I thought about taking it from him and throwing it in his face, or spitting in it and then throwing it in his face, or maybe just spitting in his face. But then I thought, fuck it, why should I even give him the satisfaction? I knew he would have loved to see me rattled, would have loved to see me squirm and have some kind of freak out in front of Professor Worthington. Josh was a pervert and a snake. And perverts and snakes had a lot in common, especially their desire to get under your skin.
So instead I pasted a big smile on my face and took the coffee. “Thanks, Josh!” I said. I put the cup to my mouth and pretended to take a sip. I drew the line at actually drinking the coffee -- I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d done something nasty to it.
“No problem,” he said. And then he winked at me.
Yesterday I’d felt violated and disgusted, almost scared of him. Today I still felt the same disgust toward him, but it had morphed into something else. Now I wanted him to know I wasn’t going to back down from him, that just because he’d done something revolting to me , I wasn’t going to let him get to me. Inside, I was shaking. But outwardly, I kept my cool.
“What are we doing here anyway, boss?” Josh asked. He took a swig of his own coffee.
“We’re making sure the police don’t fuck everything up, like they’re wont to do,” Professor Worthington said. “They’ll be more likely to follow the rules if they know someone from the defense is here.”
“We’re not the defense, though,” I interrupted. “I mean, you know, because um, he’s … Mr. Cutler hasn’t been charged with a crime.”
The two of them looked at me like I was a naïve little girl. “Now,” Worthington said, totally ignoring my comment. “We’re going to have to have a meeting as soon as this is over. Are you two free this afternoon? Say around three? We can meet at my office.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “But I’m not sure this is going to take two of us. I have more than enough free time to make sure all the paperwork is getting done.”
I avoided Josh’s gaze as I said this last part.
The last thing I wanted was him thinking I wanted him off the case because of what he’d done last night, even though of course that was the reason. I wondered if I should just tell Professor Worthington. I imagined the shocked look on his face if I just blurted it out. “Professor, Josh shouldn’t be allowed to work on this case with me because I caught him jerking off in my room.”
But of course I could never do that, even if I wanted to. It would be extremely unprofessional.
“You think you can handle this whole case by yourself, do you, Charlotte?” Professor Worthington asked. “You think one student should be able to take on the workload of three paralegals?” I wanted to ask him why he didn’t have three paralegals working on the case then, but I already knew the answer. It was because paralegals didn’t want to do this kind of shit – they weren’t putting together summaries of evidence and filling out forms, they were looking up case law and practicing trial arguments.
“No,” I said. “I just meant that if there’s something else Josh could be working on, then –”
“What the hell are you doing here, you little fucker?” a voice growled from next to me. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a flash of a dark coat, a black glove, and then a crack as a fist hit Josh in the face and sent him sprawling to the ground.
“Oh my God!” My hand flew to my mouth and I turned to see Noah standing there, his eyes blazing in fury.
“Jesus Christ, Cutler,” Professor Worthington said. “What the hell are you doing?”
But Noah wasn’t done. He reached down and picked Josh up by the collar of his polo shirt, pulling him close until their faces were inches apart. “You stay away from her,” Noah commanded. “You don’t look at her, you don’t talk to her, you don’t even think about her. Do you understand me?”
All trace of bravado was gone from Josh’s face. Just a few moments ago, when he’d handed me that coffee, he’d been cocky and confident. Now he was shaking like a little boy. Noah shook him again. “Do. You. Understand?”
“Yeah,” Josh said. “Yes. Yes, I understand.”
Noah released his grip on Josh’s shirt. But I could tell he was going to hit him again. It was like he wasn’t there, like he’d had some kind of break with his body and didn’t know what he was doing.
“Noah!” I yelled, grabbing his arm and pulling at him. “Noah, stop it!”