Page 52 of Joint Custody

“This isn’t a game,” he responded. He seemed appalled by the idea that I would’ve called it that. “This is about . . .” he stammered.

I looked at him in confusion. “What? What is it about?”

“It’s about respect, damn it. You’ve disrespected my authority since the moment you’ve walked in here and then I walked in on you, Anthony, and Mario using my office as a brothel. You have no respect for my building, for my name, or the law, and you don’t get to sleep your way to the top. What? After you slept with the junior partners, you thought you’d give it a shot and sleep with the managing partner too?” he yelled at me.

I looked at him, stunned, unable to speak for a while until I shook my head. “I think you must be brain-dead. Do you suffer from short-term memory loss? I think if you dig inside that little brain of yours, you’ll remember the fact that I was walking away from you and leaving the room when you pulled me back. You wanted me, just as much as I wanted . . . whatever, that’s not the point. The point is that you’re a hypocrite. You’ve disrespected your place of work just as much as I did. Admit it, you walked in there and you liked what you saw. You got hard. You wanted me and you had me. Now you’re going to fire me, and you know why? It’s because you’re a dick. You’re a dick because you thought you could get through to my defenses and shoot me down,” I said.

“It wasn’t that deep.” He shook his head. “Listen, I keep having to tell you that this is the real world, Tiffany Levine, and sometimes a fuck is just a fuck. I’ll admit it. I walked in there, I saw sex happening, I got aroused, and had a lapse in judgment. I shouldn’t have joined in. But I didn’t conspire to do anything with you. You just happened to be there and I . . .” he paused.

“You what? Took advantage of the situation? I would’ve walked out of the building and never looked back because I honestly figured I’d lost my job. Why’d you stop me and fuck me, only to fire me? Why couldn’t you let me go?” I grew emotional, but I couldn’t let him see me cry. This fucking Jared Crawford will never manage to soften me to him again. I cleared my throat and continued, “And as far as law and the real world, you’re going to stop disrespecting the thing I’ve worked my entire life for if it’s the last thing you do.”

“Fine, pack your things up and go,” he said.

“Fine, you know what, I’ll do just that. Not having to see your stupid face again or hear you critique my passion again is just the thing I’m looking for. It’s perfect. I’ll do better without working for your ass anyway,” I said, spinning around from him as my tears started to fall.

Damn it, I didn’t want to walk out of this office a blubbering mess, but I couldn’t help it. I needed to get the hell out of here and the tears were coming whether I liked it or not. I rushed from his office before he could get a chance to see them.

I rushed past the eyes of questioning onlookers and their rumbles of speculation, dashing toward the elevator, rushing toward my cubicle and bumping into a concerned Mario and Anthony. I couldn’t hear anything they were saying as I grabbed all my belongings in a rush, falling apart as I dashed out the front door.

I was vaguely aware of someone shouting after me as I made the run toward my car in my heels, opening the door and slamming it shut as I jumped inside. I pressed my foot on that gas, unable to put Crawford & Beam, precisely Jared Crawford, behind me soon enough.

Chapter 40

Tiffany

“Iheardwhathappened.”Mario stood by my door with his blond hair falling into his face. He’d ditched his midnight-blue suit jacket and stood before me in a pale-blue button down, no tie, rolled neatly at the elbows, tucked into those midnight-blue pants. His top buttons were open, and he looked down at me with an apology in his eyes even though he had nothing to apologize for.

I shrugged and stepped aside. “It was bound to happen. Jared couldn’t wait to get me out of there to begin with, and I gave him a valid reason.”

“I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have pulled you away to the file room . . .” he started.

“You didn’t pull me away. I followed you there because we both wanted each other,” I said, turning to brush my thumb across his lips. “It’s not your fault.” I smiled.

He pulled me into a hug. “How are you doing? I know you left the office crying.” He placed gentle strokes down my back, comforting me, and I sighed into the hug.

“I’m okay. It was just the shock and me being foolish enough to not see this coming,” I confessed.

“You weren’t foolish.” He placed a kiss on top of my head, and I smiled before releasing him and heading over to the couch. I was in an oversized, dark green sleep shirt and short pajama bottoms. I folded my legs under me as he joined me, resting his hand on my thigh. “You know, even though we joke about the mentorship thing, as your mentor, I can hook you up with some recruiters and provide you with some stellar recommendations,” he said, lowering his tone at the last part and wiggling his eyebrows.

I laughed and reached forward to cup his face within my hands, squishing his cheeks. “Why are you so cute?”

“Just cute? I thought you said I was hot before,” he asked, looking at me legitimately offended which made me laugh even harder.

“Oh, you’re still hot,” I said, raising one brow and leaning over toward him.

“Ah, you’re just saying that to spare my feelings,” he said, clutching his chest in fake protest, tossing his head from side to side as it fell out of my hands and rested on the back of the couch.

I couldn’t help running my hand through his silky strands as they flopped about on his head, and the moment felt so tender and relaxed, my heart swelled with gratitude as I climbed into his lap.

He lifted his head to look into my eyes, taking his time to gaze into them before raising his hand to release my hair from the messy bun at the back of my head. My hair cascaded around my shoulders, and he raked his fingers through it, brushing his thumb against my forehead, and I shivered. “You’re going to be okay. Don’t worry about it. You’ll see, in no time, law firms everywhere will be begging to have you.”

“I’m not worried,” I said, placing my palm between the opening of his shirt and stroking his chest.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said as his hand stroked my shoulders and brushed the hair off them.

“You’re so tender,” I said.

“Would you prefer if I wasn’t?” he asked, crooking his brow.

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