Chapter 14
Chapter fourteen
We can’t talk anymore.
Baz lay in bed and stared at the words, considered them. Just one tap of his thumb and Sami might disappear from his personal life for good. No more spontaneous drop-ins, no more blurred lines.
Three dots appeared in their chat. Baz froze.
Annoying Stalker
did Aya kill you
He shouldn’t. He should turn off his phone, or, better yet, block Sami completely until the case wrapped up.
…But it was such an innocent question. Caring, even. What if he did think Aya was capable of murder and called the cops when Baz went AWOL? He did have a duty of care here before Aya did, in fact, kill him for dragging her further into this mess.
Close. But I live to tell the tale.
that was pretty intense
does she always barge into your apartment like that
No. She was just worried.
because you lied about being sick? cute by the way
you seem close
have you two ever…?
Where the hell did that come from? Sami should know better than anyone that would never happen.
I told you not to believe everything you hear.
<3 <3 <3
This was it, the perfect opportunity to tell Sami they should wise up and call it quits.
But Sami had a rough day, way before Aya’s interruption. That was a distraction, all right, but not the one he had requested. And who knew if Ian was in a better mood tomorrow?
Really, ending things now would be tone deaf.
How are you feeling?
wish I could say it was the first time someone walked in on me
A dull pain shot through Baz’s jaw when he grinded his teeth; he moved his jaw around to loosen the clench. Of course Sami had other partners before him. Why was he surprised those relationships were no less complicated than theirs?
That’s not what I meant.
i know <3 i’m fine
promise
is she gonna tell on us?
No!
She’s just worried you’re screwing me over.
I am screwing you
Dork.
are you worried about that?
Well. Sami had had so many opportunities for that already and had chosen not to. Baz wasn’t sure when he had started believing that his intentions were pure, but he did. Sami didn’t need to know everything, though.
Jury’s still out.
Or was that too harsh? Maybe… His thumb hovered over the heart emoji. Oh, what the hell? Sami had no inhibitions about sending them, he’d understand their platonic meaning.
<3
…Or was that too much after all?
Haha <3 <3 <3
Apparently not. Good.
Good night, Sami.
Baz placed his phone on the side table, rolled onto his side, and buried his face in the same pillow Sami’s hair had been scattered across less than an hour ago. It still smelled like him.
If Aya hadn’t interrupted, would he have stayed?
Would he have made good on his promise to keep Baz up all night with a second—or even third—round?
Or would they have stayed intertwined? Sami snuggling into his chest, solid and secure.
Baz could have played with those beautiful, luscious curls, traced his scars, relished whatever ways Sami wanted to touch him in return…
Maybe he’d find out, one day.
have a not shit day <3
Baz squinted against his phone screen. Even on the lowest brightness, it burned into his retinas in the darkness of the early morning. He hadn’t expected Sami to be up at six am too.
I’ll try
Aren’t you supposed to go make the life of 42 people miserable right now?
<3
only 42? once again you underestimate my capacity for causing misery
im disappointed
no seriously i hope Aya isn’t giving you too hard a time <3
i feel slightly guilty
Oh, so now when he had done nothing wrong, he suddenly had a conscience? The mind of Sami Adam. What a fascinating thing to behold.
Don’t. It was my choice.
Are you still doing okay? Vis-à-vis Ian…?
i was until i found out im sleeping with a guy who unironically uses vis a vis in texts haha
Funny. And not a real answer.
told you im fine
sorry to have dumped that on you
I really don’t mind.
yeah well everything’s okay so don’t worry your pretty little head before you get wrinkles and i have to call you old again
You don’t HAVE to. We are practically the same age.
Two years didn’t qualify as an age gap in anyone’s book.
no im pretty sure i do <3
Baz bit back a smile. Sounded like everything was fine. Awkward encounter with Aya destined to come Baz’s way aside, which was hard to put aside—but perhaps the blow could be softened.
After hitting the gym, he stopped by Aya’s favorite coffee shop and got an oat milk flat white mocha along with a gorgeously decorated strawberry cupcake as a peace offering.
She didn’t acknowledge him walking into her office.
“I’m sorry, Aya,” Baz said and placed the coffee and bag down. She barely glanced at them before focusing back on her computer.
“Did your boyfriend mess with this to keep me quiet?”
Baz deserved the snark for lying to her, but it wasn’t fair to hold his poor choices against Sami. The only coffee he messed with was when he stole Baz’s, a pretty forgivable offense in his book.
“He’s not a criminal, Aya.”
Aya’s eyes snapped toward him. All right.
“Not technically,” Baz said. “He was never convicted.”
Besides, Baz couldn’t combine the picture of the predatory drug dealer he had created in his head with the image of vulnerability from last night. How could that Sami be a bad person who ruined other people’s lives for a quick buck? It didn’t add up.
“That’s the part you’re protesting?”
Baz pressed his lips together before the wrong thing slipped out. But what was the right thing?
“Hey, isn’t the jury selection for the Vitoni case tomorrow?
Do you need a right-hand man? I can finally buy you that dinner I promised.
” He had little to do with the case thus far, but they both knew he could get up to speed enough to be useful by tomorrow.
Maybe he could remind her why they had been a great team since the beginning.
But Aya’s face remained unmoved, her gaze cold. Okay. If she wanted to be mad, she was allowed to be mad. Maybe he had tried to move on too quickly. Shame, but he understood needing time to process better than anyone.
Aya didn’t call him back when he left. Still, Baz paused when his hand wrapped around the door handle and glanced over his shoulder. “I really am sorry for lying to you.”
“That is not what you should be sorry for.”
Right. With a last smile that went unreciprocated, Baz left.
Aya’s absence meant he had to carry the workload designed for two by himself.
Vanessa Martinez agreed to come in for a meeting next week; Baz assembled all she needed to know about her responsibilities as the lead plaintiff, to be prepped for her testimony.
Being the face of a class action wasn’t easy.
Ian wouldn’t shy away from attacking her character, and she needed to be ready for that, needed to trust Baz to do right by her.
Trust was famously the most important part of any relationship.
Did Sami trust him? Would he ever? Enough to not just seek a distraction, but confide in Baz too?
That wasn’t relevant to the trial prep. Focus, Hadley.
He went back through the discovery, curated his list of witnesses.
Doctors, biologists, chemists. Once he received the toxicology report on the Captain Green sample, if it ended up being the irrefutable proof he needed it to be, whoever signed off on that would be a strong witness too.
The jury needed to hear that TCDD could only develop in a chlorine-based herbicide during the manufacturing process.
Hopefully, the report would be enough to scare Captain Green into an appropriate settlement and rid Baz of his Sami dilemma. Sleeping with a fellow lawyer couldn’t be held against him when they had no active cases against each other.
That was assuming Sami still wanted him once the case was done. If he only chose Baz for the rush of the forbidden… Well, moving on would be easy when someone engraved the word partner on his door.
The clacking of heels pulled his attention to the hallway. Had Aya decided to—Erika. On the associates’ floor. Walking toward his office. Oh, shit.
Baz jumped up. He buttoned his jacket, smoothed out the gray fabric, pressed down on the top of his fingertips. She knocked with the knuckle of her index finger as she entered, polite despite her power. Baz wanted to be her when he grew up.
He summoned his most charming smile, forced his hands into as much stillness as the buzz inside of them allowed.
“Erika. What can I do for you?”
“I received interesting news on the Captain Green case.”
His throat dried out in an instant. “What news?”
Had Aya seriously ratted them out after her speech about how it would harm his career?
“You’re not settling.” Oh, thank god. That set of circumstances, Baz was prepared to justify.
“We tried. Unfortunately, the opposition tried to lowball us, so we’re getting justice at court, which we are gearing up for now. A jury trial will be in our favor.” He nodded as he said it, prayed it would hypnotize Erika into believing him.
“Hm.” It was short and heavy with a judgment Baz didn’t dare to guess what it was about. With that, Erika left. That wasn’t a daunting reaction at all.
Baz sank into his chair.
No shock like the big boss showing up at your office unannounced.
oh shit??
you okay??
what happened to Aya wont say anything
She didn’t. It was about Ian being a dumb idiot refusing to settle.
Too late, he realized this was exactly the kind of thing he shouldn’t be saying to Sami, much less text it. Having black and white proof of such an unprofessional statement could royally backfire—bzz bzz.
did you tell her the sky is blue too or did she have enough life-changing revelations for the day
Baz chuckled. At least they were both in the thick of unprofessionalism together.
Which wasn’t a good thing at all! What was he doing? He needed to get Sami out of his mind and win this case as quickly as the judicial system allowed, and then they could exchange remarks about Ian.