cars behind me are honking because the light has changed and the old lady is still in the middle of the crosswalk, giving me the stink eye.
Old? Since when is thirty-two old? Who does that little shit think he’s talking to?
He doesn’t even help the old lady across the street. I want to get out of my car and do it, but she’d probably think I’m just trying to make her move faster. Which would be mostly true.
It’s not even eight o’clock yet, and I already hate this day.
Work.
I just need a few hours at the office, and then I’ll feel good and I’ll know my place in the world again.
Because I love my work.
Sentinel is the tenth-largest real estate firm in New York City in terms of dollar volume of listings. The properties are luxury. The offices are shiny but not as shiny as the law firm I left seven months ago. Everyone here works hard but not as hard as everyone works in Big Law. This is New York, so looking good matters, but these people aren’t too slick because no one’s the star of a reality show. Okay, maybe I’m a little slick, but only because it’s impossible to tone down my alarming good looks and impeccable style. And it’s real estate, so everyone is personable—but not as personable as your friendly neighborhood real estate agent in Ohio. Because this is New York. So I don’t have to deal with a bunch of friendly brokers all up in my face every day. They let me do my job, and I’m more than happy to let them do theirs as long as they don’t fuck things up by being idiots or doing anything illegal.
I did start in-house lawyering here so I could have a better quality of life. It’s true.
That’s why I’m the general counsel at Sentinel, as opposed to one of the top three firms.
A little less income than Big Law, sure, but also less stress and hours.
It was time for me to get a life.
It was time for me to prove—to no one in particular—that I could make room for another person in that spacious new life.
I just didn’t expect to realize exactly how empty my life had become as soon as I’d made the change.
Fortunately, I don’t have time to dwell on that kind of thing anymore.
Fortunately, my work life is fulfilling in a way that it has never been before.
I could do with a lot less of the Christmas decorations and holiday cheer around the corporate office, though.
As soon as I step off the elevator and into the Sentinel lobby, I’m greeted by Cindy the unbearably happy receptionist. Which is weird because she started to back off after I’d been here for about a week. That made me like her more.
“Happy holidays, Mr. Cannavale!”
“Nope.”
“I’m so happy you’ll be at the holiday party next week!”
“I won’t be there.”
“Oh really? Because Maddie just RSVP’d yes for you. We got the deluxe karaoke machine this year, so it should be extra fun.”
“Oh really? Maddie RSVP’d ‘yes’ to the office party, you say?”
“Yeah, like ten minutes ago.”
Interesting.
Unexpected.
Absolutely unacceptable.
But hot.
And there she is. The woman who keeps my schedule running smoothly and handles me with the sleek, unruffled grace of a highly skilled assassin. She shields me from all of the assholes and idiots I don’t want to deal with. I like it. She’s the executive assistant of my dreams and the succubus from my filthiest, most confusing adolescent nightmares. She’s the woman who’s kept me in a constant state of blue balls for the past two months. Today, she’s torturing me with a tight black pencil skirt, knee-high boots, and a cashmere sweater that looks like it was spray painted onto her evil curves. Her brown hair is so shiny; I believe her shampoo is made from the semen of demonic stallions. It’s up in a bun, revealing the satiny smooth skin of her long neck. I could spend an hour or twelve just kissing that neck, and I bet she’d like it too.
But that’s neither here nor there.
She’s standing by her desk with a coffee mug in one hand, her other hand resting just above her hip, right where I should be gripping her.
“Cooper.”
“Morning, Sunshine. You’ve got your conference call with Drucker in ten minutes, and Harvey from Cravath had to push your lunch to the new year because he’s an actual human who takes time off to be with his family during the holidays.”
“I’m not going