Bluegrass State of Mind(28)

Tonight that was going to be easy to do. It was her twenty-ninth birthday. Kenna stood up and straightened her red Armani business suit and slipped her matching Manolo Blahniks back on. She shut down her computer and carried the settlement statement out to Danielle.

"Hey, I just finished the Raymond case. It's ready to be closed. Settled for five point five mil.”

Danielle turned from the filing cabinet and gave Kenna a high five. "Congrats, girl! I thought you'd only get a million out of them. I don't know how you do it. Are you sure you didn't sleep with opposing counsel? He was definitely doable," Danielle winked. "If not, girl, you gotta get me his number!"

Danielle was a twenty-seven-year-old knockout, a teen beauty queen. She stood just under six feet and had the most amazing olive-colored skin and piercing blue eyes under her fashionably cut, black hair. Her mother was a professional skier from Maine and had met her father at an Aspen event. Her mom had fallen in love, given up skiing, and moved to Italy where her father owned a small vineyard. When Danielle turned thirteen, they had moved to New York City where Danielle attended school and did the beauty pageant circuit. She went to college part-time while working as a model for car lots and supermarket openings. She managed to get her degree in paralegal studies when her parents moved back to Italy. Danielle was the lead paralegal for the junior partners and in charge of fifteen other junior paralegals. That meant that she got to pick and choose whom she worked for. Danielle chose to work for the one female breaking rank, and Kenna was forever grateful.

"You excited about your birthday tonight?" Danielle asked as she went to file the Raymond case away in the wall of filing cabinets that sat behind her desk.

"I can't believe I'm entering the last year in my twenties. You're coming to The Zone, right?" she asked Danielle.

"You bet. That's the only way I can get into that club!"

Danielle moved to close the file cabinet and Kenna chuckled, "Yeah, right. All you would have to do is wink at the bouncer and you'd be in the place so fast the line wouldn't have time to moan and complain!"

"So, is Chad going to be there tonight?" Danielle asked. Chad Taylor was the vice president of one of the largest lobbying firms in the city. He was everything a boyfriend should be: six feet tall, athletically fit, and blond hair cut short to show off his perfectly sculpted face. Danielle liked to call him a pretty boy. Kenna just thought him attractive and someone who got her schedule. He was friends with Bob Greendale and had lobbied for special interests for the firm before. Bob had introduced her to him at the celebration party after winning a class action lawsuit against a long-term care facility in February. They had hit it off instantly and had been seeing each other once or twice a week for the past two months.

"Yeah, he is. It'll be nice to see him again. The Raymond case has kept me so busy that I haven't had time to see Chad all week," Kenna answered as she pulled on her coat and gloves. It was the beginning of February and that meant more freezing weather in the city.

"Well, let's not keep him waiting! Are you heading over to The Zone now?"

"Yup, you need a ride?" Danielle was notorious for mooching rides off of people. Her own 1997 Chevy Lumina was starting to rust out and had a muffler that even the loudest Jay-Z music couldn't cover up. But it was the first thing she had bought with her own money. Being a symbol of her fierce, independent nature, Danielle just couldn't come to terms with trading it in yet.

Kenna and Danielle rode the elevator down to the parking garage and walked to Kenna's M6 parked in her reserved place by the door. They got in and took off for the hottest new club in town. She and Danielle were the last to arrive at The Zone. Cheers went up as Kenna walked in and took a bow.

"That's right, ladies and gentlemen. I'm getting older and wiser, and so we must drink to my dotage!" Another round of cheers went up from the associates, junior partners, and a lot of the support staff. However, none of the partners had bothered to show up. Kenna caught Chad's eye as he smoothly rose from the VIP table and walked over to plant a chaste kiss on her cheek.

"Hey, sweetheart, we were wondering if you were going to stand us up for that case you've been working on." He smiled and his straight, dentist-bleached teeth twinkled.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. I was able to settle the Raymond case just an hour ago." Chad led her through the crowd where she greeted all her co-workers. Chad ordered her favorite drink, a sparkling peach martini. As they sat at the reserved table with Danielle and some friends from the office, they chatted, laughed, and talked office politics. Kenna finished her drink and frowned. "The birthday girl can't have an empty drink. It's against the law. Chad, why don't we both get another round for the table?"