She was mad at Max for not telling Kara about her arrest, but she was just as angry at herself. She should have done her best to control this whole situation, instead of trusting other people to do it well. What had that ever gotten her? How had she let Max convince her to go public in such a rush? That was so unlike her. She should have taken a lot more time about that decision. And she should have insisted that she talk to Kara first. If they hadn’t rushed to go public, if they’d talked to Kara and made sure she knew about the arrest, maybe they wouldn’t have gone public at all. And then she wouldn’t be dealing with any of this. Especially not on one of the biggest days in Monroe & Spencer’s short life.

“We could postpone the pitch, cancel it, whatever—either one would be fine,” Ellie said. “I’m worried about you.”

Olivia shrugged that off.

“I’m fine. And I’m not going to let our firm suffer because of me.” She sighed. “Though it has, already. I got a fucking message from fucking Jeremy Wright this morning—that asshole I hated at my old firm. He said he’d seen the news, and he hoped everything was going well with me. That was his way of telling me that everyone at my old firm knows about this, and they’re laughing at me.” She never wanted those people to know a damn thing about her, and now they knew far too much.

Ellie shook her head, then abruptly pulled into a grocery store parking lot. Once they were parked, she turned to Olivia.

“Who cares about any of those assholes? Who cares about this fucking pitch? I sure as hell don’t right now. What I care about is my friend! Liv, one of the reasons we both left Big Law in the first place was because we wanted to be treated like human beings, and not just cogs in a wheel, remember? Did you blink when I barely worked for a week in the spring when Sophia was so sick? No, of course you didn’t.”

Olivia shook her head.

“That was different, you had to be with her.”

Ellie grabbed her hand.

“It wasn’t different, though, that’s what I mean. We both have to be able to take breaks, and take care of what matters in our lives, before we fall apart.”

Olivia squeezed Ellie’s hand.

“Thank you.” She closed her eyes for a second. “I love you a lot, you know that?” she asked.

Ellie smiled.

“I love you a lot, too.”

Olivia let go of her hand.

“And I promise I can handle this pitch today. It’ll be good to get the first time I have to deal with strangers about all of this over with, if that makes sense.”

“That does make sense,” Ellie said. “But remember, whatever these people say doesn’t matter.”

Olivia wasn’t sure if she believed that, but damn if it wasn’t helpful to think it.

She grinned at her friend.

“Let’s do this.”

Ellie grinned back and started the car.

They walked into Clementine shoulder to shoulder.

“Gentlemen, I’m sure you’re busy, so we should get right to it,” Ellie said once everyone sat down. She started up their PowerPoint, and Olivia smiled at the men at the other side of the conference table.

“Thank you for meeting with us today. We’ve learned a lot about Clementine and what your needs are for this case, so now it’s time to tell you about Monroe and Spencer, and why we are the best choice for your business.”

Once they launched into their well-practiced routine, Olivia felt good, even great. This, she could do. Maybe she couldn’t deal with the press who kept calling her office, or the photographers outside her office building—who, luckily, couldn’t get into the garage, so hadn’t gotten a picture of her yet—but she knew how to do this. All three of the men at the other side of the table seemed like they were listening to what Olivia and Ellie were saying. When they occasionally jumped in to ask questions, they were thoughtful ones, and the men made eye contact with both of them, instead of just with one another.

Olivia flipped to a blank sheet of paper and nodded to them when Ellie finished up.

“Do you have any more questions for us?”

They got questions about how new their firm was, how small it was, and their knowledge of the technology of the case, all of which they’d prepared for. The line of questioning worried her some, though—they seemed to want a bigger, more experienced firm, which made Olivia wonder why they’d even had Monroe & Spencer pitch in the first place. At least Olivia knew if they didn’t get this client, it had nothing to do with how hard they’d worked.

Despite her frustrations, Olivia gave them her best politician-style smile. She knew it was her best; she’d been practicing it for weeks now.

“Any other questions or concerns? As we said earlier, we’d be happy to pass on the contact information of some of our other clients if you want to consult them.”

The three of them looked at one another, and then the one in the middle—Brad, the one in charge—shook his head.

“No need for that.” Her heart fell. Damn it. This one had been a long shot, but they’d worked so hard on it, and she’d been so sure it had gone well. “Bruce Erickson is a friend of mine and he speaks very highly of you, so I don’t need to talk to anyone else. And I was impressed by how you’ve handled all of that nonsense in the press in the past few days—I thought you might cancel our meeting today, but on the contrary, you didn’t let any of that distract you. Says a lot for what you’d be like as our lawyer. Anyway, we like you. You’re hired.”

The three guys across the table all grinned at her and Ellie. Olivia was too stunned to grin back. Had that really just happened? She took a sip of water to help compose herself.

“Thank you, all,” Ellie said. Thank God for Ellie. “We look forward to working together.”

Olivia turned to look at Ellie, and their eyes danced at each other. They’d done it. They’d motherfucking done it.

“Plus, I have a little more faith in any lawyer who has had some personal dealings with the law. Who among us didn’t get into a little trouble in high school anyway? For some of us, it didn’t end in high school, right, guys?” He and the other two chuckled and elbowed one another, as Olivia tried not to let the astonishment show on her face.

Had he really just . . . . You know what, nope, she was just going to ignore that.

She joined in the smiles and handshakes and jokes as the five of them stood up and she and Ellie got ready to leave.

“Oh, and another thing,” Brad said to her by the conference room door. “Tell that boyfriend of yours I like him a lot, but that he should lighten up on all of the talk about taxes, will you? We have high enough taxes, living in California, I’m sure you agree!” He would have patted her on the shoulder, but Olivia stepped backward, so his hand just swatted through the air.

“You should give his office a call and let him know your thoughts. The number is on his website,” Olivia said. Her face was devoid of the politician smile or, indeed, any smile at all.

Had this man really just given her a message to pass along to her boyfriend, the senator? And then tried to pat her on the shoulder? Was that why he’d hired her? Not for her experience, or her accomplishments, or her preparation, but because he thought he would have a direct line to a senator with her as his lawyer?