Page 10 of The Law of Attraction

‘Drew. Drew?’

I jerk back to reality, where all eyes around the table are on me. In the process, I knock my coffee cup on its saucer, spilling coffee. ‘Shit.’ I look up to see Marty’s scrunched brows. They’re somewhere between questioning and pissed. Tricia is still in the room and comes to my rescue with a towel to mop up the coffee. ‘Sorry, I was thinking about the strategy for the Harbandon case. Something just came to me.’

Marty is still looking at me the same way but he says for everyone else’s benefit, ‘Always got your mind on the game, Drew. Take note, folks, this is what a top dog looks like.’ I breathe subtly and straighten my shoulders. ‘Looked like you were going to make love to your bagel to me,’ Patrick mutters.

I lean across the table and whisper. ‘I don’t need to put my dick in bagel holes, Pat. That’s for people like you. You know, the kind of people who don’t have women falling at their feet.’

Marty sniggers. ‘As I was saying, Drew aced it. It was a big win for the firm, and the coverage of the case won’t harm our profile either.’

‘All in a day’s work,’ I say, back to slick, confident, best goddamn lawyer at the table.

Blondie needs to get the hell out of my head. This firm is my focus. This is what I do. This is what I’ve been working twenty-eight hours a day, eight days a week to achieve.

‘To our final matter then. Richard, I’ll let you do the honors.’

Marty glances at me and this time there’s a subtle curl of his lips at one side. It’s my turn to frown questioningly.

‘Thank you, Marty.’ Richard rises from his leather chair and fastens one button of his suit jacket. ‘As many of you know, I have been considering retirement for some time. I was here at the very beginning. I helped build this firm from nothing. And I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved in the last thirty years.’ He runs a hand through his thin, gray hair. ‘The time has come for me to hand over the reins. I wanted you all to know together. Today, I will formally serve my notice to retire. I’ll be here to oversee a vote on my replacement as named partner and to assist in the handover process. However, from today, I won’t be taking new cases.’

I don’t hear the rest of his speech. I’m too busy throwing my bring-it glare across the table at Patrick. Statham Harrington. That’s what this firm will become, whether Patrick wants to cry about it or not.

When the meeting is wrapped up, I head with Marty in the direction of my office. ‘Why didn’t you tell me? You knew when we had dinner the other night. You had to have known. It was two days ago, for Christ’s sake.’ I’m annoyed, but my voice is at a level below conversational as we walk the corridors, keeping beneath the earshot of the secretaries in the open-plan pool.

‘He wanted to announce it, Drew. I owe the man that. He’s a big reason this firm is Statham Turner and not Wilson Turner.’ He’s referring to Richard having his back when he was running for named partner. ‘It makes no difference. You know you’re front runner. Everyone in that room knows you’re front runner.’

I scoff. ‘Patrick?’

‘Well, no, he doesn’t seem to have caught the ball.’ He stops in front of his office door. ‘I’ve got to tell you though, Drew. While Patrick doesn’t have your balls, or your financials, the other partners like him. You might want to think about that in the run up to a vote. God knows I had to think about that once too.’

‘Are you telling me to stop being an asshole like you, Marty?’

He shakes his head with a smirk. ‘Something like that. Just don’t give them a reason not to vote for you. Maybe let them see that as well as being a shark, you’re a human too.’

‘That’s not my style, Marty. You know it. They know it. They’ll vote me in because I’m a shit hot attorney, not because I bake cupcakes with my granny.’

His face distorts. ‘Cupcakes with your granny? What the hell kind of reference is that?’

He turns his back to me, and I continue toward my office. What the hell kind of referencewasthat?

I need to brush off that girl. I need to stop thinking about stupid cakes. I need to be Drew. King of the courtroom. Not the goof ball who spills his coffee and starts thinking about a woman instead of becoming named partner. Jesus, I must have looked like a dumbass in that meeting.

My anger thickens when I reach Sarah’s desk outside my office and she isn’t there. Where the hell is she?

I stop dead in my tracks on the threshold of my office. Through the glass walls, I see the last woman I want to see right now.

Opposite Sarah, who is sitting with one leg crossed over the other on the arm of my leather sofa, her head thrown back as if she’s laughing at something, is Blondie. Yes, Blondie. She’s sitting on the sofa with… what the hell… chocolates set out on the coffee table.

I clear my throat, unmoving. God, she gets more attractive every time I see her. She’s the Devil. The actual, distraction-that-I-don’t-need, godforsaken Devil.

She stands, adjusting her striped shirt and tucking it into her skinny jeans. Her blue irises are bright, like she’s smiling in her eyes. And they’re staring right at me.

‘So, my desserts are mediocre?’ Her hands come to her hips, and she pouts playfully. The attitude that seems to have stuck in my head for the last two days is back. Proof of the interruption she’s causing to what my mind should really be focused on.

‘What are you doing here?’ My words are more curt than I intend, but I am pissed. More at myself than her, for sure, but pissed nonetheless. She can’t just come in here, all gorgeous as hell and… I turn my attention to Sarah. ‘Why did you let her into my office?’

Sarah stands and holds up two hands. ‘Whoa, calm, Drew. Becky was—’

‘Becky? That’s right; that’s your name.’ I remember from Beatrice at the restaurant yesterday. I’m still being abrupt and, frankly, shitty, but she needs to leave. This force field she seems to have around her is pulling me in and threatening to tilt my axis in the entirely wrong direction. She needs to get out of my space.

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