said, shaking his head, a smile playing on his lips.
I went back to my paperwork and undid my tie. I’d had court all morning, and thankfully we had won that particular case. But I had court all next week, too, and a deposition. I had assumed many of the clients from Richard, a lawyer I knew from school when he came in for guest visits and then finally retired. I had bought into his practice but kept it as mine, even though it felt like I was starting from the ground up in the end.
Richard had all the faith in the world in me. But right now, I didn’t feel like I did.
We were just about at capacity already, and until I got my staff back, we’d be running on those fumes as I had mentioned before. I wasn’t in the mood to take on a partner, but having someone to split the work with might help. At least that’s what I told myself.
“Call on line four,” Dustin called out, and I laughed. He could have sent it straight back with a message, but we were all a little off today, so I didn’t mind.
I picked up the phone and had to push all thoughts of stress and other niggling thoughts out of my mind.
“Jacob Queen,” I answered.
“Jacob, you want to head down to Denver tonight? The girls and I are going out. New promotion in the office. They’d love to see you.”
I looked down at the phone and then glared up at the doorway. Dustin’s eyes were wide, his hands moving back and forth.
“Sorry, wrong call,” he mouthed, then scurried back to his desk.
Dustin was usually far better at his job. But with Seressia out of the office, and his mother recovering from heart surgery, he was off. We all were. I had offered to let him take the day off and be with his mom, but she was sleeping now. He had spent the morning with her and was taking the next few days off to help out around the house. For now, she was resting, and everything seemed okay. Still, today was a shitty day, and I was ready to close the doors and let everybody go home so we could sage the office or something.
“Jacob? Are you still there?”
I scowled down at the phone, then sucked in a breath through my teeth. “Hey, Susan. Sorry, we’re a little busy. No, I can’t go down to Denver tonight. I have plans.”
“Plans?” she asked, a little anger in her tone.
I wanted to smack myself upside the head for even mentioning it. I should have just said I didn’t want to go out. But no, instead, I had intrigued her. I had loved Susan once. But, damn it, I hadn’t been the man I needed to be before. That man had tried to love her, had thought he had, but he’d been wrong.
The man I was now didn’t even like her.
“I’m busy,” I said curtly. “And, Susan, we’re divorced. We didn’t even like each other in the end. What are you doing? What do you hope to accomplish with this?”
She was silent for a moment, and I almost felt bad. But she had used her silences as weapons in the past, though I was trying not to think too hard on that.
“I don’t know why you have to be so cruel.”
“Susan. Go out with Bob. With your girls. Celebrate the promotion. I’m not the person to celebrate with. Not anymore. We both signed those papers.”
“I just miss you, Jacob.”
I didn’t know if that was true. Wasn’t sure if she missed me, or if she missed being the center of someone’s world. The problem was, I wasn’t sure she had been the center of mine. And that was on me.
“I got to go, my phone’s lighting up, and these cases aren’t going to deal with themselves.”
“Work as usual.”
“Goodbye, Susan,” I said, sighing. I hung up the phone, not wanting her to suck me back into a conversation I wasn’t in the mood to have.
Dustin ran in. “I’m so sorry. I pushed back the wrong line. I just downed a Red Bull, and I’m ready to go. I am so sorry.”
I shook my head. “You have a thousand things on your mind. You’ve never made a mistake like that before, you’re not going to again. It’s not your fault.” I paused. “Okay, it’s a little bit your fault, but I don’t care right now. Get your work done. I’ll do mine,