knees to my chest.

Bang, bang, bang.

That was the third time whoever was on the other side had decided to piss me off. The first time when I didn’t get up, throw the door open and greet them with a smile, they should have got the message. The message being, as I said, ‘fuck off’.

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