I spend the next hour reviewing the insane amount of money this almost-thirteen-year-old girl has amassed from six years’ worth of commercials. It makes me wish for the briefest moment that my parents had been more Hollywood. And then I take a look at Dax and remember why it’s good not to fall into the trap of believing you’re above reproach. So much so that he’s convinced himself he earned something he stole.
Once we’ve addressed the major concerns, I inform his parents that I’ll have papers for them to review in a couple of weeks.
As I usher them out the door, Daxton snags a card. “It looks likes you’ve really got it together here.” He scans my office.
“It’s a great firm.” Hints of my personality bleed through in the quirky memorabilia and trinkets I keep on my desk and that hang from the wall.
“It was nice to see you again, Kailyn,” he says, but this time his eyes aren’t on the walls. Once again he’s checking out my legs as he does another slow sweep of my funky patterned hose.
“Likewise,” I reply, but my tone sounds a lot more like fuck you.
He has the nerve to wink as he slips the card into his breast pocket and follows his parents out of my office. Once he’s gone I flip the double bird at the wall and mouth all sorts of profanity. It’s highly immature. That man brings out the worst in me. I wish I’d had five minutes alone with him so I could finally confront him about what he did and rip him a nice new asshole.
I glance at the clock and realize I’m running late for lunch. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem since I often skip real food in lieu of a bag of Sour Patch Kids, or whatever candy I have stashed in my desk—not particularly health conscious of me, but it gets me through when I don’t feel like taking a break.
Today my best friend and I have a lunch date at our favorite bistro and I have a full schedule this afternoon, so being late means less time with her, and I now need to vent post–Hughes meeting. I shoot her a message to let her know I’m on my way. Holly’s already seated on the patio when I arrive. She pushes away from the table and pulls me in for a tight hug. “Thanks for making time for me.”
Holly is a compulsive hugger, and even though I expect the affection from her, it still takes a moment before I remember to return the gesture. “Of course. Anything for you.”
Holly and I have been friends since I moved next door to her at the age of three. Apart from when she went to college in Santa Barbara, we’ve always lived in the same city.
“So you’ll never believe who came by my office this morning,” I say as we drop into the chairs across from each other.
“Does that mean you want me to guess?” Holly half smiles and raises her eyebrows.
“You can try, but I doubt you’ll get it right.”
“Oooh, now I’m really intrigued. Was it that guy from that law conference last month, the one who wanted to see your not-so-legal briefs?”
I roll my eyes. “Oh my God, no, and that was literally the worst line in the history of lines. Try again.”
“Just tell me. You’re all worked up about it with the way you’re fidgeting, so it’s got to be good.” She motions to my hands.
I’m twisting my napkin into what could approximate a sword, or a knife.
Before I can respond the server comes by. Neither of us needs to open our menu. We come here so often we could practically recite it to each other.
Once our server has taken our order, Holly makes a go-ahead motion with her hand and props her chin on her fist.
“Daxton Hughes.” When she does nothing but blink at me, I add, “You know, the guy from It’s My Life. The show we watched like it was our religion every Tuesday for years.”
“Oh, I know who Daxton Hughes is. You pretty much talked about him nonstop for the entire three years you were in law school, and the ten years before that, too.”
“Well, he turned out to be asshole, in the end, didn’t he?” I mutter. “And that hasn’t changed at all in the last five years, either.”
“Oh? What happened? What was he there for? Oooh! Does he have an illegitimate love child he’s trying to keep secret?”
I glance around the restaurant and make a keep it down gesture. The meeting wasn’t really about him, so telling Holly isn’t a big deal, but I don’t need to broadcast it. “No, he was with his parents and they’re setting up a family trust.”
“That’s way less exciting than an illegitimate love child.” Holly frowns. “It’s actually sweet that he would help his parents do that.”
“Do not call Daxton Hughes sweet! He is the opposite of sweet.”
Holly bites back a smile. “Let it all out. You know you want to.”
I glare, but she’s right. I’m so agitated now. “You know what’s even worse? He didn’t even recognize me at first.” I start flailing, as is typical when I’m edgy. “We went to law school together for three years.”
“Five years ago.”
“Still, you’d think he’d remember the person he intentionally screwed over.” I grip the edge of the table and lean forward. “He couldn’t believe that I was still angry that he stole the top spot!”
The corner of Holly’s mouth twitches. “Pretty sure you’d get the top spot for holding a grudge.”
“It’s not funny! You’re supposed to be sympathetic!”
“I am sympathetic. But from what I remember, you two were always in competition with each other.”
“He handed in my paper late!”
“Why didn’t you just email it?”
“My professor was old-school and shunned technology. If he’d handed it in on time like he said he would, late marks wouldn’t have been deducted and my GPA would’ve been higher than his. I even went to the professor about it and he said there was nothing he could do.” I lean back as the server sets our plates in front of us. I unwrap my silverware and aggressively stab a sweet potato fry.
“You know, Kay, maybe you should pull out one of those It’s My Life Daxton Barbie dolls you have and perform some voodoo. It might make you feel better.”
I roll my eyes. “I didn’t expect to see him, like, ever again, and he was so smirky and smug and kind of flirty and just…gah! And he’s still hot, and he still has all his hair. I just hate him!”
“So does that mean we’re not having that It’s My Life rerun marathon this weekend?”
I shoot her a dirty look. “That show is banned for life. Oh, and thanks so much for that clip you sent me this morning. It just happened to pop up right as the Hugheses came into my office.”
“Oh my God! What are the chances of that happening at that exact moment?”
I shoot anger beams at her from my eyes. “I almost died of embarrassment.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to have a rerun marathon? It might be cathartic to yell at him, even if it’s just on a TV screen.”
“Har har, Holly, har har.” I exhale a long slow breath and run my hands over my thighs. I really need to calm down. “Okay, I think I’m done venting. Sorry. That man just riles me up in the worst way. Let’s change the subject. How’s work? How’s that adoption case you were dealing with? Is everything okay there?”