Page 20 of Take What Hurts

Hannah’s eyes widened, a gleeful smile erupting on her face. “No way. Did something happen? Is she gay?” Hannah’s voice was far too loud in the busy restaurant, and Elliott waved her hands wildly in front of her.

“Will you fucking keep it down?” Elliott hissed, and Hannah stifled a giggle. “And no, okay? Of course nothing happened. She is on the other side of this fucked-up matter. And she’s, like, really senior, anyway, and I’m just a small fry. Even if the ethics weren’t a problem, why would she even bother with me?” Elliott ignored the other part of Hannah’s question because—was Mackenzie gay? Or was she just nice? Elliott didn’t know, and she absolutely, categorically wasn’t going to embarrass herself by trying to find out. She also wasn’t going to assume solely going off vibes either. Because, yes, Elliott got a vibe from Mackenzie. But she wouldn’t be the first person to put her foot deep in shit off the back of an assumption like that.

Hannah rolled her eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous. It’d be hot—a senior lawyer getting together with her more junior colleague.” Hannah fanned herself with her hand, and the heat crept up Elliott’s neck. Because, okay, Hannah wasn’t wrong. “And everything else is just details.”

Elliott huffed.

“But there was something, right? There had to be, because anytime you talk about her, you go all pink.” Hannah motioned to Elliott’s hot face.

“I mean, she’s attractive. I’ve got eyes. And the conversation was, well, nice. Easy, I guess?” Elliott shook her head. “It was just nice to talk to another person and have it be easy and fun.” She squirmed before she said the next part. “And at the airport—” God, it felt almost wrong to admit it, but she knew as long as she didn’t act on the feeling that made her fingers itch whenever she was close to Mackenzie, it was just a biological attraction. Nothing she could do about it. “I kind of wanted to find her again after we’d said goodbye. Which was… weird, I guess. Like I felt sad that I couldn’t find her. And I think maybe I felt like she was someone I’d be happy to get to know. But yeah, then I walked into the conference room the next day and she was right fucking there, and all of that kind of went up in smoke.” Elliott didn’t, wouldn’t mention the part about what she’d done in her hotel room that night. She’d take it to her grave.

Hannah was positively bouncing where she sat. “Oh my god.” Her hands clapped together, loudly, and the glances from other tables returned. “You had like a little meet-cute in the fucking airport. Like right out of a fucking movie where they meet like that and fall head over heels in love.”

“You’re forgetting the part where she was in the conference room as the lawyer on the other side.” Elliott pushed herself out of her seat and walked her trash to the trash can on her way out the door.

Hannah followed at her heels, an excitable puppy. “Oh, who cares!”

Elliott barked out a laugh. “Oh, probably my client. Probably Mackenzie’s client. Maybe both of the respective firms we work at? Possibly the Washington State Bar Association?”

Hannah pouted, bottom lip pushing out. “This matter won’t last forever.” Elliott raised a brow. Hannah sighed. “Okay, maybe it will, but you both won’t be working on it forever. Plenty of other lawyers in the firm for it to bounce to next! It’s due for some new lawyers—you’ve both been on it at least a week now!” Hannah stopped abruptly, face posing a question. “Wait, how did neither of you know who the other one was when you met in the airport?”

Elliott laughed. “I’ve never worked a file with her before! And what reason would either of us have to suspect that the other was the lawyer on the other side of this matter?” Elliott shrugged. “I left the office that day under the impression that the crusty old guy that works at Mackenzie’s firm—you know the one⁠—”

Hannah nodded sagely.

“Anyway, I thought he was on it, and I’d done all my prep based on that. And presumably, given our client didn’t even know I was on it, Mackenzie didn’t know either.”

Hannah’s mouth dropped open and Elliott fought the urge to reach out and push her jaw closed for her, before Hannah spoke. “This really is just like some romantic fucking comedy right here. Ugh, it’s almost sickening.”

Elliott pushed the door to their building open and held it for Hannah. “Yeah, well, it ended the minute I opened the door to our clients at each other’s throats in the conference room. You know how ethical I am and how inappropriate it would be.” Elliott glanced at a beaming Hannah sideways and smirked.

Hannah shrugged as they stepped into the elevator and shot Elliott a very serious look. Elliott chuckled despite herself. “What if she’s your person, though?” Hannah asked.

Elliott lifted her eyes to the numbers ticking rapidly higher in the elevator and sighed, a sick feeling settling in her stomach. Because how fucking glorious would that be? Also, how fucking impossible—for a multitude of reasons. “She’s not.”

TWELVE

ELLIOTT

Ten days after the anxiety-inducing phone call with Mackenzie, Elliott ducked out of the freezing rain and into the coffee house down the street from her office. Brushing droplets off the shoulder of her favorite wool overcoat, she took a deep breath as she pushed through the door and smiled as the nutty, caramel scent of the café’s house grind curled inside her nostrils.

Elliott’s smile grew as she approached the counter and the café’s resident barista, Freya. She had a face like a pixie’s, a pink streak in her hair, and a way about her that left Elliott feeling warm inside. She assumed it was a Pavlovian response to the person responsible for doling out the caffeine.

“Caramel latte, right?” Freya held out a long-fingered hand for Elliott’s reusable mug that essentially lived in the pocket of her coat—just in case.

Elliott handed it over and dropped a hand to the countertop as she tapped her card. Ten dollars was getting on the rich side of things, but what alternative was there? Give up coffee? Her brain recoiled at the thought. “You know it. Do they pay you extra to remember everyone’s orders?”

Freya sidestepped to the coffee machine and started the process of creating Elliott’s lifeline for the second half of the morning, grinding beans into the portafilter before tamping and fitting it into the gleaming black machine. She looked sideways at Elliott, a brow hitched a little higher on her forehead than usual. “Not everyone’s.”

Elliott’s brow furrowed. “Wha—” The sound of another customer clearing their throat in the line behind her cut her off, and she turned around with a startle. “Sorr—” And her stomach lurched at the sight of the sapphire eyes that sparkled back at her with amusement. “Mackenzie. Hi!” By the skin of her teeth, she held on to the groan that threatened to escape. Too bright. Too not serious for not having heard a single fucking thing from Mackenzie following the phone call that had plagued Elliott’s nightmares and positively ripped her thumb to shreds over the last ten days. Mackenzie didn’t say a word, just smiled at her. Shifting where she stood and bursting with the incessant need to not stand here in silence while the coffee machine growled behind them, Elliott opened her mouth, face hot. “Is this—” She swallowed hard. “Do you⁠—”

“—come here often?” Mackenzie’s eyes sparkled harder. Elliott stifled the urge to shove her face directly into the refrigerator, so intense was the heat in her cheeks.

She indulged herself for a moment, raking her eyes over Mackenzie’s curved lips, bright pink with cold and wind, then down to the charcoal overcoat draped over collarbones peeking out from under the curve of her blouse. Elliott had the passing thought of whether Mackenzie owned a blouse that did cover her collarbones or whether it was a deliberate tactic of distraction to have them out. Brain finally coming back online, she snapped her eyes back to Mackenzie’s face and was struck dumb by the way Mackenzie’s eyes had darkened just a shade. Oh god, had she noticed? Had Elliott offended her? Fucking hell. But, no, she was still smiling, so…

Elliott sucked in a breath, hoping to quell the heat—embarrassment or arousal, she couldn’t tell right then—that had surged from her cheeks to her belly, and she gave a small shrug, going for nonchalance. She suspected she’d failed when Mackenzie’s smile grew and she leaned an elbow against the counter, eyes on Elliott expectantly. “I meant, I haven’t seen you here before,” Elliott said.

Mackenzie’s eyes lingered on Elliott’s, and Elliott was captivated. The heat in her abdomen intensified, and the noise of the coffee shop sounded muffled in her ears. She shuffled her feet against the pressure building deep in her body and scrambled to summon any thought other than one involving the way Mackenzie’s trousers hugged her thighs so perfectly. Pull yourself together. Then, mercifully, Mackenzie softened minutely, like she’d decided she’d let Elliott squirm enough, and pushed herself up off the counter. “I had a deposition upstairs this morning, and it finished more quickly than I was expecting.” She shrugged and looked around the café. “And there’s no such thing as too much coffee, so…”