I opened the Surface and logged in with the password Rebecca gave me. The desktop was pretty bare bones, just a couple of folders and one of those pictures of Los Angeles on the one clear day with snow on the mountains as the background. I remember when I was looking at colleges, all of the LA schools seemed to have taken helicopter shots of their campuses on the same day because they all had that bright, sunny shot with the snowy mountains in the background. As long as I’d lived in Southern California, I couldn’t remember actually seeing a day like that.

I started opening folders and files. The only things I had access to were directly relevant to the assignment. I opened one of the example filings and started reading, but I had trouble focusing. Something was stuck in my head. Before I’d left Asher’s office, when he talked about moving on to ‘other things’ I felt like he wasn’t talking about another assignment. There was a little change in his voice, like he was signaling. Maybe I was right. Maybe Office Asher was the cold professional, but he had another side to him.

But then again, he told me to have it done before I went home, not indicating at all that he even wanted to see me again before the day was over. He had been dismissive, shuffling me off to go to work as if he hadn’t kissed me two nights ago. I mean, I believed in being professional, but come on. Maybe he just had to play it cool because Rebecca was there. I was his boss’s niece, after all. Maybe he was worried about getting in trouble.

I brought the kiss up in my mind. I wasn’t exactly inexperienced, I had had a number of boyfriends in high school and college, but I hadn’t been kissed like that before. The intensity was off the charts. It was like kissing a live wire, but instead of getting shocked, it just sent waves of pleasure rolling throughout my body. As I sat there, outside Asher’s office, I thought to myself, ‘If just a kiss was that good, how would it feel to go further?’ Not that I was even sure I wanted it to go anywhere in real life. I mean, he may have just been drunk, regretted the kiss, and wanted to forget about it. Maybe there wasn’t anyone except Office Asher, other than what I created in my own head.

But at the same time, he was ridiculously hot. His suit looked like it had been cut and sewn around him, revealing a lean but muscular, athletic body. I let my imagination fill in the rest. In my head, I peeled away every layer. By the time I got him down to his black boxer briefs, I had started to get excited. The sound of a rolling office chair snapped me out of it. Rebecca got up from her desk and walked off toward another part of the office.

I realized that nearly half an hour had passed and I was still reading the first paragraph of the example motion. I berated myself silently and refocused on what I was supposed to be doing. There was no point fantasizing about Asher if I was going to look like a fool for not finishing my assignment.

I opened a new Word file from the selection of templates and began piecing together the motion. Because there were no depositions, pieces of testimony, written sources, or other kinds of actual evidence yet, I had to be a bit vague. The computer contained a document with some information about Amber Warner’s past that Asher suspected the prosecution might want to bring up, so that is what I used as the basis for the motion.

According to the documents I read, Amber became Mr. Croft’s assistant after he had met her when she was working as a stripper at a club in Las Vegas. Amber also had an arrest for solicitation, though she was never formally charged. The prosecution would probably want to talk about how the defendant met the victim, but given the probability that at least some members of the jury might be skeptical of a woman who had worked in the sex industry, it would be best to prevent that whole part of her life from coming in.

I was so busy flipping between five open documents, copying and pasting citations to cases or code sections from several different example motions while I referenced Amber’s background document, that I didn’t notice someone standing right next to my desk. A heavy paper bag landed with a thud and I nearly jumped out of my chair.

“Oh my god, are you ok? I didn’t mean to scare you,” Rebecca said, nearly as surprised as I was.

“I’m fine. Sorry.”

“No problem, good to see you are working hard. I brought you lunch, by the way. Avocado, quinoa, and wheat berry salad.”

I ate lunch with one hand and continued scrolling through documents with the other until my eyes started to glaze over. I checked down at the bottom right of the screen and saw it was already almost two o’clock. The motion itself was done and I was about halfway finished with the points and authorities memo. I decided to take a break. My legs were getting sore from sitting so long without moving.

“Rebecca, do you want anything from downstairs? I’m going to get a coffee.”

“Thanks, I’m good. How are you coming along? Need any help?”

“Umm, I think I am ok. I was a little bit confused by People v Hill and the issue of materiality. If we don’t know how the prosecution is going to argue the case, how can I show that the way she met the victim isn’t of consequence?”

Before she could answer, another voice came in from behind me. Asher.

“Don’t worry too much about Hill,” he said. I turned around to face him. I hadn’t heard him approach. The carpet in the office was thick, muffling the sound of footsteps. “That case is mainly useful for the definition. Focus on People v Ewoldt and the prior act angle as well as undue influence. We have to keep out anything about her past that doesn’t specifically indicate a propensity for similar, violent acts.”

“Thank you for the clarification.”

“Were you going somewhere?”

“Yes, I was just going to take a break and get some coffee.”

“You aren’t finished with the motion yet?”

“No, like I said, I am just taking a break.”

“Rebecca, go get Cora here a cup of coffee.”

The buxom paralegal got up silently and left for the elevator. I looked a question at Asher. Who the hell did he think he was?

“I told you that I needed this done before you left for the day. The less time you waste, the earlier you will be done. You don’t want to spend all evening working, do you?”

He said that last bit with a straight face, no expression. Yet, I thought that I saw something there. Was I just imagining things?