Chapter Twenty

She thought he would say good-bye and leave, like the others did, but he waited until everyone left the conference room.

"How did he know about the clause?" he asked with an all too serious expression on his face which suggested that it wouldn't be a friendly conversation, "That's confidential information."

"Are you accusing me of something?" she didn't like his tone, especially because it was undeserved.

"Did you…did you tell him?" he asked, looking straight into her eyes and she was shocked to see him being serious about this.

"No, I did not share any confidential information with anyone," she replied and turned away from him, starting to collect her files from the table impatiently, she did not like where the conversation was heading, "In fact Chris and I didn't even have the chance to talk about this case before the meeting, I assigned it to him the very last minute, not that you have a right to know that," his accusation simply hurt her too much, she just wanted to cut their talk short and go back to work, in the hope that they could just forget this incident ever happened.

"Did you think his presence would intimidate me?" he switched to a less serious tone, but the tension was already in the air and she didn't feel like taking part in another conversation about Chris again.

"Apparently it didn't, but that wasn't my intention. I just thought since you lawyered up with Barbie, I should have someone else at my table as well," she held all her files in her hand now and was ready to leave, but he was still looking at her.

"I'm afraid this is not going to end very pretty. Why on earth did you have to take this client?"

She couldn't believe her ears, it was simply not fair of him to point this question at her head, just because he had become the underdog in a settlement discussion. He had always been a sore loser, but he shouldn't have blamed it on her. His chances might have been better with a more experienced lawyer on his side.

"Excuse me? It's none of your business who I take as a client, besides you know perfectly well that I basically had no choice," she probably sounded angrier than she should have, but she didn't feel like controlling herself anymore, he had crossed a line here, "I have to take care of the firm, make sure we don't go under in the first year and I have to do it alone. I don't even get to see my children on most days for more than a few minutes, you really want to lecture me on how I run my own firm?"

He just stared at her, clearly shocked by her reaction, he probably thought they would be able to discuss this calmly, but she wasn't calm anymore. She was angry, sad and hurt at the same time and she suddenly let it all out on him.

"I'm sorry that you feel this way, I've done my very best to help you through this, I'm not sure there's anything more I could do."

She knew he was right, still she thought her anger was justified, simply because of one thing she hadn't said out loud yet, but she had no more self-control at that moment, the words just came out of her mouth.

"You shouldn't have let me do this on my own, you should be on my side, in your office, we were supposed to do this together," she was already fighting with her tears, but she knew she had to try and hide them as long as she could, not because of him, he had seen her cry before, but the glass windows all around them were her enemies at that moment again.

But he obviously realized what was going on inside of her, because he walked up to her, took the files out of her hand and hugged her. She didn't move away, in fact she hid her face on his shoulder and couldn't help letting out a few teardrops.

"I'm sorry, I really am, you know I want nothing else, but to lead this firm with you, but we have to be cautious, we have to think of our future."

"I know, I'm sorry, I don't even know what I'm saying anymore," she lifted her head to look into his eyes and he stroke her face to wipe away the tears.

"You're exhausted, why don't we take the afternoon off and go for a long walk? Then we could pick up the kids and spend the rest of the day together. Everything will seem different tomorrow."

"I can't take the afternoon off, I have another meeting."

"You should ask Evelyn to reschedule it for you, or you could ask Chris to step in, looks like he can get up to speed very quickly," the playful tone he used convinced her that he wasn't angry anymore so she ventured a short smile.

"He just got lucky with the clause, but you did a bad job hiding your surprise," Christopher's lucky guess wouldn't have had any consequences if Will hadn't given himself away.

"You know me too well, this is why we shouldn't work on opposite sides of a case, when we are such a great team."

"We will be a team again someday."

"We will," he smiled at her, "I know we are still surrounded by these giant glass walls, but I simply can't leave without…"

She didn't let him finish the sentence, she knew what he meant and she couldn't let him go without a kiss, not after their heated argument and everything else that had happened ever since he had entered her office that day.

"I'm picking up the kids today and I'm cooking dinner," she said after their lips parted.

"Sounds good to me," he smiled at her one last time before he let go of her, "I'll see you tonight then," he turned around and took a few steps in the direction of the door.

"You know what we need to do to make up for this fight?"

"What?" he turned back to her.

"I'm going to show you tonight," she said mystically, hoping he would understand where she was coming from.

"I'm looking forward to it," he replied, obviously not missing her point and she already couldn't wait for the moment he would hold her in his arms again.