Page 44 of Legally Ours

Chapter 10

On Friday, after nearly a week without any word from Brandon, I looked at my face in the mirror and decided to go into work. The bruising around my cheek and eye was almost completely gone, and the cut across my brow had faded to a small red scar––nothing a little concealer couldn't hide. My ankle was doing well; I still walked with a limp, but nothing too terrible. And even though my ribs were still pretty tender, I could sit up just fine.

Screw waiting until Monday. I was bored stiff.

Considering everything that had happened, it was a relief to have something else to do besides sitting around brooding. For the first time in months, I knew that Bubbe and Dad were safe. I had a stable job waiting for me, one I'd been working toward for three years of law school and studying. Even if my personal life was currently in shambles, I still had this––I still had my future.

So I entered the office almost two weeks late, and I couldn't have been happier to be there. I started by spending an hour in HR, and then spent the better part of the morning orienting myself with Marina, the assistant I now shared with another new associate, and a senior partner to whose case I'd been assigned. Before noon, I found myself happily drowning in boxes of depositions. I wouldn't officially be able to practice law until my bar exam results came in next month, but there was still plenty for me to do.

It was sometime past eight that I was disturbed by a knock on the transparent glass door of my office. I jerked my head up from the mess of papers and the empty salad container on my desk to find Kieran striding in, looking her severe, impeccable self in a slim black pantsuit with red loafers. She took a comfortable seat in one of the chairs that faced my desk and crossed one foot over her knee.

"Are we going to have a problem with authority?" she asked bluntly, although the quirk of her eyebrow showed she was partially joking. "I thought I said next Monday. At the earliest."

I swallowed. "Yeah, well. I was getting bored. Recovery isn't all it's cracked up to be."

"You look like you're doing all right," she said, as she looked me over frankly. "The bruising's gone, at least."

"I won't scare the clients," I said with a wry smile as I polished off the last of my iced tea.

Kieran barked a short laugh. Then her expression turned serious. "You still don't look like you're up to being here until eight at night. You look exhausted."

I leaned an elbow on the brief I was currently working on. "You say that like every other first year isn't still here too."

Kieran shrugged. "O'Keefe and Swanks are gone. Nirmal's not on this floor, so I don't know about him." She tipped her head. "Then again, none of them were abducted two weeks ago. I meant it when I said you should take it easy."

I pulled my glasses off and set them on the desk so I could rub my forehead. Between Bubbe and Brandon, I was getting really tired of being micromanaged. I was also tired of being inside my own head. I knew that eventually I'd have to process everything that happened to me, but work was a welcome respite from all of the drama.

"I'm fine," I said. "To be honest, it's better than the alternative of sitting around the apartment by myself day and night."

Kieran pursed her bright red lips sympathetically––or at least as sympathetic as she ever looked. One day I'd have to ask for her cosmetics brand. She didn't seem to wear any other makeup, but that slash of red was always there, no matter what.

"He's upset," she stated. It was a fact, not a question. "It's that bad?"

I sighed and set down my pen so I could lean back in my chair. "He's...yeah. It's bad. He's gone for the rest of the week on business. Said we were going to 'figure things out' when he gets back tonight. Whatever that means."

"So what are you doing here?"

I pursed my lips and blew out a long breath. "Well, he hasn't exactly been getting in early lately. Most nights he doesn't show up until I'm already asleep. So I wasn't in a huge hurry to run home and wait."

To my surprise, Kieran scoffed. "Fuckin' Brandon. Men. I swear to God."

I frowned. "You think? I don't know...I think he's got every right to be upset after what I did."

"Please." Kieran looked at me, suddenly serious. "Look, it's none of my business. But I would have done the same thing. About the baby."

I froze, then reached a hand to the far corner of my desk to press the button to frost the walls and the door. My transparent face wouldn't do me any favors with this conversation. Kieran watched with some approval.

"Christ, sometimes I don't think he really understands how complicated his life makes other people's," she continued. "What were you supposed to do? Put your entire life aside for a junk show who may or may not be able to get his shit together? As his lawyer, I feel I can say that with more authority than most."

I sat back in my seat and started toying with my pen, unsure of how to respond. She wasn't saying anything new, but I didn't necessarily feel the same way. Kieran tended to be less than generous with her best friend. I thought Brandon was complicated, not a screw-up. And on top of that, the way Kieran talked about him––about us––made us sound like we were totally separate, like the decisions we made didn't affect each other. But that couldn't be further from the truth.

Somehow, some way, Brandon had crept so far into the heart of me that sometimes I couldn't tell where he ended and I began. That was the real reason why all of this was so painful. His hurt was my hurt. My pain was his. We couldn't lose each other without losing ourselves.

That was the other reason I'd had to come into work. There was a very real possibility that when he got back––tonight or tomorrow––he was possibly going to tell me it was over. And I definitely wasn't ready to deal with that.

Then something occurred to me. "You were recording when he found out. What happened to that? Is Miranda going to sign the papers now?"

Kieran screwed her thin brows up in confusion. "You didn't know? She signed them two days after he made his announcement. I handled it while you were in the hospital."

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