Page 29 of Joint Custody

Ididn’tlikeitbut the guys were right. Tiffany wasn’t going anywhere. I turned my lips up at having to admit that to myself. I was imagining the look she’d have on her smug face when I’d have to walk past her around here. Well, she wasn’t going to have anything to lord over me in my own space. She needed to be reminded about who was in charge. And since I was now going to be paying her, on top of everything, best believe I was going to get my money’s worth.

I grabbed a pile of documents on a court case I had coming up in a few weeks. I was going to break the tasks up and assign them to different associates before her ass got here but the “oh so amazing Tiffany” had waltzed her way into my firm, and well, she just got lucky with her first assignment. I didn’t care what Mario and Anthony had her working on. If they could go behind my back, I could go behind theirs. We’d see who really won.

As far as I was concerned, this was her only assignment. Maybe she’d just have to learn to rearrange her time.

Since she wanted to work here so bad, she was going to work.

And we’d see if she was as amazing as everyone had made her out to be. I was also hoping that she’d realize what she’d signed up for was not what she wanted to do and would walk herself out of here, but that was my secret.

Documents in hand, I entered the floor of the associates and watched as the less experienced lawyers in oversized suits and too tight shirts walked around with papers in hand as others piled on their desks. They didn’t notice me, or if they did, they didn’t let me know until our eyes made contact and they stopped what they were doing for no less than a second to say “Good day, Mr. Crawford” and got back to it.

I searched the cubicles for Tiffany and rolled my eyes as I remembered she was in the file room. I paused, counting to ten before stepping into the mostly brown room with organized boxes layered on rows of shelves several feet away from the door. Buried in the back, not yet visible, was Tiffany. I should’ve asked my assistant to drop these off at her desk and regretted not doing so with each step I took.

My face froze in irritation as her head tilted up to find me there. I waited for a smug smile to reach her lips, but she seemed just as irritated to see me, which grinded my gears.

“Why aren’t you at your cubicle?” I asked her, my voice louder than it needed to be as I was certain she could hear me in this almost empty room.

She dropped her head back to the files in front of her. “I’m still waiting to be assigned one,” she said in a monotone.

“I hope Mario or Anthony aren’t waiting on me to do that,” I said in a gruff tone.

Her head shot up to glare at me. “They’re working on it. Don’t tell me we’re doing this again? I’m going to have to ask you, if you don’t need me to work on anything for you, to please stop invading my space. It could be considered harassment.” She lowered her head again.

My mouth fell open at her cadence and her audacity. A pile of expletives threatened to be hurled out of my mouth at her. Who in the world did she think she was? Threatening me in my own building when I didn’t even want her ass in here? But damn it, I gritted my teeth as I thought, though I’d never say it out loud, that she was right.

She was an employee so I couldn’t let the fact that I couldn’t stand her cause me to behave in an unprofessional manner. I couldn’t start screaming at her like my mama chasing us around the house with a slipper, telling her to get out again. First of all, I would be mortified if my voice got that shrill, and second of all, my employees would’ve thought I’d gone mad. Tiffany Levine was not going to be my ticket to the psychiatric hospital. So I swore to myself instead, under my breath, as I released the documents and files in a thud on the desk before her, rubbing my forehead thinking about how many more swims I was going to need in that pool with her working here.

Her head jerked up in shock from the grating impact as the table rocked a little bit, scraping the tiles.

“Client got fired from their job due to being diagnosed with schizophrenia even though they’d worked there for several years without any complaints before the diagnosis. They’d always had the illness and the diagnosis has not made them incapable of performing their job at the same level as always. Now they just know and are being treated for that illness. Company denies the claims that the client was fired due to the diagnosis, citing other reasons which don’t line up with the client’s performance.

“There’s no proof yet, working in the client’s favor so this is all the information we’ve gathered on the client’s performance and contribution to the company throughout the years: every complaint, every bonus, every promotion, every idea our client has ever had that the company has benefited from, whether the client has called in late and why, if there were any disputes and how they were handled. They’re all here. I want you to go through these with a fine-tooth comb to find anything that can be used in the client’s favor.”

She picked up the file on top and began to read the information, looking up at me, about to nod her head in acceptance of the task but I wasn’t done yet.

“When you’re done doing all of that, I want you to conduct additional legal research. Get comfy with these boxes of files because I want you to dig up similar cases throughout the years where the mentally ill plaintiff has successfully sued a company for firing them due to this same reason. Then I want you to find cases where an employee was fired for any other reason and managed to win their case against the company.” I turned to walk away.

“Okay, when do you want it?” she said. Her combative tone raised the hairs on the back of my neck.

I didn’t need any of this any sooner than the weekend which was a few days away, but her reaction wouldn’t be satisfying enough if I had told her that. “I want to see what you’ve found from the additional research in the morning.”

Her face went slack, and she caught herself in the moment before her mouth dropped. I felt so damn good as I watched her stifle an audible shudder. Heck, I got all warm and fuzzy inside. She cleared her throat as her skin flushed red. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to—”

“Excuse me?”

She began to narrow her eyes at me, but I walked toward her. “Listen, you said it yourself. You’re an employee. You’re being paid by this company. My money is in this company which means you’re being paid by me. When I give you an assignment, you get it done. I don’t want to hear ‘I don’t think I’m going to be able to.’ What do you think this is? Do you think I’m asking you to do me a favor? You work for me. I don’t care what you have to do to get the job done, but I better have it no later than tomorrow morning,” I told her.

It was hard for her, I could tell by the tension pulling at her eyes and how one brow spasmed as she fought the need to say something smart. She didn’t have a comeback. Not this time, and I fought a smile as she said, “Okay.”

It was soft, as if she thought whispering it would make her response non-existent. I couldn’t help myself, throwing in another dig before turning around. “The days of law school are long behind you,” I said, suppressing the need to whistle in pure happiness as I smiled while walking away.

It felt like a fucking weight was lifted from me because I was back, baby. Back in charge and Tiffany Levine now knew that. The fact that she hated it was the icing on the cake.

Chapter 21

Tiffany

Istaredatthetowering paperwork ahead of me, added on to the smaller stack of briefs I was enjoying pacing my time with, and my head hurts. I didn’t see how it was going to be possible for me to deliver my work to Mario and Anthony by the end of the workday and have enough time to work on Jared’s assignment without staying up all night and morning. And he didn’t expect me to. I knew what he was trying to do. I could see right through him.

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