“How do you separate it?” Tyler asked. He didn’t feel quite so angry now.
“You learn to adjust, to figure out what’s worth getting upset about, and what’s not,” Byron said. “Sometimes you slip up, but you forgive yourself.”
“Thank you.”
They sat there a few more moments and then his brothers said goodbye. Maybe they were right. Maybe he was a fool, but since he couldn’t get this woman off his mind, he might as well find out why that was.
The games with one Elena Truman weren’t quite over yet.
Chapter Sixteen
Elena, get in here!”
Ugh, Sometimes Elena really hated her boss. Seriously. He was arrogant and condescending. Okay, so he was also brilliant, and he brought in clients. And though she loathed him, she needed this job. It wasn’t easy to get a job with decent pay right out of law school, and every law school grad was enough in debt from student loans to … oh, use your own cliché here. She had a long way to go before she could do what she truly loved, which was helping children. She only got to do that now on a volunteer basis, and with her long hours, that was incredibly limited.
It was good that she had a job, and one that wasn’t the worst in the world, because the rest of her life was an utter disaster. Her revenge plan had left her miserable. She’d never expected to miss Tyler Knight, had expected to feel triumphant and righteous, but miss him she did. Every single day — and night. Especially night.
They’d spent time together for only a month, a single month, but that time with him had brought the past back to her like a hurricane. There was a brief moment in her life when Tyler had been her best friend, and while she’d been executing her plan she’d seen glimpses of the boy she’d once loved so much.
It was hard to remind herself that he was now a man she despised for justifiable reasons.
Picking up her iPad in case her boss wanted her to take down some notes, she stepped into his office and waited while he finished speaking on the phone. The man was rude, too. Obviously.
“We have a new client, and he’s requested you, for some odd reason. I did tell him that we have attorneys here who have a longer track record and could do the job better.”
Elena gritted her teeth and kept silent. She was good at her job. Sure, she’d only been practicing law for a couple of years, but she was dedicated, worked long hours, and took great care of her clients.
“Don’t you have anything to say?” asked her boss, Timothy. “I’m giving you a great case.”
“I do appreciate it. Just give me the file and I’ll begin reviewing it immediately.”
“No file yet. The client wants to meet you face-to-face first and then discuss the case. You’ll meet with him tonight — eight o’clock at the Fairmont Hotel, in the Georgian restaurant.”
“Okay, I’ll be there.” That was unusual — not to have notes to go over first. Most clients wanted their attorneys up and running on any case before they wasted their time and money on talking.
She turned to leave Timothy’s office when he called out her name and she stopped and turned around.
“Elena, give this man whatever he wants. This is a high-profile client with megabucks in the bank.”
Dammit! She hated clients like this.
There was nothing unusual about meeting a client at night, but she hated the ones who had a lot of demands. Still, many of their clients were incredibly busy, and her job certainly wasn’t an eight-to-five kind of gig. She enjoyed some of the dinner meetings she had with clients at exclusive places that she couldn’t usually afford. The problem was finding something to wear that would be appropriate to wear to a restaurant such as the Georgian.
She’d become pretty good at faking it, though, and could stretch her dollars better than most.
Work ate up the rest of Elena’s day, and though she hated not having a file so she could study up on her client first, sometimes that’s just how the job went. So she went home and rustled up a nice black pencil skirt, not too short, and a blue top that matched her eyes.
After throwing her hair into a tight bun and touching up her makeup, she nodded into her bathroom mirror.
With time to spare, she caught a cab to the Fairmont and walked inside. Her heels, clicked on the marble floor as she proceeded to the Georgian.
When she gave her name to the host, she didn’t have to wait at all. He escorted her back to the restaurant’s private dining room, The Petite, a room she certainly hadn’t seen before. As they made their way past the other diners, live music drifted through the room.
She was a little disappointed that she wouldn’t be sitting out there where she could listen. But this was a business meeting. She’d have to suck it up.
When Elena entered the private room, she saw that her client hadn’t yet arrived, so she took a seat and ordered an iced tea. She normally had a glass of wine at dinners of this sort, but she knew nothing about this client or about what he wanted.
Normally, this would be fine if she had the dang case file. Then at least she wouldn’t be sitting there doing nothing when the man entered. Her firm took pride in the fact that they were sought after.
Unsure if she should check her phone, or sit there and pretend to be in deep thought, she began to grow antsy when the atmosphere in the room suddenly changed.
Elena didn’t need to turn around, didn’t need to make eye contact to know who had joined her. Maybe she was going to need that wine, after all.
Chapter Seventeen
You look good, Elena,” Tyler said as he stepped in front of her, wearing a dark gray suit and a red tie, his coat pushed open to reveal the crisp white shirt beneath and the hand-tailored trousers showcasing his magnificent hips. His hair was neat and his face clean-shaven, and a predator’s smile — not unlike the one she’d seen in his bedroom a month ago — rested on his lips. She didn’t want to find him sexy, but it was incredibly hard not to.