Page 39 of Alive At Night

As the bustle of the office slowed, I shifted my focus from the new case I was working on with Daphne to Grayson’s lawsuit. I didn’t like deceiving Juniper about the full story surrounding our work, but it was better this way. Grayson had asked me to keep it under wraps until we had a better idea if there was even enough potential for taking action. He had enough spotlights on him already during the middle of the football season, and I understood that.

Not wanting Juniper to beat me to the punch this time, I ordered dinner from an Italian restaurant around the corner. I overheard her raving about the restaurant’s gnocchi to Cameron earlier today—one of my many interruptions. But at least it gave me an idea for dinner; the last thing I needed was for her to spend even more money on me during a deal that was supposed to be an even trade.

First, the football game, and then dinner. It was one reason I felt justified in fixing her brakes: it would cancel out the cost of the tickets from last week. And tonight’s dinner would make up for last night’s.

“Oh, I love this place!” A smile stretched onto Juniper’s face as she looked inside the paper bag I set on her desk, and I quickly pushed down the satisfaction that rose inside me at seeing it. “Thank you for this. They have the best—”

“Gnocchi,” I finished for her. “I know.”

“You’ve had it?” She looked up at me with surprise and hope in her eyes. Like I might suddenly become bearable if I also understood the wonders of Victoria’s Eatery. Was I invisible? Did she forget that I could hear everything she said all day, every day, in this goddamn office?

“No.” I rolled my eyes before looking away. “You told Cameron that earlier.”

“Oh.” Her voice deflated. “I didn’t think you were listening.”

“Kinda hard to focus on work when you’re rambling about pasta.”

“Cameron asked me for a restaurant recommendation because his mom’s in town,” Juniper said defensively. “Also, gnocchi is not pasta, Julian.”

“Are you sure about that?” I muttered. “It definitely looks like pasta.”

Juniper pursed her lips together. “It’s a debatable topic that, in my opinion, is hardly debatable at all.”

I bit down on my tongue to keep my reply in check. I didn’t give a damn what it was actually called, and frankly, I shouldn’t be annoyed at all. It wasn’t like Cameron could have askedmefor recommendations. We both knew I wasn’t the person to go to for that sort of thing. My palate was less than refined, and Cameron knew it. We’d survived on whatever cheap food we could find in law school.

“Let’s just get to work,” I said, pulling out the reports I’d reviewed last night.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Juniper nod. And then, just like that, the mood shifted. She asked me about Gabriel’s initial scans when he was an infant, scribbling notes between quick bites of pasta. Sorry,notpasta. And then we moved on to looking at Gabriel’s most recent scans, and before I knew it, the sky was a hue of navy. The lights in the hallway outside the office were off. I’d learned they were motion sensor activated, which told me no one else was here but us.

When I glanced back at Juniper, she was in the middle of a massive yawn.

“Time to call it a night, I think,” I said, even though I had an urge to keep working. We’d made progress, but if Grayson called me tomorrow, I still wouldn’t have good news to tell him. And that bothered me.

Juniper soundlessly began to pack her things. I waited until she’d slipped on her light pink blazer, the one that distinctly reminded me of when my sisters forced me to watchLegally Blonde,before I spoke again.

“Come on,” I said, “I’ll drive you home.”

I expected an argument, but all she did was blink twice at me before nodding. An unbidden chuckle slipped from my lips.

“Tired, Daisy?”

She nodded again, and her lack of energy, the way the corners of her lips tipped down, made me fight the urge to scoop her back up into my arms like last night. I wanted a reaction; I wanted her alive again.

But I didn’t do anything more than jerk my head toward the door. She followed me silently to the car, saying very little on the drive to her apartment, too. Only once she stepped out onto the sidewalk did she glance back at me and cock her head to the side. “You’re taking tomorrow off, right? For the party?”

I nodded slowly, feeling a surprising amount of unease settle in my gut.

“See you on Saturday, then,” she said.

And then she was gone. Before I could even thank her for the extra work she put in tonight. The long hours deserved gratitude, at the very least.

Our deal wasn’t fair, and it irked me. Even with the dinner, even with fixing her brakes. Her exhaustion tonight made that more than clear—it wasn’t fair. And I’d have to find a way to change that.

With a sigh, I waited until I saw her light flick on in her apartment before heading home. Once again, I couldn’t sleep after crawling into bed, and this time, it had nothing to do with texts from Noah. Itdidhave to do with Juniper, though. Juniper and Gemma. Driving home together. At night. Tomorrow.

I pulled out my phone, checking the weather.

It was going to rain. It wasn’t snow, but it wasn’t nothing, either.

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