Chapter Seventeen

"Hey," he greeted her with a smile, taking a seat on the opposite side of the table.

"You're late," she replied and took another sip of her coffee.

"I'm sorry," he leaned forward to place a kiss on her lips, which kind of made her forgive him for the wait, "It's only 5 minutes," he added when he checked his watch then reached for the coffee cup that had been waiting for him.

"You want to tell me it's ok to be late from a business meeting with only five minutes?" she asked in a less serious tone.

"Is it a business meeting?" he looked confused and she started to wonder if he had paid attention at all to what she'd told him on the phone about an hour ago.

"Of course it is, I told you so."

"I thought you were joking, that it was a code or something?

"A code for what?" she chuckled a little.

"I don't know," he smiled and for a moment she wasn't sure they would actually be able to turn this into a business meeting, but he prove her wrong, "So what kind of a business do we have that is so urgent?"

She appreciated his question, especially because she really felt like finally getting this off her chest. She took out a piece of paper from her file case and handed it to him.

"Where did you get this?" he asked, after taking one look at the paper, which was of course familiar to him, since it was signed by him.

"From the client," she said simply, her eyes never leaving his, she wanted to see all his reactions.

"Does this mean that they are...your clients?"

"Yes, since last week."

"Are you serious?"

She understood why he asked this in the tone he did, she wasn't really proud of taking that particular company on as a client, but she couldn't be picky in her current situation.

"You know perfectly well that I can't really afford turning down well-paying clients right now."

"But we won two cases against this company together."

"I know and that is exactly why they've chosen me. You represent some of their biggest competitors on the market and they simply want to profit from my knowledge, the part which is not bound by confidentiality of course."

"Makes sense," he nodded, "We should have seen this coming, right? Clients wanting to play us against each other," he said her biggest concern out loud, it was a delicate situation.

"We can handle this, right? I mean do you think it will be a problem? Because if so, we can figure something out."

"No, it's cool. I've already fantasized about beating you in court, maybe this dream will come true one day."

"Or it won't. I mean do you really want to go to court with this case?"

"Was this question part of the negotiations? Should I pay attention to my words from now on?"

"No," she smiled at him and was relieved that they managed to get to an understanding so easily, "We will schedule an official meeting for next week, I'm done with business for now."

"Then let me kiss you again," he said, leaning close to her once more, "I love you and we will get through this, who knows, it might actually be fun."

"You know, you really should start taking your job seriously."

"Why? Isn't law a game?" he asked chuckling and this time she was the one kissing him.

"I love you too, but I have to run now. You're picking up the kids today, right?"

"Sure. Just for the record, I take my parental duties seriously."

"I know you do, thank you" she kissed him one last time before she walked away with a smile on her face.