Page 36 of Fighting for Control

“The Old Bear once walked into my office at ten o’clock at night on Christmas Eve and told me I was getting on a plane in the morning to depose a key witness in Duluth, Minnesota. You think he cared that it wasn’t my case? That it was my father’s birthday? No. And did I say anything to him about it? No. I was the junior most associate at the time and I—”

“Barry, I’m a proponent of therapy. A huge one. But I’m a little busy for your psychic pain—”

“Should I talk to your mother about this? Tell her that we have a problem here?”

“I don’t know. Do you usually go running to your mommy when you have a bad day?” Carmen snapped.

Lola had to cover her mouth not to laugh. Carmen’s quick wit was hilarious when it wasn’t aimed at her.

“You’re the one that started whining about your kid. I told you to send me the information and I would do your work for you like I have before. So whatever complex you have, or kick you get out of pretending that procreating gives you some special place in the world, have at it and let me get back to work. I don’t want to be late to the hair salon rave I have to attend later.”

Savage.

Dismissed, a stocky man stomped by the partially open copy room door without so much as glancing to the side. It was Lola’s cue to go. To slip out. To go back the way she came and pretend that she’d never been there.

But Lola’s body was surging with something bright and effervescent. She wasn’t thinking when she slipped out of the copy room. Wasn’t rational when she floated toward Carmen’s office instead of leaving.

An unhinged, completely impossible thought pushed through the haze. Had Fortune really done something to her? What was coursing through her veins and pulling her to Carmen felt like magic. Felt like something unstoppable.

CHAPTER21

Pinchingthe bridge of her nose, Carmen closed her eyes and practiced the combined visualization and breathing technique Fortune had shown them during anger management.

Jesus, what does that say about me if I’m willing to do what an admitted fraud who is suing me says?

Despite herself, Carmen’s heart rate started to slow. She shouldn’t have talked to Barry like that. She should just have taken the work with minimal complaints, as was expected of the most junior lawyer.

Most junior lawyer.

The moniker made her skin crawl. It made her sound like an intern, not a seven-year attorney clearly capable of handling her own work and everybody else’s, too.

But Barry had been in her position once, and so had her mother. In some twisted way, she was sure they thought they were teaching her something. Toughening her up by dumping on her.

Another deep breath stopped her skin from flushing with heat. She didn’t used to get so angry. She used to be much better at taking things in stride. Maybe her frequent encounters with Lola were finally starting to have an effect. Their conflict was bleeding into her real life.

At the mere thought of Lola, a familiar presence prompted Carmen to open her eyes. To look at the door and find Lola standing there.

“Not again,” Carmen started to protest. She didn’t want another fight. She was already starting to feel guilt and regret over what she’d said to Barry. She didn’t need another mistake.

But Lola was undeterred. She thundered into her office like she was the one who had been inconvenienced by someone’s shirked responsibilities. “What the fuck crawled up his urethra?”

Carmen stood, not liking how Lola towered over her while she sat. Not when she still didn’t know what she wanted. Why she’d snuck into her office again. “What are you doing here?”

Lola’s eyes were hammered copper, lit from within by an incandescent rage that wasn’t aimed at her for once. “Why does he think he can talk to you like that?”

Surprised more by Lola’s reaction than her presence, Carmen shook her head. “It’s the way it’s always been done. Sort of like how doctors are forced to work for days without sleep during their internships and residencies. They have to do it because everyone ahead of them did it that way.”

Lola replied with a stiff nod. Her office was probably much of the same. Carmen had noticed how often Lola brought in more than one coffee. As high-strung as she was, Carmen doubted she drank three at once.

“Well, he’s a dick,” Lola decided.

“Don’t say that.” Carmen smirked. “Dicks aren’t so bad. They actually serve a purpose.”

A genuine smile tugged at Lola’s soft, full mouth. Unpainted and dressed in something other than contempt, Lola’s lips were mesmerizing. Carmen tasted them in her memory. Felt them grazing her neck, her hipbone, her inner thigh.

Lola’s smile slipped away slowly, but her expression only softened. Her lips parted and her eyes trained on Carmen’s mouth. Was she thinking about kissing her, too?

There was no anger between them now. No pretense. No prelude to contact they could blame on rising passions and the heat of the moment. If she kissed Lola now, she’d have no way to defend herself from it later. No justification. No excuse.

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