Page 46 of Pleading Innocence

This was pissing me off. It was shocking. And damn it, it was impressive. Maybe even a little scary. A strange combination of emotions.

It was possible that Tiffany Levine might just be able to beat me after all and it made me feel really stupid about the fact that I’d underestimated her. Because if I hadn’t, I would’ve made sure to dot all my ‘I’s and cross all my ‘T’s.

And I damn sure wouldn’t have let her leave Crawford & Beam in the first place. Not that I would have been able to stop her. I’d tried, but it would’ve made me try harder to let her know how much she was appreciated and valued professionally. I would have tried to sweeten the deal somehow.Professionally ONLY, of course.

But that was done now, there was no turning back. And as much as I admired her, I wasn’t sure how I felt about being beaten by a first-year associate only two months out of college, handling their first ever case.

Chapter 29

Tiffany

“Ihavenofurtherquestions, your honor,” I said, relieved and proud of myself yet still shaking, trying to avoid Jared’s piercing eyes—that I felt the WHOLE time I was on the stand, by the way. What the hell was wrong with that man? Ugh. He was infuriating. Maybe I could become okay with keeping my distance from him after all, the damn creep. I drowned out thoughts of his judgmental words, not giving a damn what he had to say.

I did that. I ate that up on the stand and I was proud of myself for getting back to my seat without tripping over my own feet. Our client was smiling at me, my colleagues were smiling at me, and my boss squeezed my hand in congratulations while a collective pat on the back surrounded me.

As I waited to hear the judge call Jared to the stand to cross-examine my witness, the queasiness came back. Dissipated for no longer than a few seconds. The problem was that even though I was feeling proud of myself because I’d set up a strong foundation, something that could live in the judge’s head while he came to a conclusion, I worried about whether or not it could stand up to Jared’s questioning. He had more experience than I did, and he was fuming with resentment for me. I was afraid that he would tear apart what I’d just laid out for the judge. I didn’t care too much about what he had to say, except for the fact that it might affect my client and it was her best interests that concerned me.

Stealing a glance in his direction I could see that he was holding himself back on that seat, wanting to bounce right up out of it and make his way to the podium. Weirdo. But to my relief, the judge announced that we were out of time for the day. Thank goodness!

It would give me some more time to prepare myself for his cross and my redirect. Only after I exhaled did I allow myself to celebrate what happened today. My smile was helped by the fact that I was imagining Jared sitting there with whatever he had to say stuck on his tongue and hot angry lava bubbling inside his stomach with no way to release it.

Good for him, damn it. It was about time he sat in his little seat over there and stewed. I was tired of being the one to feel the heat for something I didn’t do on purpose, to feel him breathing his dragon breath down my neck despite our distance.

It felt good letting him be the one to simmer while I got the chance to breathe and celebrate my small wins. We were going for the big win, although the outcome for this case wasn’t certain. But today, I felt like this small win was massive, and I was going to be happy about it. Jared could sulk all he wanted—he wasn’t going to take this away from me. I felt like I won in different ways: when it came to proving myself to me, my team, and Jared, and when it came to efficiently representing my client.

As the rest of my team went ahead of me, I took a moment to just sit around our counsel table and really take in the fact that I made it. I got my chance in court, I got to use my voice, I got to stand up and not run away from whatever pressure I felt from Jared. I saved my career. For a minute there at Crawford & Beam, it felt like I’d lost this part of myself. My career and my fate became something I wasn’t sure of for the first time.

And now I was sitting around this brown table, in an actual courtroom, before an actual judge who valued what I had to say and gave me the floor to say it in a fair manner. Practicing law. I’d done it. I’d left law school and… Okay, I’d give it to Jared, he was right about things being different in the real world.

But the real world didn’t scare me. I didn’t dwell on my desires for Jared or let them get in the way of my future and career. I took a step for myself that had my family doubting me, with the support of Anthony and Mario. I changed my focus, set my boundaries, and got to represent my first client after only two months. It was a dream come true and fireworks danced inside my body. A smile formed at the thought of calling Mario and Anthony to tell them all about it so that we could celebrate later. Or better yet, maybe it would be nice sitting in the silence of my apartment, drinking wine and soaking in the moment.

The courtroom was empty by the time I got up. There was no rush, so I took my time gathering up my briefcase of files and documents, smiling to myself before taking small, slow steps through the empty gallery area, basking in every second as I made my way to the door. As I swung it open and stepped out into the hall, walking toward the exit, Jared appeared like a shadow out of nowhere, interrupting my glee with his tall, top-heavy, bulky frame. I jumped, but upon seeing that it was just him, I cut my eyes at him and walked up faster.

However, he’d already moved to stand in front of me. The fact I could smell his aftershave irritated me. My heart jumped not just in fright but in excitement that he was so close to me,

“What the hell is wrong with you? Get out of my way!” I exploded as we played ‘to the left, to the right’ like we were doing the damn cupid shuffle.

“May I have a word—” he started.

“I don’t care about what you have to say, Jared,” I said while he stepped out of my way. Man I wished the exit wasn’t so damn far. I did not want to hear him utter a single syllable if he was going to rain on my parade. I was in a pretty good mood and he was not allowed to spoil it.

“Damn it! I was just trying to congratulate you for doing a good job, but if you’re going to be a stubborn ass about it,” he said.

A sensation ran through my body that made my mind rush with adrenaline, making me feel like I was still walking even though my feet had come to a halt all on their own. Did I even hear correctly? I spun around to look at him, studying him.

“What did you just say?” I asked, my jaw slackening in disbelief that he’d managed to put his pride away for a single second.

He ran one hand over the back of his hair and stuffed the other hand in his left pants pocket. He looked resigned and uncomfortable. “I said congrats.” He spoke through gritted teeth.

I looked him up and down. “Do you have to look like you’re about to burst into little fragments just to congratulate me? It’s not like someone’s forcing you to say it.” I folded my arm across my chest. “What’s the catch?” I asked. “Why would you congratulate me? What’s in it for you?”

He let out a breathy laugh. “So I can’t congratulate you? I mean, I might not like the fact that you bested me in court today, but I’m not too hard-headed to admit that you did a pretty good job today.”

Lowering my brows at him, I twisted my lips. “You could’ve fooled me,” I said but his smile was reminding me about the stupid things he did to my hormones.

“I know I can be a hard-ass…” He started walking toward me, and I didn’t run away.

“Yes?” I said, my breath trembling with each step he took closer to me.

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