I shuddered and pushed the unpleasant thoughts from my mind as I took a seat before Bill’s modern glass desk. Work first, then I would worry about Audrey and Max.

“Catherine,” Bill said, looking up from a thick binder and rubbing his neatly trimmed gray beard. “Thanks for coming by. I have to jump on a call in a minute, so I’ll make this brief. I’ve been impressed with your work.”

I held my breath, hoping Bill wouldn’t add a “but” and go on to mention the memo I had flubbed after Audrey kept me up all night.

“You’re the kind of diligent, conscientious associate I want in my corner. Do you have time to join my team for the Phillips litigation? I’m not going to sugarcoat it, it’ll be round-the-clock work for a while, but it’s an interesting case and we’ll be arguing it before the Southern District in October.”

“I have the time,” I assured him, chest expanding with pride. “Count me in.”

“All right,” Bill said with a decisive nod. “Glad you’ll be joining us. My assistant will reach out later to schedule an on-boarding meeting for the full team.”

Bill picked up his pen and turned back to his binder, dismissing me. I rose from the chair and floated out the door, nearly running directly into Connor. He looked behind me to Bill’s office, then gave me a quick smile and, with an inclination of his head, indicated I should follow him down the hallway. Butterflies burst into my stomach. This was the most significant interaction I’d had with Connor since the uncomfortable night at the Hirshhorn two and a half weeks earlier, and I had been craving a return to normalcy with him. I missed our jokes, the way his hazel eyes twinkled when he smiled, the slight imperfection in that otherwise gorgeous smile.

“So,” he said, voice low, as we walked down the hallway. “Coming from Bill’s office, huh? And with a smile on your face? Let me guess: Good news about the Phillips team?”

I nodded, straining hard to remain professional. “I’ve been killing myself to get staffed on that case. You know how most of the cases I work on settle, so I’m excited to get in the courtroom. And there’s no denying that this is an interesting case. The libel allegations alone—”

“Yeah, definitely. Well, congrats. It’ll be fun working with you.”

My heart skipped a beat, part thrilled at the prospect of working alongside Connor, part offended Bill had chosen him before me. “I didn’t realize you were on the team, too.”

“Yeah, Bill asked me this morning. Sounds like there’ll be a lot of all-nighters in our immediate future.”

Against my will, my heartbeat resumed and stepped up to a double-speed pace as I imagined long nights in the office with Connor, the two of us holed up in a conference room, chugging coffee and sharing vending machine candy, discussing the finer points of our legal arguments. Our hands would meet atop a stack of binders, and everything that had happened since Audrey had begun messing in our relationship would melt away. This would be our chance to start fresh, to recapture the intellectually stimulating atmosphere of when we first met.