He shrugged and wiped his mouth. "Claire - my wife, she makes a plate for me, keeps it in the fridge. I eat it when I get home. We've been married 12 years; she's used to my schedule."

"Do you always plan on working such long hours?"

He stared at me for a moment. I'm not sure if he was thinking or just staring, but finally he responded. "At the moment, I work to live. We are very cautious with our spending, and set aside ample amounts for retirement. In nine or ten years I plan on retiring, to either North Maine or the outskirts of Chicago."

I nodded, trying to think of something to say other than "BORING." "Sounds nice."

"We are really excited about it. Claire is a stay at home mom and when the kids graduate, then me and her are really looking forward to some one-on-one time, a chance to get to know each other more." Something I would have thought you would have done during the first 12 years of your marriage, but I'm not really the person who should be giving relationship advice.

"How long have you worked here?"

"Let's see now - eleven years. Been a partner for nine. I worked at another firm - Daly & Fountain before here - perhaps you've heard of them?"

I nodded even though their name drew a blank in my mind.

"I thought so. They are a big firm, though not as big as us."

"Why did you choose to come here?"

"Well, at the time it was just Clarke Law Firm, and I knew that a partnership opportunity was in the cards." I ate my sub quietly. The absolute last thing I wanted to do was have the conversation turn to Brad. Which, of course, it did next.

"I became partner after two years and considerable effort. Back then, it took more than large billings to gain partner status." His contemptible tone just asked for a response, but I stayed far away from the low hanging fruit and took another bite of cheese steak. The silence grew, and he finally continued unaided.

"I mean, when Brad came on, for example. He was with us for only six months before Clarke approached him about partner status. I was vehemently against the idea, but Clarke's shares overrode my opinion. Brad is just cut from a different cloth than us. He doesn't understand the hard work behind law." Bitterness laced his voice and my rebellious side spoke up before I had a chance to rein it in.

"Is that why you told me to stay away?"

"What?"

"You've told me twice now, to stay away from the East Wing, and from De Luca specifically. Why?" He shot me a perturbed look, as if irritated that I would question his authority. I held my gaze steady, despite the battle that raged inside of me.

He avoided my gaze, and suddenly seemed very interested in the remaining piece of his meatball sub. Finally he set it down and looked at me. "I don't like De Luca, Julia. Some in this office would say I hate him, but that isn't the case. I dislike Brad for two reasons. One, I don't think he displays the work ethic or ethical standards that I would like upheld by our office. But second, and I apologize for the language, six years ago Brad f**ked my wife."

---

I gasped and stared at him, my half-eaten piece of sandwich hanging limply in my mouth. Somehow, ridiculously, I felt tears welling up somewhere behind my corneas, and I blinked them off. I didn't know what to say and I stumbled over the next sentence.

"I'm so sorry."

He stared off in the distance and pursed his lips, then shook his head. "I shouldn't have told you that. I'm sorry. It's too personal. I just wanted to give you an honest reason. You are a beautiful, innocent, young woman and it was very inappropriate for me to assume anything, but I didn't want you to fall into his trap like other interns have. You seem too intelligent for that, but I wanted to give you a warning anyway."

I blinked at him, not really knowing what to say. Then I nodded, my eyes grim. "Trust me, that's one thing you don't have to worry about."

---

We ate the rest of our meal in silence, me having too many questions that were way too personal to ask, and him seeming to prefer brooding silence over chatter. Once we finished, I cleared our plates and we continued working, the sound of papers shuffling and keys clicking the only sounds in our deserted wing.

---

I drove home with the radio off and the windows down, trying to think. I don't know what I even had to think about. Any confusion I had about Brad should have been answered by this new information. Brad slept with his business partner's wife. Enough said. So what did I have to think about? Nothing. I rolled up my windows and tried to think about anything other than De Luca.

CHAPTER 29

Tuesday at 1pm my office line finally rang with De Luca's extension showing. I ignored it, letting voicemail pick up. He didn't leave a message. He called again at 3pm; again I ignored the phone. With Broward in Dallas, the workday was light, and at 4:45pm I started packing up, preparing to leave. I wandered by Sheila's desk, and spent the last 15 minutes of the day chatting up the older woman. She had warmed to me considerably over the last few weeks, and now bordered on almost friendly. I was intent on cracking her shell before my internship ended.

I pressed the down button on the elevator and waited in the lobby for it to arrive. Todd came through the East Wing doors and gave me a big smile. We waited, the doors opened, and we got on together. When the doors shut, we both started talking at once. I stopped, and Todd hesitated.

"Go ahead," I said with a laugh.

"I was just going to ask if you were free, tonight or tomorrow. To, ah, hang out."

"Tomorrow would be better. Do you have my number?"

"Yeah. It's on the intern roster Dr. Ennis distributed the first day."

"Great." I looked at my feet as the elevator doors opened on the garage floor. He stepped out, and we kind of shuffled around.

"So, tomorrow night?" he asked.

"Yeah, tomorrow night. See you then."

"I'll call you. Maybe around 8?"

"Sounds good Todd. Night."

He gave a quick wave and spun on his heel, sauntering to his truck, a late-model Ford F150. I headed to my car and stopped short. There was a note tucked into the window. I opened it cautiously. It was a hand scribbled note, on thick embossed paper. It had only one word, and initials scribbled underneath.

Dinner?

BDL

I crumpled the note as tight as possible, then had an idea. I uncrumpled the paper, ripped it in half, and then recrumpled the two pieces. I looked around for the car I had passed in Brad's driveway. I saw it, parked right by the elevators in one of the three "Reserved" spots. A brand new BMW 750Li, white, with a personalized tag: B D BEST. Nauseating. I strode over and dropped the crumpled pieces in Brad's open skylight, the pieces falling onto the driver's seat. What was really shocking was that the man was still at work at 5:15pm.

I felt like I had accomplished something by the time I got into my car, and cranked up the radio as I backed up and pulled out of the garage. I had plenty to smile about. I was currently flush with cash, had made a decision with the Brad debacle, and had a date tomorrow night with a smoking hot guy.

---

Todd and I decided to stay in and watch a movie at his place. He let me pick, so I tried to pick something guy-friendly and went with Old School. It was a typically college date - a barely disguised excuse to hook up, a date with minimal expense and effort from the guy - but I didn't really care. I was pissed at the Brad situation and wanted a rebound. Todd was available and hot. I didn't need much more than that right now.

I got home from work around 5:45pm, showered, shaved, and dressed in tight jeans and a spaghetti strap tank that showed a little of my stomach. I wore sexy panties and a shelf bra, in case the evening led to anything other than kissing. Old Julia would never have considered anything more than kissing on a first date, but I was throwing caution to the wind. Brad had been a little too persuasive regarding casual sex, and if I took his teachings outside our non-existent relationship, tough shit. Todd had offered to pick me up, but I wanted to have control over when I left, so I told him I'd meet him at his house. I had written down the address on an office post-it, and yanked out at least eight pieces of crap from my purse before I found the wrinkled square. I plugged the address into my maps app and saw that he was only a half-mile from my house. Translation - Todd lived in college crap too.

Todd's address turned out to be a town home complex, located in an area at least two steps up in price from mine. I parked in a spot reserved for Apartment F and found the town home with little difficulty. About 10 seconds after I knocked, Todd yanked open the door with a huge smile and a giant Great Dane. The dog launched himself at me and I found myself in a sort of dance with the pooch, holding both of his front paws and trying to dodge his huge tongue.

"Walker!" Todd yelled, grabbing his collar and pulling him off of me. He herded the large dog down a side hall and through a doorway, shutting it firmly behind the dog. There was whining and scratching, and he shot me an apologetic smile. "We have about five minutes ‘til he goes bat crazy, so I'll give you a quick tour before we let him out."

"Sounds good." I set my purse on the counter and looked around. The living room was small, but with nice furniture - a leather couch and granite coffee table. Todd must have rich parents. A large Godfather movie poster hung over the couch, and the small room was dominated by a large Plasma. The smell of Febreze hung suspiciously in the air and a candle was lit on the kitchen counter. The house looked tidy, but not necessarily clean - it looked like everything had been picked up or hidden just moments ago and nothing had been wiped down or vacuumed since. I looked at Todd. He looked clean. Really clean. He had on soft sweatpants and a short-sleeve Under Armour shirt. His hair was wet from a recent shower, and I could smell the soap he had used, some type of "ocean breeze" scent. He didn't have the manly, developed body of Brad, but his thin frame was what I was used to, and his Abercrombie looks were what I had spent the last 10 years of my life pining after.

"So, the kitchen and the living room. Very impressive," I drawled, leaning back against the counter and letting the action slid my tank slightly up, exposing my stomach. Todd's eyes instantly focused there. "Anything else to show me?"

"Um… yeah." he stumbled. "My bedroom is back here." He went down the hall and opened a well-stickered door, revealing a king bed and white dresser set. He got points for no dirty clothes, at least none in sight. I grabbed him and threw him on the bed, crawling on top of him. His eyes widened and he scooted back on the bed. I pressed him down with my hand and straddled him, grinning down at him. "Oh my god, this is so hot," he whispered. I was back. In my element. Not like with Brad when I felt like a bumbling, inexperienced geek. I pulled my tank off, revealing my lace bra and tanned stomach. I leaned forward, brushing my br**sts against him and kissed him, starting at his neck and moving up to his ear. He squirmed beneath me, his hands grabbing my waist and my back. Our lips met, a battle of tongues. He was a hard, forceful kisser, and I tried to match the tongue thrusts and soften under his firm play. I finally pulled my mouth off his, moving forward until my br**sts fell in his face and he gobbled at them, using his hands to free my ni**les from the bra and his rough mouth found them and sucked.

It was hard, a little too rough, and I winced and pulled away, putting his mouth at my neck instead. My hands grabbed and teased his hair, and I traveled back down his body until our faces were together again. I reached down and slid my hand under the waist of his pants, and met boxers. Who still wears boxers? Keeping my hands on top of them, I felt down until I reached the outline of his hard cock. It was what I now considered average size, and I squeezed it tightly and then released it. This is so not what I expected.

A series of loud barks and bangs erupted from the hall, and I figured that Walker's five minutes of patience had been reached. I climbed off Todd and rolled over, laying flat on my back. Todd rose on an elbow and looked at me, yearning. The barking increased, punctuated by howling every four or five barks. I sat up, grabbing my top. "Maybe you should get him before he breaks something."

Todd groaned and sat up, hopping off of the bed and walking out. I heard a door open and him scolding Walker, apparently ineffectively, because the dog came bounding into the bedroom ten seconds later. I had my shirt on by then and was planning my exit strategy. I was feeling zero spark and starting to fantasize about my warm bed and a good book. Todd chased Walker into the room and grabbed his collar, pulling him off of the bed. "Maybe we should move to the living room," I suggested. His face fell, but he shrugged it off. "Sure. Walker will leave us alone in there."

I walked back to the living room, snagging my purse on the way. "Hey, is there a bathroom I could use?"

"Sure. It's back in my bedroom, the door by the closet." I walked to the bathroom, locked the door, and leaned against the sink. Pulling out my phone, I searched through my apps. Some computer nerd, circa 2010, invented an ingenious app called "Fake-A-Call". I opened the app and scheduled it to send a fake call to my phone in 5 minutes, from Broward. I set a second call in 6 minutes, also from Broward. I then set my ringer to extra loud and put it back in my purse. I flushed the toilet, washed my hands, and primped for a minute. No point in looking bad on my way out.

I exited the bathroom and wandered back to the living room, where Todd was standing awkwardly with a coke and a bottled water. "I thought you might be thirsty," he said, thrusting both out to me. I set my purse down on the coffee table, grabbed the water, and grinned at him. "Thanks. You want me to put in the movie? We can watch it out here on the couch."

"Uh... yeah. Sure."