by Gina Kincade
"Yeah," I said.
"Here's as good as any place to study," he said when he stopped typing. He looked up at me. His face expectant. I didn't want to disappoint him.
My dorm room was small, and the building was noisy. The library was open twenty-four hours, but after spending a month studying there, I needed a change of scenery.
"Okay," I said and flopped on the other end of the couch. I pulled my notepad out and flipped to a blank page. I pulled up my reading assignment on my iPad and opened it. I had to get through and take notes on two cases tonight. Reading in law school wasn't like you did in college. You had to read every word. Absorb every nuance. That's what we were paid to do, look for the stuff that doesn't sit right. Any issues or points in the narrative that could pose an argument. It was a game but with high stakes.
I did one read through of the case, rubbed my eyes, and peeked up to find Ethan staring.
I smiled and bit the end of my pen.
"Who's representing your mom?" Ethan asked.
"Richard Dean," I answered and frowned.
Recognition showed on his face.
"He's good. A bit old school but good. I have a couple of cases pending with him right now."
"So my mom is in good hands?" I asked. It worried me that my mother's unrealistic expectations were going to leave her with nothing.
"Yeah." He nodded. "If you have any questions or want to run anything by me, I'd be happy to help."
He was so sweet and kind. How did he become a DC lawyer? Not that I knew him well. He had a dirty streak that I enjoyed more than I cared to admit, but he didn't seem cutthroat and ruthless like other lawyers. He seemed smart and calculating. He thought out a move before he made it. He asked questions with a purpose in mind. I wondered why he was asking and offering now.
I wanted to ask him because I had a ton of questions, but part of me didn't want him to know too much or see too much of what affected me so emotionally. My stepfather and I weren't close, but what my mother was doing to him, he didn't deserve.
"It's fine." I nodded. "I'm not really involved. I was out of the house by the time it got bad between them."
Ethan nodded and continued to stare.
"Well, the offer stands." He returned his attention to his computer. "Now stop distracting me. I've got work to do," he said with a smirk.
I nudged his thigh with my foot.
He grabbed my foot and placed it on his lap and continued to type.
With my foot rubbing against his hardness, I was the one distracted.
ETHAN
I closed my eyes for a minute and woke up to Kendall grunting and grabbing her leg.
"You okay?" I sat up and reached for her.
"Yeah." She sat down next to me. "I banged my leg on that stupid table."
She glared at the table.
I laughed.
"Want me to kiss it and make it better?" I leaned in.
She pushed me back.
"Maybe later." She stood and straightened her clothes.
"You running out on me again?"
"I have class in two hours." She pointed toward the window. "I need to change and go over some notes."
I stood and found my phone. The alarm was nine minutes away from going off.
"We still didn't make it to the bed." I reached for her again and pulled her close to me.
We had both fallen asleep working last night. It was nice to wake up next to her. She paused for a minute to let me hug her. She hugged me back. Against warring signals in my brain, I went for it.
"Have dinner with me tomorrow night." I kissed her shoulder.
She stiffened against me.
I squeezed her tight before letting go.
"I don't know." She looked down at the ground.
I lifted her chin, searching her eyes.
She wanted to say yes. I had to give her a reason to say yes.
"Listen. You have to eat, right?" I took her laptop and iPad off the table and slid it into her bag. "No pressure. It's a Saturday night."
"Date night."
I cringed at the word.
She giggled.
"Traditional night to blow off steam in law school. Meet me at Madison's Cafe in Adam's Morgan at eight o'clock."
"Ethan." She was shaking her head already.
I placed her bag in her hand and guided her toward the door.
"Hey, you don't want me passing out on you again. So if you're going to come by here and fuck me, the least you can do is make sure I eat first." I opened the door and pushed her out.
She turned to face me with a smirk on her face. I couldn't read it.
"Don't think of it as a date." I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and walked her to the front door of the brownstone.
"What is it then?" she whispered.
"Think of it as sex prep." I smiled and winked at her. I opened the door and kissed her. She deepened the kiss.
"Eight o'clock," she whispered against my lips.
I closed my eyes and savored the feel of her lips on mine. The feeling lingered. When I reopened my eyes, she had turned and skipped down the front step. I watched her until she disappeared down my street.
Chapter Ten
Kendall
"Aren't we too old for the walk of shame?" Caroline yelled from behind me.
I cringed. I had been hoping I'd make it home without being spotted.
I had my head down and walked past Caroline, sitting at the tables outside the dorm. She cupped a mug of coffee in her hands and wiggled her eyebrows.
"This is not the walk of shame," I said, more defiant than convincing. 1L's in the same section all had the same lectures together so wearing the same outfit as yesterday was not helping my case.
"What do you call it?" She grinned, and her green eyes sparkled.
I frowned and blinked back tears. I wasn't sure what I was doing.
"Hey. I'm just kidding. I didn't mean to hit a nerve." Caroline walked up to me.
"No." I shook my head and touched my eyes. "It's not that. I'm fine. Just a lot going on."
"You want to discuss it?"
"I ..." Caroline took my hand and guided me toward the table. I sat down. She sat next to me. "It's just a lot of stuff going on and bad timing."
"Are classes okay?"
"Oh, yeah." I turned toward her. "School is the one thing I've got a handle on. It's the rest of my life that's all over the place."
"Welcome to my world."
I laughed.
"I understand if you don't want to talk about it. We just met and were thrown together in this crazy environment."
"We wouldn't be friends otherwise?" I asked, knowing the answer.
"I think a lot of us only have law school in common."
"Well, it attracts people with similar traits." I leaned back. "Ambition, drive, a strong work ethic."
"Just what I look for in a friend." She rolled her eyes.
We both laughed.
"I don't even know about your family," Caroline said. "Brothers and sisters?"
My face dropped.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Sore subject." She touched my shoulder.
"No. It's fine." I waved my hands. "I have a half-brother in California. He lives with my dad. My mother and her soon-to-be ex-husband number two had no other kids."
"They are splitting up?"
"Yeah." I shrugged my shoulders. "It was only a matter of time, really. I always thought they never really liked each other. Now they’re splitting up, and my mom seems to think because I've been in law school for exactly six weeks that I can help her win her case."
"Oh, wow."
"Yeah. I'm like. It's a divorce, not a case. No one wins."
"You should talk to Ian's brother. He's a ..."
It must have been the look on my face that caused her to trail off, and a light bulb went off.
I bit my lip and tried to avoid looking at her.
"OMG." She bounced on her seat. "That's your hookup buddy. A couple of we
eks ago, you left Hawk & Dove right after him."
"Shh." I leaned in. "It's nothing. We're just messing around."
"Oh, wow." She tilted toward me. "If he's anything like his brother..." She nudged my shoulder and wiggled her eyebrows.
I narrowed my eyes.
Caroline had this small town naïve act down, but she had a sexy streak.
"He's ..." I nodded, unable to complete the sentence.
"So hot," Caroline said and giggled.
"We're good together," I offered.
"That's so cool." Caroline stopped bouncing. "I wonder if Ian knows."
"Please don't tell him. I want to keep this quiet for now."
"Oh." She pouted. "I was hoping we could all hang out together."
"I don't think it's that kind of thing." Although he did ask me to have dinner with him. "We'll see. Just keep it quiet for now."
"Okay." She looked away. "But do you ever feel like Ethan is reading your mind?"
"Ian does that too?" I smirked.
"It's eerie, isn't it?"
"Unsettling. It probably makes them good lawyers."
"We have to get them to teach us that trick." Caroline giggled and sipped her coffee.
"I think it only works when it comes to sex," I said and giggled.
Caroline squealed and hugged my shoulders.
I glared at her.
I had tried hard to avoid being the topic of gossip. I was sure spurring Ian and Brady's advances at the beginning of the semester secured my not interested in fucking around status, but I'd given Caroline a month’s full of ammunition.
"Don't worry. Your secrets are safe with me," Caroline said. Maybe she had some secrets of her own she needed to get off her chest.
I looked at my phone.
It would have to wait until after class.
"I've got to get changed." I squeezed her hand. "But thank you. It’s nice to have someone to talk to."
"I know what you mean." She winked. "Go. I'll see you in class."
Chapter Eleven
Ethan
I arrived at the cafe a little before eight o'clock. I didn't want to be late. I was excited to see her. I couldn't stop thinking about her. I had drinks with Ian last night, and it took some effort not to mention her.
Kendall said she didn't want her reputation ruined at school. It was easier to keep our thing to myself, knowing I'd see her soon. When you characterize a relationship as a thing, it's best to keep it secret until it can be better defined.
Thirty minutes later, I sat alone at the bar nursing my second beer, even thing seemed too bold of a classification.
I signaled for the bartender to close my tab. I stood, and there she was near the entrance of the crowded restaurant.
"I'm meeting Ethan Resnick." Her voice was labored, and she was out of breath.
I liked the way she said my name. I whipped the smile off my face before she spotted me. I sat back down. I watched her approach through the mirror lining the back of the bar.
When she stood behind me, she caught my eye in the mirror.
"I'm sorry." She leaned against my back. He tits pressed up against me. She looked around and then placed a kiss on the back of my neck.
My resolve melted.
She wasn't playing fair.
"We missed our reservation," I said. I had to let her know it wasn't okay.
"Let's grab something to go," she said.
I stood and grabbed her hand. Instead of heading to the door, though, I offered her my seat.
She sighed and sat down at the bar.
"What are you drinking?" I whispered in her ear and locked eyes through the mirror once again.
"Tequila and three limes," she said.
I nodded and signaled for the bartender.
"How was your day?" I asked.
"Ethan." She turned to the side.
"Nope. You were late. Now, this is a date." I rested my hand across her lap.
She smirked up at me and laid her hand on top of mine.
"So how was your day?" I asked again.
"It was okay." The bartender set her drink on the bar. She set the limes to the side, squeezed one into the drink, and took a sip. "It was good."
"It was okay. It was good." I repeated her tone.
"If this was a date, I wouldn't be telling you about my problems." She smirked.
"What kind of problems does a wealthy, young, attractive, DC law student have?" I asked.
"Besides the obvious."
"Yeah." I took her hand. Her mother's divorce popped in to my head. "I'm sorry. Is it your mom?"
Her shoulders slumped. She squeezed another lime in her tequila and took a sip.
"It's nothing. Really."
I waited her out.
"I don't want to discuss it," she said. Her eyes teared up.
I raised my eyebrows and nodded.
"I'm so behind on my reading for class."
I stared, not buying it.
"I saw my mom today." She shuddered and shook her shoulders. "She asks me to meet her at her place. We get into this huge fight. She has this plan to get my stepfather's money, so I told her just to be happy with the settlement." She lowered her voice. "While I was there, my stepdad called, and my mom accused me of working with him against her."
"What did he want?" I asked.
"He asked me to meet him for a drink."
"You went?"
"Yeah, I kind of felt sorry for the guy." She stared up at me. "So I meet him at South Street. Do you know the place?"
"I know it." I leaned in. "It's the place congressmen take their mistresses for lunch."
"Right?" She held up her hands.
I didn't like where this was going.
"So I walk in, and he hugs me. It feels weird, but you know, I've known him since I was ten. We have a drink. He holds my hand and tells me none of this is my fault and that he loves me. He hopes the divorce won't affect our relationship. The whole time I'm getting a super creepy vibe." She downs the rest of her shot. "The conversation gets quiet, and he takes his hand and rubs my cheek, and I don't know. I just started laughing."
Her body shuddered.
"Laughing. Why was it creepy?"
"I don't know. It felt weird. Like I know when a man wants me, and he was giving me that kind of vibe, and it all seemed so ridiculous after what my mother asked me to do."
"What did your mother ask you to do?" Ethan's words were measured and precise like he was interviewing a witness.
"She wanted me to say he was inappropriate with me." She shuddered again and cringed. "All I could do is laugh. They are fucking made for each other." She laughed, but her eyes moistened.
"Come on." I kissed her ear. "Let's get out of here." I pull a twenty out of my pocket and lay it on the bar. I grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the noisy bar and onto the noisy streets of Adams Morgan, a neighborhood in DC.
What she told me made me sick. Her mother tried to use her. Her stepfather tried to take advantage of her. Who the fuck were her parents?
"Ethan."
I marched down the street with Kendall in tow. I wasn't sure where I was heading. I felt the need to have people around in order to maintain control.
I shouldn't care so much. We were fucking around, and it was nothing serious, but it bothered me. I had seen some sick and crazy things in my years practicing family lawyer. I saw what people did to each other to get what they thought they deserved. I tried to maintain some semblance of order and hope for my clients, but sometimes the clients couldn't help themselves.
Using their own daughter against each other, people didn't recover from that kind of damage.
"Ethan." She yelled my name.
I skidded to a stop.
"Where are we going?" she asked.
I loosened my grip on her hand.
"Did he touch you?" I asked.
"No. After I had laughed in his face, I left him sitting alone in that bar." She blinked away tears. "He's never been inapprop
riate with me. He's not a bad guy, but he's delusional and heart broken."
"You're his daughter." I cupped her cheek.
"Stepdaughter. I know." She stepped close to me and wrapped her arms around my waist. She rested her head on my chest.
I leaned into her, and her body relaxed against me. All the tension faded. I held her tight and ran my hand through her hair. I kissed her temple.
I closed my eyes and shook my head, trying to calm down and let my own tension seep away. She didn't need my anger.
She let out a huge sigh of relief.
"Come on. Let's pick up something, and I'll take you home. You can read case law to me while I give you a massage."
"Wow, counselor. What an awesome first date?" She squeezed me tight. She seemed reluctant to let me go.
"Do you have a better idea?" I leaned back.
"Yeah." She looked at her watch. "I'll give you twelve hours. Make me forget."
Chapter Twelve
Kendall
Despite experiencing the weirdest day of my life, I couldn't wait to see Ethan.
My mother and her new boy toy, my stepfather's misplaced affection—none of it mattered. I wanted to see Ethan, to be with him. When every other adult in my life was acting out of character, I knew Ethan would center me and help me forget.
I trusted him.
He leaned back.
"What do you need?" he asked.
I licked my lips.
"I don't want to be in charge. I don't want to make another decision tonight." I dropped my head.
He lifted my chin. That simple gesture caused my insides to shiver.
"Tell me what to do," I said.
He leaned in and captured my bottom lip with his teeth.
He pulled away, and I followed.
He shook his head slightly.
I leaned back.
He leaned in and kissed me. His kiss grew more passionate, more urgent. On the street corner, in the busiest part of town, it felt like we were in our own little world.
He continued to kiss me. A few people commented, but it didn't dissuade him. He wasn't done.
He laid a few tiny kisses on my lips. His light eyes grew dark, as he comprehended what I said. He took my hand in his and continued toward the metro.
