He nodded, looking slightly uneasy about all this. “Are you sure you’re okay staying with me?”
I wasn’t sure it was a great idea, but it was for a week. What could go wrong in a week?
I was so nervous as I pulled up to Eric’s house. I hoped he wouldn’t fire me. I hoped he understood what I was trying to accomplish, which was to keep his brother from losing his job. As for staying with him, I had a very bad feeling about all of it, but the more morbid side of me wanted to see what would happen. I knew I was asking for trouble. The moment I stepped into his apartment, I knew things would change between us, but I was tired of fighting my feelings for Robert.
I got out of my car and slammed the door, giving a weak smile when Eric walked out the front door.
“I thought you were going to be at work today? I had to deal with Mrs. Cranston. Again. It was ridiculous. You’d better work overtime tomorrow to make up for it.”
“Um…about that. We need to talk.”
His eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms over his chest. “Are you quitting?”
“It’s not what you think,” I rushed on. “I swear to you, I don’t want to quit my job, but you may want to fire me when you hear what I have to say.”
“Why do I not like the sound of that?”
I licked my lips, feeling like I was about to throw up. “I have to stay on with Robert’s firm for the rest of the week.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“I can still work from his apartment,” I rushed on. “I can have all the calls transferred to my phone and I’ll bring the laptop with me. I can do most everything from there.”
“You can do everything from your desk at my office,” he countered.
“I’m doing it for Robert.”
“I don’t give a shit. You work for me, not him.”
“I don’t have a choice! His boss is a massive dick and he threatened Robert if I don’t stay on to keep this client happy.”
“Robert’s a big boy. He doesn’t need your protection.”
“He threatened to have Robert disbarred.”
Eric went silent, then shook his head slightly. “Why would he do that?”
“Because he’s a massive dick. Robert’s up for senior partner and he’s holding this case over Robert’s head. His client, Rebecca, she likes me for some reason and she wants me involved in her case. She insists that the only way she’ll stay with the firm is if I’m on her case.”
“But you’re not a lawyer.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” I snapped. I ran my shaky hand through my hair. God, this was a clusterfuck. “Her case will bring in millions for the company and his boss is more concerned about that than anything else. When the meeting was over today, he told me that if I didn’t do what he wanted, he would have Robert disbarred. He’s insane. So, I agreed, because I couldn’t think of anything else to do. Being a lawyer is everything to Robert. He worked his ass off to be where he is. I can’t let this asshole rip that away from him. Besides, there’s just this one thing that has to be dealt with, and as soon as Robert’s sure that it’s handled, his boss won’t care if I’m there or not.”
“When are you going to tell him?”
“I don’t know. I want to wait, just a little bit so he can focus on the case. Maybe when he’s close to wrapping it up I’ll tell him. Then he can start planning on how to get out of there without risking everything.”
“Anna, if he threatened to have him disbarred once, he could do it again. What could you possibly do?”
“I don’t know,” I shouted. “But I can’t let him lose everything.”
Eric stepped forward and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into a weird hug. “We’ll figure this out. I’ll find someone else to cover you until this is over.”
I pulled back and frowned. “You’re not firing me?”
He rolled his eyes at me. “Who would I replace you with? I’m used to you. Besides, if you’re gone, who’s going to throw coffee mugs at me?”
Robert
When Anna arrived at my place tonight, I couldn’t help but stare her down. I remembered all the things she had said about me at that lunch, about how I was her best friend. Those