“Of course,” Valerie said, her magenta lips pursing.
Cash turned to the legal team sitting on the other side of the table. “Is it on the agenda?”
The lawyer in the middle picked up a piece of paper. Not a brown hair on her sleek, short hair waved as she bent and examined the paper. “No. It’s not.”
“The studio changed his compensation to net profits,” Cash said.
The other lawyers gasped and bobbled in their chairs. Rox tried not to smile at their reaction.
“You still want her to advise you?” Cash asked them.
They fidgeted. Rox stepped back and grabbed the door’s handle.
“We could hold the meeting with both of you,” the lawyer in the middle said.
Valerie stood and swept her tablet and paper into her hands. “You take this meeting. I’ll see you later.”
Rox opened the door for her. Valerie’s hands were full, and it seemed like a slight courtesy to allow her to save some face.
Cash leaned toward Valerie as she passed him. “We’ve read all your contracts. There are a lot of clauses you have missed that we need to discuss.”
Valerie stalked out, silent rage pouring out of her.
He smiled at the lawyers on the other side of the table. “Ladies, may I present my associate, Roxanne Neil. We may now proceed with the meeting.”
Cash pulled out a chair for Rox, as usual. She sat and handed out the agenda.
“Net profits?” the lead lawyer asked Rox.
“Oh, yes,” Rox told her, “and there’s a lot more than that to discuss.”
THREE YEARS
Rox stood in her office, leaning on her desk and breathing after finishing the DiCaprio meeting.
The three ashen-faced lawyers had left the conference room quickly after the meeting wrapped up and didn’t even glance at Valerie’s closed office door as they hurried through the office.
Rox had fled, too. After her temper tantrum with Cash before the meeting, she hadn’t wanted to deal with him.
They had never had a fight with each other in the three years that they had been working together. Sure, they mutually and cooperatively shouted about contracts. That was part of the scene and the game.
But actually fight with each other? They hadn’t had to. Nothing mattered enough. They were just colleagues and buddies.
He had never been able to hurt her before.
Rox wished her cats were hiding under her desk. Cuddling something furry would be calming right now.
A knock rattled her door. Cash peeked through the window that cut the wall beside the door. His chin was lowered, and his green eyes serious.
Rox nodded to him.
He opened the door and leaned into her office. “Can we talk?”
“Yeah. Come on in.”
He stepped through her door and closed it behind himself. “You were right. You belonged in that meeting.”
She nodded. “This is weird. I don’t like fighting with you.”
“I don’t like it either.”
“So let’s stop. Let’s just, don’t.”
He nodded and walked around her desk. “You were right about another thing, too. You are my paralegal first. I need you to work with me. Whatever happens, I don’t want you to resign your position.”
“I don’t want to quit. I love my job. Are we going to be able to travel together after this?”
“We’ve been friends for three years. Surely, we can figure it out.” He looked down, staring at his shoes. “Is this just a superficial affair for you?”
“It never is, with me. And it sure isn’t now, especially because it’s you. That’s why I made up the whole Grant thing. I’ve always known that I’m the one who’s going to end up with a broken heart.”
“But what if you don’t?” he asked.
“Right. Maybe I won’t.” Her flat voice sounded sarcastic, which she hadn’t meant. She couldn’t even look up from her hands.
Soft footsteps padded on the carpet. He stood beside her, and he lifted her hand off the desk and held it in his warm, strong fingers. She let him hold onto her hand, but she still couldn’t look at him. Foreboding ran through her, darkening every outcome she could think of.
Cash lifted her hand. His soft lips just brushed her fingertips. He said, “Maybe I’ll be the one with a broken heart.”
Her gulping laugh sounded more like a sob, and she covered her mouth with her other hand.
He wrapped his arms around her and pressed her to him. “No matter what happens, we will be friends afterward. You can’t go through all the things that we have together and not remain friends. You’ve helped me escape from the Russian prostitute delivered to my room, and I’ve cock-blocked Italians with eight hands who were accosting you. We’ll always have that, and we had that first. I owe you greatly for getting us out of that traffic situation in Argentina.”