“Now, let’s see what Matthew brought us,” Rose said in an effort to lighten the mood a little.
She stood at the table and unzipped the bag that the President had left there for her. As her eyes took in the contents, Rose didn’t know what to say. She was paralyzed and in awe. There were some gifts that people gave and as the recipient you just had to pretend that you liked it; then there were gifts that people gave, and there was no doubt the recipient liked it. This was a no doubt, everyone in the world will like it, kind of present. Rose couldn’t help smiling as she looked into the bag.
“There’s not a body part inside that bag, is there?” Noah joked.
But as he started to realize that Rose wasn’t looking away from the bag, he worried and jumped up to see what the hell was going on. Whatever was in the bag had sufficiently distracted her that Rose hadn’t heard a thing he was saying to her.
“Rose,” Noah said as he tried to get her attention. “Earth to Rose.”
“Look,” she finally responded as she stepped back and pointed to the bag. “Come look and tell me I’m not hallucinating. This can’t be real.”
“Oh shit.”
“What is he doing? He can’t give this to us. This is crazy,” she said as she walked away from the bag.
“He gave it to you. And he’s the President of the United States. He can do whatever the hell he wants to.”
“Noah! What the hell am I supposed to do with all that cash? I can’t exactly walk into the bank and ask to deposit a duffel bag full of hundred dollar bills.”
Rose was right, and Noah knew it. If they were going to keep the money, it was going to take them a long time to figure out how to get it into the bank without being noticed. Suddenly, the hard work that money launderers put in seemed like a difficult job to Noah. He really didn’t know much about how to hide money, and he wasn’t sure they really needed to hide it at all.
“Let’s think about this. Basically, the president just paid you your lawyer fees in cash. That’s all that is going on here. Nothing illegal. Nothing sordid. But maybe we should still think about if we should keep it.”
“I didn’t do anything illegal. I simply handed Judge Marking a note from Matthew and waited for him to respond. Matthew didn’t threaten the man. He only offered to make his life easier. There wasn’t anything illegal. Although, this amount of cash sure makes me feel like I did something I wasn’t supposed to have done.”
Rose was scared. She had played the scenario over and over in her head and all the legal mumbo jumbo that she had worked through too. But it was legal. She hadn’t done anything illegal. So why was the president paying in cash? A dozen scenarios ran through her mind, and Rose felt like she had started to confuse herself in the process of figuring out Matthew.
Fear rushed through her body, and she felt like she could hardly breathe. As Rose sat down on the couch, she tried to pull in deep breaths but couldn’t seem to catch her breath. She was new at being a lawyer; it was entirely possible she had totally messed up. But by that point, Rose was so worried about everything that she couldn’t thing straight.
“It’s okay,” Noah said as he sat with her. “We will figure this all out. Don’t worry.”
But Rose was worried. She was terrified that she could have done something that would end her whole career. Earlier, she had been putting on an act pretending like she didn’t care if what she had done was legal or not. The truth was that Rose had spent a good hour contemplating what Matthew was asking of her before she agreed. She went through all the legal statutes she knew and had come to the conclusion that it was a safe plan.
Even when they all drank and celebrated afterward, Rose had replayed the situation over in her head just to make sure she had done the right thing. But she had; she knew it. Or at least she knew that she hadn’t knowingly committed a crime. Unfortunately, that small detail might not be enough to keep her from a federal prison if there was more to the story than the president hadn’t told her.
“I can’t handle this stress,” Rose said as she felt tears welling up. “I’m not made for a life of crime.”
Noah burst into laughter at her comment. He certainly didn’t feel like Rose was a criminal, and he wouldn’t have labeled her anything close to it. He would figure it out. It was just cash. How hard could it be to hide?
“Should we count it?” Noah asked, sounding more like a teenager than a grown man.
“Count it?”
“Yeah, don’t you want to know how much is there?”
“No. I don’t want anything to do with it.”
“Rose, having cash is not a crime. You know that right?”
“Every movie or television show I’ve ever seen where people have money in a bag turns out to be bad. Name one time when it was good.”
Noah couldn’t help laughing.
“I don’t think I can.”
“See!”
“How about we count it. At least then we will know exactly what we are dealing with, and maybe we can get a better idea of what to do next.”
“Fine.”
Rose reluctantly let Noah count the money but only after she made him bring the bag into the bedroom, shut the curtains, and lock the door. She wasn’t taking any chances and employed all the hiding techniques from those movies and shows she had watched.
“How much do you think is here?” Noah asked when he was finally done counting it all.
“Two hundred and fifty thousand?” she asked.
“Higher.”
“Wow, okay, maybe four hundred thousand.”
“Rose, there’s one million dollars in cash here. One million dollars on your bed. This is yours. You could retire with this. You could travel the world. You wouldn’t have to work if you invested this.”
“I like working.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I’m going to need one of those mob accountants,” Rose said as she smiled and fell into the pile of money on her bed. “This sure does feel good.”
There was no giving the money back, Rose knew that Matthew wouldn’t take it. She was fairly positive he had only given her the money in cash to make sure no one knew how much he had spent on attorney’s fees. But part of her thought he had paid in cash because he was hiding something. The thing about it was if he was hiding something from her, then she had still acted to the best of her knowledge and hadn’t committed a crime.
“Let’s just keep it and enjoy it,” Noah offered as a suggestion.
“I’ll have to deposit it in a couple different accounts and under ten thousand dollars at a time. I will need to put some in an offshore account. Perhaps Switzerland so I can shelter it from taxes.”
Noah’s eyes widened as he listened to Rose rattle off all the ways she could protect the million dollars in cash. She certainly seemed very well versed in money laundering. But Rose was a smart woman, and it didn’t surprise Noah at all that she knew the information that she was rattling off.
“What?” she asked.
“I think you’ve been watching enough crime dramas.” Noah laughed and fell onto the bed full of money with Rose.
“This is the start of the rest of our life,” Rose said as she kissed Noah.
Chapter 43
After a month of searching for a reasonable partner in his law firm, Noah was losing hope. He had plenty of prospects, but when it came down to actually investing in the firm, no one was interested in putting their entire life savings on the line.
He was down to his last option. Another local firm was interested in buying him out. It wasn’t ideal, but at least Noah could get his money out of it, and most of the associates would be able to move on to the other company. They had already said they weren’t interested in bringing Noah over with the buyout, though; it wasn’t a merger, it was Noah selling his law firm and everything he had worked so hard for.
“I’m sorry it’s come down to this,” Rose said as the two of them walked into the office from the parking garage.
&n
bsp; “It is what it is. I really thought one of the senior associates would have wanted a partnership.”
“I’d take it if I could,” Rose offered.
Noah paused as he looked at Rose and started to think through that possible option. She had a lot of money from the bonuses that she had gotten in the past few months. Certainly, he couldn’t ask her to put every last dime she had into his company, though; that was too much to ask for.
“Why don’t you?” Noah asked.
“Noah, I’m a second-year associate and your girlfriend. How do you think that would go over with everyone else?”
Rose hadn’t totally been joking; there was a small part of her that thought being a partner in the firm would be fantastic. But Rose didn’t want to take the position if it was just because no one else wanted it. She wanted to be wanted, and so far that didn’t seem to be what was going on. Up until that point, Noah hadn’t even considered Rose as a partner.
“No one else wants it, Rose. They think this is a sinking ship, and they don’t want to stay on board. If anyone else wanted it, I would let them have it.”
“The board will never approve me. I’m too green.”
“Let’s be honest. The board wants the firm to be successful. If you becoming a partner will help us be successful, then they will be fine with it.
Rose smiled at the idea of making partner before the end of her second year. But it didn’t feel like as much of a win as she thought it would. Rose didn’t feel like she was very skilled at all and certainly not as knowledgeable as the senior lawyers in the firm. How would she ever be able to supervise people and give them advice if she didn’t even know what she was doing herself yet?
“Maybe,” Rose said as she thought about it some more.
“I’m not sure what it would look like having my girlfriend as my partner. We might have to get rid of that ‘no dating’ policy around here,” Noah joked.
“Don’t worry, we’ll be married by then, so it won’t matter,” Rose joked.
“I’d marry you right this minute.”
“Really?”
“Yes, without a doubt.”
“Noah, are you serious. You’d get married just like that?”
“I have no reservation at all about going to the courthouse this second and marrying the hell out of you. I love you, in case you didn’t know that.”
Rose knew that Noah loved her, and she loved him too. But getting married at the courthouse wasn’t exactly what she wanted as her marriage memory. Plus, her family and friends were dying to see her happy again. She had to at least let them come to the wedding.
“Let’s deal with this business stuff for now. I want to be a partner, let’s make it happen.”
“Then you’ll marry me?” he asked as he got down on one knee.
“Noah!” Rose exclaimed as she looked around the office and noticed people were starting to look at them. “Get up. Please just get up,” she begged.
Embarrassment flushed across her face. Most people in the office knew there was some sort of relationship between Noah and her, but they certainly didn’t know it was at any sort of level close to a proposal.
Working with Noah over the previous month hadn’t been as hard as Rose had thought it would be. She had expected the close proximity would make it impossible to concentrate on anything. But the more Rose stayed away from Noah during the day, the better night they had when they both got home.
Having a relationship with the owner of a company was exactly the opposite of everything she knew about business. Their relationship could put all other business endeavors into danger, and that scared the hell out of Rose.
“I don’t have a ring anyways,” Noah said as he reluctantly stood up. “But I think we should get married.”
He was smiling like a schoolboy who had just been told by his crush that she liked him just as much as he liked her. But Noah couldn’t help himself. He knew that Rose was right for him, and that he was right for her; in his mind, there was no reason to wait if they both knew they were right for one another. But he also wanted to keep his firm afloat and liked the idea of owning it with his new wife.
“Let’s see what the board thinks about me as a partner and we can go from there,” Rose said as she leaned in to whisper in Noah’s ear. “Then I’ll marry the shit out of you.”
The directors were the only people remaining in the way as Noah moved to make Rose a partner. The board had to vote in favor of the idea, or Noah would never be able to move forward. He suspected the board would say yes to pretty much anyone that Noah brought in; they were just as desperate as he was to actually have someone named and start the process of moving that person into Elaine’s old office.
Noah was going to miss Elaine. She had put up with him long before he knew what he was doing in a courtroom. Noah might never know why Elaine had pushed him to become a partner, but he was so glad that it worked, and he wasn’t going to let the opportunity to be the lead partner pass him by.
***
“Should we call ourselves Conley and Conley?” Noah asked as he and Rose sat in his office the evening after the board had approved Rose’s partnership.
The news was exciting, and it gave Noah and Rose the reassurance they needed to move forward with all their plans. Noah couldn’t suppress the excitement as the biggest stress of the year was finally lifting off his shoulders.
“Hmmm, I think Tate and Conley as a nice ring to it.”
“What did your mom say about the whole getting married idea? I’m pretty sure she hates me. Have you seen the way she looks at me?”
“Oh, she loves you. I’m pretty sure she loves you even more than me. She’s excited that we are getting married but more excited at the prospect that she might have grandbabies someday.”
“You know, misses soon to be Conley. I love you.”
“I know.”
Rose did know that Noah loved her. She could see it in his face, in the way he looked at her, and in the way she looked at him.
“And …” Noah asked as he waited for Rose to say she loved him too.
“And … I’m excited to be your partner?”
“And …?” He asked for more.
“I’m excited to have a bigger office,” she teased him. “Oh, and I’m super stoked for the new parking spot I have.”
Noah pulled Rose close to him and held onto her as she teased him. Over the last few months, Rose had transformed from an anxious and mean woman to the kind of woman that Noah knew she had always been. He couldn’t keep his hands off of her and constantly felt the need to kiss and love on her. They had to tell the office about everything when they decided to make her a partner, and people were surprisingly supportive of them.
“And … what else?” he pushed.
“I think you’re a really swell guy.” She laughed.
“And …”
“I love you damn it. I friggin love you. Okay, is that what you’re waiting for?”
Noah still had a hold of Rose and leaned down to kiss her. That was indeed what he was waiting for. Life hadn’t been the easiest on Rose, and she had always struggled to get those words out of her mouth, but he loved to hear them. He loved to see how she was softening up and opening up to become the woman he always knew she would be.
He knew she was nervous about becoming a partner, but what Rose didn’t realize was that so many people already looked up to her. Rose had overcome obstacles and gone back to college at a later age than most new associates. She had worked hard and made great impressions on the clients, not to mention her killer win ratio. Despite her own insecurities, Rose was a damn good lawyer and was going to make a great leader to the younger associates in the firm as well as the women.
“I love you too.”
“Should we celebrate?” Rose asked as she walked over to the blinds and started to close them.
Noah watched her as she seductively moved around his office. She took the time to twirl each of the blinds slowly closed as she used her other h
and to start unbuttoning her blouse.
“Here?” he asked as he looked out the window at the city below. “My door lock is broken.”
“Oh, we better make it quick then,” Rose said as she slid her skirt to the ground and stood naked in front of the city window.
“You’re killing me,” Noah groaned.
He moved toward her with lust in his eyes. This was another side of Rose that he was enjoying getting to know. Her love for excitement and primal fun was something that he was starting to enjoy very much. They were making love in alleys, their cars, even the local movie theater. Sure, he knew that someday they would calm down, and he was always worried about the possible consequences, but it was fun and exciting.
Together, Rose and Noah had practiced all of each other’s sexual fantasies. They were sexual explorers who were comfortable with each other, passionate, and in love. What more could any man hope for in a wife?
Noah quickly grabbed her naked body and turned her around. He pressed her up against the glass of the building as they both looked down at the city below. Her hands wrapped around and started to unzip him as she felt his body throbbing with desire.
This was the life she wanted. Rose wanted to be a lawyer, to be a wife, and to still be a sexual woman. She had always thought she had to give up one for the other, but Noah was showing her day after day that she really could have it all.
His hands slipped around and played with her nipples as he kissed her neck and they admired the city lights. All their dreams were about to come true; there was nothing in their way. Finally, Rose and Noah were going to have happiness. Finally, all the stars were going to align, and they were going to get their happily ever after.
She pressed her hips back against his throbbing member as she urged him to slide inside of her. Rose couldn’t wait to make love right there in front of the whole city. Although she suspected that no one would see or notice. But it was still fun to explore and play with Noah. She didn’t have to feel self-conscious about her sexuality around him. In fact, Rose felt freer than she could have ever felt with another man. Not only did she love Noah, but she respected him, and he respected her. They had built a relationship on a firm friendship, and that was the basis for love that was everlasting.
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