Chapter 5
Grayce
“I’m so not in control right now,” I said as I paced the floor of my law office the next day.
I had arrived floating on a cloud from getting my first real apartment and having a good night with Ella. I had cleaners coming over to get it all ready for me for the following day. I hadn’t felt this good since I’d seen that hot-looking guy at the gym. That one small moment was so much better than sex with Carter. And that little revelation said it all.
Coming back from lunch, I grinned to myself as I stopped outside the office to admire the Grayce Gladden, Lawyer sign written in gold on the office window. I opened the door to find Ella inside pacing the floor, cell phone in hand. If she were a cat, her agitated tail would have been whipping back and forth. I hoped it didn’t have to do with the new account we had just landed.
“I didn’t know if I should call you or not. They weren’t irate or angry and I figured it could wait until you got back. I’m so angry, I could just spit.”
She wasn’t in tears, but she was close to it. She always cried when she was pissed. I grabbed some Kleenex and gave them to her.
“Tell me slowly.”
“The Gregory account and his son’s account have just been pulled.”
“What?”
“They didn’t give a reason but said they needed to change lawyers.”
I gave Ella my purse and coat and went into my office. This can’t freaking be happening, not today. I grabbed the phone and called the receptionist. The Gregorys were the first clients I had picked up when I went out on my own after I had decided to start my own law practice. I could no longer deal with having to see Carter every day, chatting up the other associates and patting Kay’s ass whenever he walked by her, making sure, of course, that I saw it.
I dialed up the number and got their gatekeeper, Renee. I always tried to get to know the executive assistants, first and foremost. They could make or break you when it came to reaching their bosses. I had a good relationship with her and she recognized my voice when I called.
“Renee, is Gregory Senior in?”
I heard her take a deep breath. “He is, but I don’t think it’s going to change anything.”
“I still want to talk with him.”
“Let me see if he’ll talk with you.”
A few minutes later after being on hold, I reached the patriarch of the Gregory Enterprises.
“Good morning, Grayce,” said Bob Gregory in his baritone voice. “Before you say anything, our decision to leave your practice has nothing to do with you personally or the service you have provided to us for the last three months.”
“I’m confused, Bob. What does it have to do with?”
“As you are aware, our retainer was for three months, which ended yesterday.”
I put my fingers on the bridge of my nose. “So, you’re ending our relationship because our contract has run out?”
I heard the pause.
“Come on, Bob. If I’ve done something, I need to know so I don’t repeat it.”
I could almost hear the gears turning in there. Bob was known for thinking before speaking, which I had always appreciated.
“You’re right. You deserve a straight answer. The fact is I thought with you starting your own law firm, that your husband would be joining you as well. I know people who have worked with him before and found him to be a wonderful attorney. I thought I would be working with him in the future and wanted to snag him out of the gate. When I realized that you are not—”
“Going to be working together in the foreseeable future,” I interrupted.
“Exactly. I’m sorry, Grayce, but with the changes going on in our companies this upcoming year, I really need someone of Mr. Gladden’s caliber.”
I felt the rabbit hole open under my feet. “Bob, I appreciate your candor. If you change your mind, you know my number.”
“Thank you, Grayce. I hope this doesn’t ruin your day.”
Why did men always think they can disrupt someone’s day just by their actions? Though in this case, he was right, it had.
I hung up and leaned back on my chair. One tear and then another began flowing down my face. This was a nightmare. Like a ton of rocks, it hit me that I had no idea how the hell I was going to pay for the beautiful apartment I had just rented. The lease was solid, no way to break it without monetary consequences.
The door to my office opened and Ella came in with a cup of coffee.
“How did it go?”
I gave her a sideways look. “He thought Carter was going to be joining us and he wanted a head start on his competition.”
She sat down hard on the chair in front of me and handed me the coffee. “You’re shitting me?”
I shook my head.
“Typical man,” she said in a hard voice. “Does he realize that you graduated from the same law school as Carter, with honors, and the only reason Carter is a partner and not you is because his dad went to school with the Craig Thomas? Assholes.”
“Bob was honest with me. He didn’t have to tell me. I just never thought I would lose clients because I don’t have a dick.”
Ella snorted. “You said dick.”
We laughed until we cried.
She sighed. “You know you can stay with me until we get another client.”
I just looked at her.
“You didn’t sign something,” she said.
I nodded.
She threw her head back and closed her eyes. “You laid down first and last?”
“Yep.”
“Oh crap.”
I looked out my office door where I could see my name inversed on the outside.
“Maybe it’s time I changed my name,” I said.
Ella shook her head.
“Your last name is Hooker. I’m not working for a hooker.”
I spit my coffee out, laughing. I grabbed some Kleenex and started dabbing at the new stain.
Ella sighed and went into the other room and came back out with one of her shirts, which was quite a bit bigger in the chest than mine. “How did you end up getting coffee on the other one?”
I told her about the guy at the gym running into me.
“Is he a one-nighter or a keeper?” she asked.
I thought about those huge arms wrapped around me and squirmed on my seat.
“Really, Grayce?” Ella smirked.
I rid myself of the thought. “He’s just a very good-looking man. I don’t know him.”
“You do know where to find him if you want to more information, don’t you?”
My cheeks flamed. “I have other problems on my mind, like how to afford my new gorgeous, furnished apartment.”
She got up and leaned over my desk. “Where is it located?”
“Astoria.”
“Oh, hip. Not cheap.” She thought for a minute. Ella slid in front of the computer and began typing. “Here, maybe this is what you need.” She pointed at the screen. At the top on the left, it will show you a roommates needed tab. Put out an ad there. Maybe you’ll get lucky.”
I gave her a look.
“What?” she asked in an innocent voice.
“Do you use this as a dating site?”
She sipped her coffee and got up and walked out of the room.
Chuckling to myself, I ran through the site and listed what I was looking for in a roommate. “From on top of the world to the depths of hell in twenty-four hours,” I whispered to myself. “Here goes nothing.” I clicked the button and read the message that my listing was live.
I handled the rest of the clients we had booked for the afternoon. Ella wrapped up and headed back to the apartment.
About two hours later, I got back to Ella’s place. She was on the computer while Noah was crashed on the couch.
“Tomorrow will be a bitch without you to help me,” she said.
“I guess this is you telling me you’re going to miss me.”
She shrugged and pointed to a box of pizza on the counter. “I got some pizza and salad for us tonight.”
I packed my clothes and toiletries in my suitcase, the only things I’d taken when I left Carter. I grabbed a slice and a huge portion of the salad and walked over to Ella, who was on her dating site looking at the eligible guys. I noticed that the tab for roommate website was on her browser, too.
“You can do better, Ella.”
She rolled her shoulders in response, her way of telling me to mind my own business. Ella closed the dating site and flipped over the roommate website. “Let’s look at any potential new best friends for you.”
I leaned over her. “They have nothing on you.”
We pulled up a good dozen women and a few men.
“See, maybe I need to do this and get some nice guy to couch surf,” she said as she waggled her eyebrows.
“No men. That’s a complication I don’t want.”
She turned to me. “Soon, you’ll need to get out there and start dating again. It’s not a bad thing.”
I got up and went over the couch and sat next to Noah.
“I’m not sure I’m ready to trust another man. I don’t know I need a relationship.” Carter handled everything so badly, and even after I moved out, he made it clear he had moved on and I was an afterthought.
I groaned as I leaned back on the couch, the tension of the day still hard in my shoulders.
Ella came over and sat next to me on the couch, moving Noah’s legs so they were in her lap. He snored, just a little, as he moved around and readjusted.
“You’re better than Carter any day. You’ll meet someone awesome soon. I know it. And he’ll be great for you.”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“I do. If you saw yourself like I do, confident, strong, and beautiful, you wouldn’t have doubts, either. Carter never deserved you. Remember I broke the yellow crayon in kindergarten,” she said, paraphrasing a Buffy quote.
I laughed. We had known each other since kindergarten. Her mom worked with mine at the hair salon before our moms each started their own businesses. Ella’s mom was a sight to behold. She was single Irish mom, no nonsense and gaga about her daughter and grandson. However, it wasn’t a yellow crayon that bound us together. Our bond began when we cut each other’s hair. Thank God, it grew back. Our moms had just stood there with their hands on their mouths as we’d shown off our new haircuts minus the bangs.
I hugged her. “I’ll get through this.”
“If not, you can always move back in with Carter.”
Giving her a dirty look was the best I could do given the hour, and I heard her laugh as I headed into the bathroom.