Chapter 9
Ever
My one working headlight illuminated Loche when he stepped behind his SUV to give me space to park in the ramp in my spot next to his. He frowned, watching me pull in with an expression mimicking my own.
“I really don’t need a chaperone to escort me inside,” I said, throwing my tote bag over my shoulder. The collar of his jade green button-down shirt peeked over his wool coat, telling me that, if I hadn’t known it already, it was Friday.
“Good morning to you, too, Ever,” he said, flashing his perfectly symmetrical, annoying as hell, Loche smile. His pearly white teeth contrasted with his tan skin, making them stand out even more.
One thing about Loche was that he was always put together.
Every strand of his jet-black hair fell perfectly in place.
His clothes were pressed and looked like new, even though they were far from it, and he always smelled like he’d just stepped out of the shower, clean and fresh like rain.
But if you looked closely, the dark circles underneath his eyes were as apparent as his heavy eyelids.
“From the look of you, it should still be the middle of the night. You do realize you have to get up in the morning, right? Most bars around here close at midnight, so what are you doing for the rest of the four hours?”
“Taking an interest in my personal life? I figured it was only a matter of time.”
“In your dreams.” I rolled my eyes, acutely aware that his were still trained on me, most likely holding back some snarky retort. “But really, your under-eye bags have bags. You look exhausted.”
“And you look—relaxed.”
I looked up at him, noticing he seemed to be studying me intently with—wait, was that hunger on his face?
Hold up. Was longing sprinkled in there, too?
Because it sure seemed like he was looking at me the same way I looked at those guys who posted thirst traps of themselves splitting wood on social media.
God, what I wouldn’t give to climb them like a tree as they used the head of their ax to split my legs open.
Warmth overspread my face, and I knew I was blushing.
“I told you. I have a boyfriend. He provides me with relief from all of the stress I have from dealing with you every day.”
Curiously, Loche’s smug smile still clung to his face like a leech.
Normally, if a woman tells a man they’re getting a good bonin’ elsewhere and they have no chance in hell with them, the man’s fake smile falls, and they look at the woman like having a conversation with her had kept them from meeting the one woman on the planet willing to put up with their bullshit.
“Do I stress you out that badly, Ever?” We stepped from the pedestrian walkway connecting the parking ramp to the building housing our firm. In the lobby, Loche pushed the button, summoning the elevator to take us to the fourth floor.
The truth was he didn’t. No, Loche Greene didn’t stress me out.
If anything, before the promotion that was unceremoniously ripped from my clutches by Nepotism Ken over here, I was intrigued by the brooding, dark-eyed, ungodly tall fellow paralegal who kept to himself amidst the rumors that circulated around the office about him, which had only made me even more curious to get to know him.
But then misogyny reared its ugly head, lifting the veil of mystery.
Loche was exactly like all the other men I’d met.
The elevator door opened, and Loche gestured for me to step in as though there was a hint of a gentleman underneath his hard exterior.
I stepped inside, with Loche following in my footsteps, positioning himself next to me in the car.
A yellow and green discoloration on the ridge of his cheekbone caught my eye.
He’d tried to cover it with makeup, but it was still faintly visible.
I’d noticed bruises on his face and hands before, which he’d always taken pains to conceal in some way.
A few months ago, I overheard a hushed conversation between Loche and Conrad from outside Conrad’s office, where the word ‘bruise’ was referenced, but I couldn’t make out anything else.
“You still haven’t answered my question,” Loche said when the elevator doors opened, and we stepped into the lobby of the fourth floor, turning the corner in unison to make our way to our office.
“You don’t stress me out. You repulse me.”
In my peripheral vision, Loche winced. Calling him repulsive must have struck a chord.
Surely, it was the first time anyone had ever said such a thing to the privileged pretty boy.
He opened his mouth to say something, stopping short of it as we both entered our office just as Shelby was walking out of it.
“Loche, Ever, you’re early.” She tried to plaster a smile on her face, but underneath it, there was a look that reminded me of a video I watched recently of a guilty Golden Retriever who wouldn’t look his owner in the eye when they got home and found the trash can tipped over and trash scattered about the floor.
Damn, I needed to quit watching TikTok videos.
“Ever’s early,” Loche corrected her. “I’m actually on time for me. What are you doing in our office?”
“Oh, I was just grabbing some of these.” She held up a pad of square Post-It notes in neon pink. “Our supply order hasn’t come in yet, so I just figured I’d borrow these until it does.”
“Interesting. Because I would have sworn I saw a whole box of Post-Its in the supply room the other day.”
“I must have missed them, I guess.” Shelby shrugged her shoulders, continuing her walk down the hallway back to the lobby.
“You don’t have to be such an ass to her, you know.” I walked past him to my desk, opening the bottom drawer to stash my tote bag.
“She’s obviously lying about why she was in here.” Loche took off his jacket and hung it up on the hook on the back of our door.
“I got on her about rifling through my desk for the snacks I keep in there. She probably grabbed some gum or something and didn’t want to admit it.”
“Which makes it even worse.”
I rolled my eyes as Loche sat down at his desk, noticing that my computer was on. “Did someone turn you on?” I blurted out, instantly wishing I could snatch those words from the air and return them to my big mouth.
“I beg your pardon?” Loche snickered, and I purposely kept my head turned toward my screen so he wouldn’t see how dark red I’d turned.
“Is your computer on?”
“No.”
“Huh. That’s weird. Maybe I forgot to turn it off last night before I left.”
“You never do that.”
“What? Are you watching me every day or something?” I peered behind my shoulder at Loche, who looked like he was going to upchuck his protein bar at any second.
“Jesus. It was a joke, Loche. You don’t have to look so disgusted.
” I took off my coat and hung it on the back of my chair, reaching inside the pocket to retrieve my phone, noticing I had a new text message from V.
Did I break out in a smile like some pathetic teenager when I read his message? Yes. Yes, I did.
My friend Cole is coming out tonight at around six to set up your security system.
And Cole was going to be sick of all the questions I had for him in my attempt to figure out who his friend is.
Let me check my calendar to make sure I don’t have any plans tonight.
I sent the message knowing damn well my plans tonight consisted of watching Jeopardy with Vinny and eating a Lean Cuisine for dinner. You know, the plans of a single woman thirty years my senior. V didn’t need to know that, though. Who was I kidding? I’m sure he already did.
A ping from somewhere inside the office drew my attention back to Loche, who was frantically digging inside his desk for something, pulling out a phone.
“Weird. I sent a message to someone, and your phone pings.”
“It was a calendar notification.” I just didn’t realize my volume was turned up.” I’d never seen Loche so uncharacteristically flustered as he threw the phone back in the desk drawer.
“And here I was thinking it was the girl you were with last night letting you know your card had been declined.”
“Funny, Nevermore. But I don’t have to pay women for them to have a good time with me.”
Loche looked up, his eyes moving from me to the door, his grin fading. I looked over my screen at the door, noticing Conrad standing there, looking anything but amused.
“Interesting conversation to have at work.” Conrad walked into our office and over to Loche’s desk. “I’m going to need you to summarize those witness depositions for trial before you leave today.”
“I’d love to, Mr. Harrison, but I’m working on the trial exhibit list and the eighty other assignments you’ve given to me that you could have delegated to other members of the trial team, including Ever here.”
My mouth dropped, and I looked from Loche to Conrad, both of whom were staring the other down in some twenty-first-century masculinity standoff.
Instead of whipping out their dicks and comparing sizes, unbreakable, heated glares were exchanged.
Under normal circumstances, I would be rooting for Loche’s downfall, but since Conrad Harrison was on the other side, I reluctantly had to side with Loche.
“I have the time today,” I chimed in, breaking their display of manhood. “I’ve done countless deposition summaries for Jack. I think I can handle it.”
“See,” Loche motioned to me, “Ever is perfectly capable of doing the job the law firm hired her to do.”
Conrad clenched his jaw, further cementing the fact that Thanksgiving was going to be awkward as fuck at the Greene/Harrison household.
“I’m sure she is. After all, our firm rarely makes mistakes when hiring our staff. Well, almost.” Conrad shot one last rapid-fire round at Loche, who was now the one sporting the familial jaw clench. “Ever, try to get all the witnesses for the first day of trial done first, preferably today.”
I nodded. “Sure, Mr. Harrison.”
Conrad let out a sigh as he walked out of our office to spread his effervescent rays of sunshine elsewhere.