Page 28 of Joint Custody

He turned to look at us and at the sight of my dashing smile, if I may say so myself, he knew something was up. “Sure,” he responded.

“Hey, guys.” His assistant smiled at us before handing him Tiffany’s file.

“Hey, Melissa.” Anthony and I smiled at her as she turned to leave.

Anthony looked at me with a question mark on his face as Jared read through the file. We weren’t joking when we said “rock-solid contract.”

“You sons of bitches,” Jared said, leaning back into his chair in defeat.

“Hey be careful, my mama ain’t a bitch.” I laughed.

“My mama’s kind of a bitch,” Anthony said and as both Jared and I turned to look at him as if to say “dude, have some manners,” he laughed with such joy and threw his hands up in the air. “Hey, she’d agree with me. She wouldn’t mind that I said it.”

Jared and I shook our heads as Anthony looked at us with an expression on his face as if he was questioningourmorals.

“You two are something else,” Jared said, pushing the file to the side.

Anthony sighed and crossed his hands behind his head while he crooked one foot on top of his leg. “Doesn’t it feel good losing to your best friends?”

“Haha,” Jared mocked. “Easy for you to be so lax about it, isn’t it? You don’t have anything on the line. This isn’t your family’s company at stake. You didn’t risk losing everything, committing your entire life to this firm, did you? Don’t ever make a decision like this without me again. Okay? I mean it. Next time, I’ll fire you.”

Ugh. I wanted to hug him. He was so stressed, he’d probably beat the shit out of me if I tried. So I got up and took tentative steps toward him before I moved to stand behind him and gripped his shoulders.

“Dude, you’ve gotta learn to trust a lot more. Having your guard up? It protects you, sure, and I’m not saying to let it completely down. Do what you gotta do. But your guard also isolates you. It entraps you and everyone starts to look like the enemy, man. Look at us, dude. Do we look like your enemies? Does Tiffany? And fine, let’s say we were. We’re not,” I reminded him with a pat on his shoulder, knowing the wheels were turning like crazy in his mind as I spoke.

“But let’s say we were. Remember how capable you were in bringing this place back to life? It wouldn’t take one mistake to send it crashing down again. So say this was a mistake, trust that you’d figure out a way to fix it if the need arose. You’d stay on top of things because that’s who you are. You’re more than capable. So stop worrying as much as you do, and start trusting a lot more, okay? Because I promise you, Anthony and I don’t have any ill intentions toward you. We love you, man, trust us. Trust that we wouldn’t hire Tiffany if we didn’t trust her, right?” I looked toward Anthony.

“Yeah, dude. Have a little faith.” Anthony picked up the tennis ball and threw it toward Jared. He caught it, and Anthony grinned as he came around the desk to give Jared a shake and ruffle his hair. “Look at you, dude, you have more gray than all of us. Your head looks eighty years old, don’t let your body catch up to your head.”

Jared ran his hand through his hair in a rush. “My head does not look eighty,” he said in shock.

Anthony crooked his neck. “It does, my man. People think you’re a grandpa.”

I started laughing.

“Which grandpa have you seen that looks like this?” Jared stood up and ran his hand over his chest, flexing beneath the suit. “I tell you what, that’d be a sexy grandpa.”

“Yeah, pops, I hope I look as good as you do when I get to your age,” Anthony said, making his voice fine and tiny, prompting Jared to slap him upside the head.

“Get out of here.” Jared pushed a laughing Anthony.

“Alright, alright, sexy grandpa. Be careful now, you don’t want to pull something,” I said, patting him on the back before he turned around to swipe at me as well. I laughed and dodged him without putting a dent in my suit as all of us left his office with a grin on our faces.

Chapter 19

Tiffany

Ihadreadthesame line about ten times, I wasn’t even exaggerating. My vision was blurred from the rage in my blood as I kept thinking back on Jared, barging in here and pounding his chest like he bought into the whole alpha-male ridiculousness. I was reconsidering whether I wanted to work here after a show like that. I wasn’t looking forward to that kind of spoiled-brat behavior every day in a work environment.

But he sparked a fire in me that made me glue my feet to the ground. Having him bark at me and belittle me the way he did made me want to stick around just to see him take back his words. He probably wouldn’t though. Maybe he was one of those people who thought he was always right regardless of the facts staring him in the face, and fortunately for him, facts don’t always matter for a lawyer. I didn’t think he’d have it in him to apologize if he found out he was wrong about me, and I didn’t care for an apology from him anyway.

Ugh. He was such a frustrating person. I’d never met someone who made my blood boil quite like he did. Whatever, I’d just keep my head down, do my work, and stay out of his way. And I’d look forward to the bonuses of working here: hot sex in the file room with Mario. Maybe even Anthony, if he even cared to look my way. Hm. I wondered if it would feel the same with Anthony or would he touch me differently? What would his voice sound like all deep and husky?

I crossed my legs and was startled by the pressure against my clit. I uncrossed them in a rush because I really didn’t need this kind of a distraction right now. Anthony and Mario were going to need these briefs soon.

Chapter 20

Jared

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