a man. I gave up trying a long time ago, and I will not make a fool—a bigger fool—of myself with Austin. Now, I'm going to wash my face and go to work, and the subject is closed."
She stood up, but Paula's voice stopped her from leaving.
"No, you're not pretty like me. I'm cute. You're drop-dead gorgeous in spite of the way you dress and chop your hair. The reason men don't ask you out is because you're obnoxious."
Bailey whirled in amazement. “I am not!"
Paula shrugged. "Okay. Will you settle for competitive and intimidating? What man could possibly feel like he's a match for you except maybe Austin?"
"Austin and I are natural enemies. We can't be together five minutes without fighting."
"Not quite true," Paula disagreed. "What you two do is compete, something that's as natural as breathing for both of you. But lighten up a little. Try to hold it down to ninety percent of the time. Play nice once in a while."
Bailey stood in the doorway, trying to take in what Paula had said, to decide if any of it had validity, if it mattered.
"Go on and wash your face," Paula finally said, waving her hand dismissively. "The makeup isn't integral to the situation, anyway. Only if it makes you feel different about yourself."
*~*~*
Austin leaned across the conference table. "Right here in Article Three," he said, pointing with his Montblanc pen. Daniel Lewis, sitting at the other end of the table, scowled.
Sitting next to him, Stafford Morris nodded slowly. The man actually seemed to be considering the merger offer. At least he hadn't rejected it outright, and he hadn't blown smoke in Austin's face even once.
Morris flipped through the papers then folded them and stood. "I'll read through your offer," he promised, "and submit it to the other partners for consideration."
Austin nodded agreeably. "Certainly. I think you'll find it advantageous for both firms. You have some good attorneys, some old-line clients, but you're not taking new ground like we are. The legal field is changing. It's a business, has to be run like a business. We plan to be so large that we'll handle all our clients' needs, have a department for everything. One-stop shopping."
Stafford listened quietly then took a cigar out of his shirt pocket and lit up. Squinting through the smoke, he grinned around the rolled tobacco, leisurely took it from his mouth. "I'll look it over. Daniel—" He nodded to the older man. "Good to see you. Give my best to Rose."
At the elevator Daniel Lewis was distracted by another associate, and Austin seized the opportunity. ''This merger would be very interesting for me," he told Morris. "I applied for a position with your firm when I got out of law school. Gordon and I came in together."
"I remember," Morris said evenly. "You were all wound up and ready to conquer the world. A lot like the young lady I'd just hired, Bailey Russell. I knew one of you was enough, and I was right. It takes Gordon to balance with her."
Austin wasn't sure he was hearing right. "You're saying you hire lawyers on the basis of personality?"
Morris blew smoke just to the right of Austin's ear.
The man was smiling, not with his mouth, but with all the rest of his face. "A law firm's like a family. Everybody has a different role, but they all have to work together. It's not a machine you can plug available parts into." The elevator doors opened and Morris stepped on, turned, and lifted one hand in a wave to Lewis, but his words were for Austin. "You were too damned pushy then. You're still too damned pushy."
The doors closed. After several seconds, Austin blinked, turned, and headed back to his office.
He had lost out on the job because he would have clashed with Bailey, because Morris considered him as pushy as she was, not because he wasn't bright enough or didn't have enough honors or good enough grades. He had been rejected because he tried too hard. He needed to think about that for a while.
Slumping into his chair, he pulled up to his desk and stared sightlessly at the papers in front of him. It was not, he believed, possible to be "too damned pushy" in the legal field. Morris was wrong about that. Anyway, the man was as pushy as they came. He apparently just had a problem with perception.
Austin leaned back in his chair and lifted his feet to his desk. So he hadn't really