“No, glad it’s all clear,” Audrey said. Clearly, they were not going to be “buddy buddy” on this case. And not only were they not going to be buddies, Colette seemed to want to score points against her. Some help this was. She’d rather run defensive discovery herself than deal with this. No, she had to be positive. Colette had found an important case. She should have checked before the meeting. She had to be more on top of her game. She walked down the hushed corridors to her office, passing the portraits of various male partners on the wall.

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

Audrey couldn’t believe she was on her way to work at seven-thirty on a Wednesday morning. She was really stressed if she wasn’t able to sleep in the morning. When she’d woken up early, she’d decided to go to a yoga class to see if that would help. Winnie swore by yoga and her dermatologist had recommended yoga (but not hot yoga) to reduce stress. She’d complained that her skin flushed when giving client presentations. That wasn’t the image she wanted to project as a candidate for partner at her law firm, especially competing against Tim and flawless Colette. And what with working for Malaburn again, she needed a new mechanism to counter getting stressed. And she did feel more relaxed, although very sore. Apparently, it countered stress by making her too sore to be stressed.

As she let herself out of the door, she looked up to see Jake. My note with the briefs is supposed to arrive later today. He’ll probably just wave and walk by quickly.

“Do you go to work at this hour?” Jake asked. Making conversation, good.

“Not usually. I just woke up early. Do you?” Audrey asked. He looked dressed for work.

“No. But I’m not off to the office immediately. My sister has some early team meeting at the hospital, so I’m picking up my niece and nephew to bring them to daycare.”

“That sounds like fun.”

“Want to come? You can meet my sister and her kids. She thinks that two adults for two kids is optimal.”

“Sure,” Audrey said. Yes! Here’s a chance to hang out, and I’m not even expected at the office until nine-thirty. “I’m sorry again I had to work on Saturday.”

“Life of a lawyer. I get it,” Jake said.

That wasn’t what she wanted him to get, but she wasn’t sure what more to say.

They walked down an empty Columbus Avenue, past the bags of early morning bread deliveries tucked into the corners of restaurant doorways, and turned down a block leading to Central Park West. The early morning sun lit up the golden stonework of the buildings on the north side of the street.

“So, you moved here to help your sister?”