“What do you want from me? Whatever you want, I’ll do it.” William sounded desperate and confused. I knew that I wasn’t handling things right. I needed to be firm.
“As long as I’m working for you, I can’t be with you,” I said, wishing that my voice would stop shaking.
William took my hand and threaded his fingers through mine. “I could fire you,” he said with a soft smile that let me know he was only kidding.
“You could.” I lifted our entwined hands and kissed his knuckles. “But that probably wouldn’t bode well for us having any kind of relationship afterward.”
“Probably not,” he admitted. “You could quit.”
“Do you want me to quit?” Not that I was willing to do so. I liked my new job a lot, and I wasn’t willing to quit a job simply because of a guy.
“No. Don’t quit.” He sighed in defeat. “I think we’re out of options.”
“Yeah.” Yet somehow my body was closing in on his again. “I should go back inside.”
“Just stay a few more minutes,” William said. He pulled me to him and put both arms around me. “We could be together just one more time, then put this behind us.”
“I don’t think that’s a very good idea, William.” We both knew that one more time was likely to lead to two, then three, and so forth. Self-control was not our strong point around each other. “I’m going back inside. You should wait a few minutes before following me so we don’t draw suspicion.”
Walking away from William was almost impossible, but somehow I managed. My legs shook as I walked back to the table where I had left my coat.
“Are you leaving already?” Tara asked.
“Yeah. I’m not feeling so good.” I spotted William returning to the bar but he didn’t look in my direction. “I’m going to make it an early night. I’ll see you on Monday.”
“Have a good weekend,” Tara said. “Oh! Don’t forget the holiday party is next week. You should probably line up a date.”
I had completely forgotten about the holiday party. There was no way I could go to that if William would be there. We couldn’t be in the same room together and especially not when we would both be dressed up with unlimited booze floating around. It would be way too similar to the circumstances that had put us together in the first place. In the past twenty-four hours my life had gotten very complicated. So much for leaving the past in the past.
CHAPTER FIVE
I spent the following week at work trying to avoid William as much as possible. We had a few meetings together, but always with other people in the room. It wasn’t until Thursday that I found myself alone with him in my office. He had stopped by spontaneously to discuss a situation with one of Gravity’s newest clients.
“Legally, we aren’t allowed to do that,” I told him, after he sarcastically suggested we destroy evidence of a Senator’s affair. “He was doing this using his government email.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know.” William was leaned back in the chair across from my desk, looking a little too comfortable for my liking. It was already after seven, and I was pretty sure everyone else had gone home for the day.
“Surely this is something we can discuss in the morning,” I said, not being at all subtle.
William ignored the hint. He sat forward abruptly. “Why do you hate this guy so much?”
“Senator Wilkinson? Oh, how about because he was having an affair with his 22 year old intern for starters. Did you want me to continue?”
“He’s a creep, sure. But I think something else is bothering you.” William stood up and placed his hands on my desk, leaning forward. “What is it?”
I really didn’t want to go down this road with William. Not tonight. “You read his file. You should know exactly why I don’t like our client.”
“I know why I don’t like him. I want to know why you don’t like him.” William didn’t seem ready to back down anytime soon.
“He hits his wife.” I closed the file on my desk and stood up. “He’s a wife beater. And a cheater.”
William flinched, and straightened his posture abruptly. My words had rattled him. “There’s nothing in his file about him being abusive.”
“It’s not spelled out in his file. But that doesn’t make it any less true.” I explained to William that I had done my own research once we had agreed to take Senator Wilkinson on as our client. The medical records for his wife had been plentiful, and completely consistent with having an abusive husband.