The ringing alarm felt like it was constructed for my own personal torture. My flight out of Chicago was delayed last night and I didn’t get home until after four in the morning. That didn’t change the fact that I had to be in Jones’ office with the specifics on the meeting by seven-thirty.

The one good thing was that I was able to get all my stuff organized during the delay. I had my stuff setup so well that I’d be able to roll out of bed, head to the office, and throw my manila folder with the neatly typed notes down on his stupid oak desk. It was so thorough and well-done he could take what he needed from it without asking me a single, solitary question.

I used an old school twin-bell alarm clock because I didn’t trust my phone. There were just too many ways the battery could run out or the phone could inexplicably shut off, leaving me high and dry. Kaitlyn told me I was “anal” about everything when she saw my alarm. But I thought I was just being prudent.

Today, though, I wish I could have been a little more like her. I hated that damn alarm clock and I had half a mind to throw it against the wall.

Instead, I dragged a weary arm from beneath my warm blankets and flipped the switch to the “off” position.

Somebody kill me now. I thought to myself.

By sheer force of will, I swung my legs off of the bed and sat upright. My head was filled with that miserable fuzzy feeling you get when have to wake up after far too little sleep. In retrospect, I should have grabbed a coffee on the way home and just made it an all-nighter. It would have sucked big time in a few hours, but it’s still gonna suck, anyway.

My thoughts were jumbled. I couldn’t even tell if I was making any sense and I was the only one in the room. Eyes at half mast, I made my way to the shower. While I let the water warm up I kicked out of my pajamas and took a look at myself in the bathroom mirror.

I managed to take pretty good care of myself despite the ridiculous work schedule. Mostly, I did it by eating right, though, Kaitlyn had gotten me into yoga a few months back. One thing was for certain, if I was going to keep up this relationship with Luke I would need to pick up on my exercise routine. I was still sore from our little session and that had been nearly a week ago.

Steam was rising behind the shower curtain. I jumped in and let the hot stream of water hit my face. I felt like I could fall asleep standing in the shower. It actually felt nice until my balance shifted forward and I caught myself by grabbing handle and turning the water to straight cold. It was as aggravating as it was invigorating.

Twenty minutes later and I was on the road with a gigantic cup of coffee in hand. I was steady slurping away at it when my phone started to ring. I grabbed it without looking and stuck it to my ear.

“Hello?”

There was nothing but silence.

“Hello…?”

I was just about to hang up when they finally spoke up.

“Hey. It’s me.”

Shit! Kevin.

“Oh, hey, what do you want? Because I’m almost at work.”

“Let’s get together for a few minutes.”

He sounded drunk. Not an unusual thing for Kevin to be…

“Sorry Kevin, but the answer is no.”

“Baby, c’mon, we need to talk.”

“You need to talk to me? Maybe you should have thought about that before you stuck your dick in the secretary at your office and half the girls in the city. Maybe, and just maybe, if you hadn’t done that I’d still be seeing you.”

“Oh my God, you’re still stuck on that?” he asked. “How many times do I have to tell you that was just a goddamned phase? I apologized. I can change if you just give me a chance Bria. At this point you’re just being a cunt about it.”

“Wow,” I said. “I don’t even know what to say to that. I don’t think I’ve ever dealt with a person as dense as you.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” he asked.

“I’m not stupid, Kevin.”

“Baby, I just want to talk… I heard about what happened.”

“I swear, if you call me baby one more time, I’ll throw up in my mouth. Stay out of my goddamned business and lose my phone number.”

“Fine,” he said. “You’re on your way to work, right?”

“Yeah…”

“Perfect, then I’ll come see you this afternoon.”

“You absolutely will not,” I yelled, but it was too late. He had hung up the phone.

Great. This is exactly what I needed. My loser of an ex showing up at my job. What’s worse is that he is friends with most of the people there. He’ll get right in and they’ll tell him where I am with no questions asked.

Screw it. It’s not like there’s anything I can do about it now. He’s probably just testing me anyway. If I had to bet on it, I would say he probably won’t show. This is just his way to get under my skin. He knows how seriously I take my work so he’s taking a cheap shot.

I pulled into the parking garage and decided to forget about it.

The morning air was cold and combined with my coffee, which was just starting to take effect, I was starting to feel a bit better.

I shoved my way through the revolving doors, determined to make it through this day.

“Hey Bri… how ya doin’ this mornin’, hun?”

It was Clara. She’d been working the front desk for as long as the firm had been around and was a sweet old lady.

“Hi Clara,” I said, putting on my happiest face. “What’s up?”

“You sure are popular this morning, dear. First of all, you got these…”

She pulled a huge bouquet of red roses from behind her desk and handed it to me. They were bundled neatly in a beautiful glass vase that looked like one my mother would have had in the house years ago.

“Oh,” I said with genuine surprise.

“There’s a note too,” said Clara.

She handed it to me over the tall counter.

“You didn’t read it, did you Clara?” I asked, with a knowing smile.

“Of course not, dear. I would never do anything like that.”

Anytime one of the girls got flowers Clara would read the note. We all grew to accept it as a cost of doing business.

“Who’s it from?” she asked.

“I’m sure you already know, Clara,” I said, pulling the note from the unsealed envelope.

Welcome home.

People say roses are cheesy, but I don’t know a damn thing about flowers, so here you go.

Can’t wait to see you again,

-Luke

For a brief moment the fatigue and the frustration went away and it was replaced with warmth. I absolutely could not believe he sent me flowers. It seemed like the most out of character thing in the world.

“That’s sweet, isn’t it hun?”

“Yeah, it is… thanks for hanging on to them for me, Clara.”

“Oh but wait, don’t go yet. There’s something else.”

I beamed, thinking Luke had left another surprise for me.

“Here ya go,” she said, handing another piece of paper over the counter.

“It’s from Kevin,” she said as I opened the folded sheet.

All the wind went out of my sails.

“He’s already called for you three times this morning. I wrote the times down on that paper. It sounded awfully important.”

“Thanks Clara,” I said, absentmindedly. “I’m gonna head up now.”

“Well, aren’t you gonna call him? I can’t have him tying up my phone lines all morning.”

“I’ll take care of it,” I said.

I glanced at my phone and realized I had about five minutes to make it up to the conference room where the partners were meeting. With the way the morning was going, I’m sure the elevator was about to be slower than it had ever been.

I waited patiently. The elevator Gods smiled on me and I made it to my floor with two minutes to spare.

As I stepped out and let the elevator doors close behind me, Tim Schreiber happened to be passing by.

“Hey kiddo, do you have your meeting notes, we’re just about to meet in the conference room to discuss the case?”

He always called me kiddo. He started on my first day and never stopped. I hated him for it a little more each time.

“Right here Mr. Schreiber,” I said, waving my folder.

“That a way, let’s go.”

He threw his arm over my shoulders and led the way. That annoyed the hell out of me too. Not because I thought he was being creepy, because he wasn’t. It was just his way of trying to relate to one of the bottom feeders. He felt like calling people kiddo and giving random pats on the back made him relatable to the rest of us. In reality, it was just an awkward way of going about things. Just about everyone else saw right through it. I guess when you have your name on a building long enough you start to lose touch with reality.

Everything was pissing me off this morning.

The meeting went smoothly. We were in and out in less than ten minutes. They got their information and gave some lip-service about how I was doing a “superb job” and if I kept it up, I’d be “climbing the ladder in no time.”

I didn’t even know what the hell that meant. Climbing the ladder? To where? There was nowhere to climb to until I got licensed and one thing had nothing to do with the other.

I couldn’t wait to get down to the records room and lay my head on the table. The only good thing about being down there is that it was dark and lonely. Nobody ever wanted to go down there unless they absolutely had to. The most frequent visitor I got, aside from the other paralegals was Jamie. And he only came down when he felt like sexually harassing me. Last I heard he was in Hawaii with his wife, so I’d at least be saved from that scumbag…

As I was mulling over the pros and cons of life in the basement, another one hit me. Shitty phone service. If I was going to thank Luke for the flowers, I better do it now.

I sat down on the top step of the stairs to hell and pulled out my phone. Here goes nothing.

I scrolled through my contacts and found him. He had snatched my phone and taken a picture of us together in his car right before he dropped me off. It was cute. I set it as his contact photo. I spent more time than I was willing to admit staring at in when I was in Ohio.

He picked up on the first ring.

“This…is …Luke,” he said in between deep gasps for air. He was breathing hard.

“Oh, hey, it’s Bria.”

“Hi… hang on.”

I had an irrational fear I’d caught him in the middle of something inappropriate. Even after all this time, Kevin’s little extracurricular activities were coloring how I saw the world... I almost felt ashamed for even letting the thought cross my mind.

“Sorry, I just finished running up the hill. I’m a little winded.”

“Oh, no problem, take your time.” I felt like an idiot.

“No, I’m good. What’s up? How was your trip home?”

“It was a total nightmare. But I don’t want to talk about that. I called to thank you for the flowers. They’re beautiful.”

“They’re nothing, I wanted to see you when you got in, but I thought since I couldn’t, I’d throw some flowers your way.”

“Well, I love them. Thank you.”

“Everything else good,” Luke asked. “You sound a little frazzled this morning.”

“Not much sleep, I guess. And…”

“What?”

“Nothing, it’s no big deal,” I lied.

“Is something going on?”

“Really, it’s not a big deal. Something else got under my skin this morning and it has me off my game a little bit.”

“Well, tell me. Stop beating around the bush already,” he said, impatiently.

“Ugh. Okay. It was my Ex. He called me this morning and kept giving me a hard time. I stopped answering his calls so now he keeps calling and harassing the lady who works at the front desk.”

“What did he say,” asked Luke.

“Nothing important. He’s been wanting to get back together for a while. Lately he’s been more persistent. I think he’s still drunk from last night…”

“So, he’s harassing you?”

“Yeah, a little, but it’s no big deal.”

“Listen, I know it’s not exactly any of my business, but I still don’t like it. He shouldn’t be causing you any problems at work. Maybe I should have a talk with him.”

“No! Please forget I said anything about it. It’s not anything to worry about, I promise.”

Luke sighed into the phone. I could tell he wanted to argue the point further.

“He’s just drunk,” I said. “He’ll sober up in a few hours and forget about the whole thing. I bet he’s already passed out by now. It’s nothing I can’t handle.”

“Fine. But if he gives you any more shit, I need to know about it.”

“Okay. Deal. But really, I’m good.”

I needed to change the subject.

“So, what about us?” I asked, hesitantly.

“What about us?” There was the hint of a challenge in his voice.

“When can we see each other again? It’s been a long week.”

“I have to do this training seminar tonight. How about after?”

“Does tomorrow work,” I asked. “I’m running on fumes right now and I desperately need a good night of sleep. Something tells me that won’t be happening if I hook up with you.”

“Tomorrow’s perfect. I’ll pick you up at work. There’s something I want to ask you anyway.”

“Oh, okay…,” What could he possibly have to ask me?

“Call me when you’re ready and I’ll be there.”

Before I could answer, he was gone. Everything Luke did seemed to have a finality to it. He didn’t linger around long once he’d made his point.

I stuffed my phone in my handbag and stared down the dark steps. Ten hours in the records room. Better get to it.

The light clicked and flickered on. It gave off a constant buzz. At first the noise could be annoying, but after a few minutes it blended in with the other background sounds.

I pulled an armful of files from the top of the stack and started sorting. There were paper trails on court cases going all the way back to the late nineties in here. Thousands and thousands of pages that would never be touched or seen by human eyes again.

I’d begged my boss to let me purge a lot of the older stuff, as it was all well beyond the state’s record keeping requirement.

He’d dismissed the idea quickly.

We keep everything here, Bria. You never know what you might need.

I wanted to ask him under what circumstances we’d need to reference some random meeting minutes from back when Clinton was in office, but I’d held my tongue. Lawyers are particular types and they argued for a living. If that was the way he wanted thing, there wasn’t much I could say to change his mind.

As I was about to dig into the Clark file, I heard the door click at the top of the stairs.

Great, so much for my alone time.

I hoped for Marcia or Lisa. They weren’t big talkers and would be fine with sitting in silence. But if it was Michelle… God help me if it’s Michelle. My head was pounding again and the idea of having to listen to her blab on about her upcoming wedding was enough to send me into a mini panic attack.

But the footfalls were heavy. It wasn’t the sound that heels or other women’s dress shoes make. Who else could be-.

“They told me I might find you down here.”

I whipped my head around just in time to see Kevin clumsily descend the last three stairs.

“Kevin, what the hell are you doing here?”

“Easy,” he said. “Can’t a guy come see his beautiful girlfriend at work?”

“I am NOT your girlfriend anymore. Or, are you too drunk to remember?”

“I’m not drunk, just missing you.”

“How did you find me, anyway?”

“Really, Bria? You act like I didn’t work here myself. Everybody here still loves me. In fact, I sat in that very chair longer than you ever will.”

“What, so you sweet talked your way in here? I bet everyone was so impressed to see you stumble through the office drunk before nine in the morning.”

Kevin slammed his hand down on the end of the long table. “I told you, I’m not drunk!”

His face twisted in a mix of frustration and rage. He’d always been a bit of a jerk, but wasn’t the type to lash out. Kevin had always done his best to avoid confrontation so the little outburst concerned me.

“Okay, you’re not drunk,” I whispered, nervously.

He walked the length of the table and stood over me. I cursed myself under my breath for not getting up sooner. I didn’t like the feeling of him towering over me.

“It’s been too long,” he said. “Enough of this nonsense. I’m ready for you to move back in.”

“It’s not going to happen, Kevin. I can’t forgive you for what you did.”

“Bria, don’t be so naïve. I have a stressful career and you spent so much time working on your own crap… what was I supposed to do?”

“That’s such a lame excuse. Yeah, I’m a busy girl, but don’t put that on me.”

“Why didn’t you just give this stupid job up? I never should have gotten it for you.”

“Why would you say that? You know-.”

“What the hell are those?” he interrupted.

He was staring at the vase of flowers.

“What asshole from the mail room gave you those?”

“It’s none you your business. They’re from a friend.”

Kevin pulled out one of the roses and held it in front of my nose.

“Some loser is trying to get in to your pants with these? What a fuckin’ joke.” He dropped it on the table in front of me. He was seething with anger, now.

“I think you should leave.” It came out a lot less assertively than I’d hoped.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” he snapped. “I think we have a lot more to discuss.”

He put his hand on my shoulder.

“Don’t you ever fucking touch me again!”

I jumped up, sending the wooden chair skittering back into the wall of files.

“Still a total priss, I see.”

Kevin kicked the chair away and started to advance toward me.

“I’m warning you, Kevin, you need to leave me alone.”

His eyes were unfocused and his gait unsteady.

“Just turn around and leave. You’ll thank yourself when you sober up.”

“It’s been such a long time,” he said. “I think we should give it one more chance. What do you say?”

I was backed up into the corner.

“Not another inch closer.” My own anger was starting to rise.

“What are you going to do? Are you going to scream for help? Don’t be ridiculous. I’m your boyfriend.”

When he leaned forward to take another step, I didn’t even think twice about what I was going to do.

I grabbed the heavy, metal stapler from the corner of the table and winged it at his head.

He was slow to react. The stapler hit its mark dead-center on his smug face. He reeled back in surprise and his nose immediately started gushing blood.

“Jesus, Bria!”

Kevin’s right heel caught on the table leg as he was stumbling backward. He fell in a heap.

“What the fuck did you do that for?” he screeched.

“I told you not to come any closer,” I said.

“You’re fuckin’ crazy!”

“Listen up you asshole. I gave you plenty of warning. What did you think was going to happen?”

He scrambled to his feet, clutching his shirt to his nose.

“I’m not done with you, bitch. You’re going to come to your senses soon and start begging me to come back. And when you do I’m not going to forget this little incident.”

Kevin ran up the stairs, grumbling and cursing. The door slammed behind him and I was able to exhale.