Chapter 2
Meet-Cute
What the fuck, Amy thought. Lauren had dropped her off at some random curb and just told her to GO IN without saying much of anything else.
"What is this place," Amy muttered to herself once she was abandoned. There was no one around and her eyes burned from the heat of the sun.
Slowly she walked toward the gate and pushed a button on a sleek looking speaker box.
"Hello," a robotic voice called.
"Hi, ah… Amy Raudenfeld," she tried. "I have an appointment."
She heard a buzz and the gate opened up. There was a long stone-walk leading up to the few steps by the front door. The place just looked like a mansion to her. Was it normal for law-firms to run out of mansions? This was worlds different that Ruiz and Ward. Ruiz and Ward ran out of a nearly closed strip-mall on the other side of town.
Before she got too far, the door in front of her burst open and Shane Harvey ran out to greet her.
"AMMMYYYY!" He called, running toward her with two drinks in his hand.
"Shane," she said, awkwardly, as he handed her a margarita and nearly hugged her in his excitement to greet.
Amy had gotten dressed to fight for her life in court only to arrive at this place and find a barely clad Shane in tiny swim trunks, a pair of shades, and nothing more.
"Oh God, she didn't tell you?"
"Hmm?" Amy pretended the whole thing wasn't a total shit-show.
"She was supposed to tell you," Shane pushed, leading her into the house. "I invited you both over to try out the pool!"
"What?" Amy had to fight the urge not to scoff. What was this, fourth grade?
"Well, it just got done," he said. "Lauren is the worst! She always leaves things out. I don't know how you live with her..."
"You have no idea," Amy shrugged. She took the glass to her lips and drank half of her margarita down in one sip. Since it was on the rocks it went smooth. In the heat of the day and with the stress half relieved by the setting, Amy felt her head swim with that small blast of alcohol.
"Oh good, I was worried you wouldn't like them," Shane said. Amy found herself wondering what the hell her life had become. Why the hell would Lauren drop her off at a pool party in a suit and just leave. Was this some sort of backwards blind-date? Amy knew that Shane wasn't into her sexually so it was all really weird. On their two chance meetings Shane had been all about telling her exactly HOW gay he was.
"So, Lauren, says you work for Ruiz and Ward," Shane tried to get her to talk.
"What, oh, yeah," Amy said in a daze. The house was too beautiful. She almost couldn't believe she had been invited to wait inside.
Shane walked around her while she took her suit jacket off and unbuttoned her stiff cuffs to roll her shirt sleeves up over her arms since Lauren had been wrong to dress her that way. Her outfit was ridiculously formal. She had to fight the urge to unbutton her shirt and just do away with it altogether. "Who's that?" Amy asked, looking out the open glass door at the two people laying on long pool chairs in the backyard by the expensive looking palms.
They were beautiful and nearly naked.
"You're kidding, right?" Shane asked. He was looking at her over his glasses and amazed at the question he had just been asked.
"What?" Amy pretended to play dumb.
"Oh good," Shane laughed. "Lauren didn't tell me you were funny!" He swatted at her arm and walked out the door. "Amy's here you guys!"
There was no one else there.
Amy stood in the living room near the kitchen and began to go over all the things on the walls. Lauren had fixed Amy's hair by pulling it back real tight and then curling her ponytail to give it some flair. Amy held at her neck and felt the heat now. She wanted to let her hair down but she felt dumb.
"It's the worst right?" A sexy voice came up from behind her and she felt a tug at her side that was so unexpected that it shook her to her core.
"Hmm?" Amy tried, the hair on her arms standing up like the woman had been charged with electricity. Amy wasn't good at this meeting people thing. That's why she chose instead never to do it.
"We just got it," the woman said. She was a little shorter than Amy and she had gorgeous red-hair. She seemed practiced in how comfortable she was. Amy envied her. She made her feel comfortable like she'd known her for years.
"It's nice," Amy said.
"Come on, you don't have to lie."
"I'm not," Amy confirmed. She hadn't realized yet that she was talking to her soon-to-be-boss.
"Shane wanted a place like Liam's," she sighed. "My parents hate it. Hell, I hate it! When I showed them a picture I could swear they wanted to cry."
"Why's that?" Amy wondered.
"They're sort of anti-corporate," the woman said. "They hate what I do." Amy looked down at her unaware of what she was feeling. Was it pity? Sadness?
Was it attraction? For sure there was some of that too.
"My mom thinks my job isn't real," Amy added. Misery loves company.
The two women shared a look and Amy felt it as her whole world seemed to pause for a moment.
"Oh good, you've met," Shane said, interrupting them and nudging Amy a bit. "Karma, Amy, Amy, Karma." Amy felt her eyes flare and then calm. She noticed too that Karma had caught it, that secret.
"You didn't know," Karma said. Her lips parted in a quick intake of breath.
"Know what?" Shane asked.
"Nothing," Amy fought, staring at Karma and hoping she wouldn't say.
"Yeah," Karma scoffed and pretended not to be hurt but then she turned from Amy and walked away down the hall to somewhere unknown.
As she walked away Amy could almost feel life returning to every bit of her body. For a moment there she had almost ceased to function. Karma Ashcroft had been that arresting.
"She's weird," Shane whispered. "Don't worry, she's like that with everyone."
"Yeah," Amy said, relief hitting her. "I've heard." But she hadn't really. No one had ever mentioned that Karma Ashcroft was actually a stone-cold fox. Amy took her drink to her lips and drank the rest. She tried to remember that face but it seemed to already be fading and Amy hated that.
"Liam, this is Amy," Shane said, stepping away.
"Hi," Amy said, snapping out of her odd daze.
"Hi," Liam said back, he had his shades on and he seemed tall and hot from too much sun. "Welcome to the firm," he offered a smile. "We're all glad that you're here."
"I-" he walked away before she could say much else. It didn't help that Amy had a sort of delay.
"Okay, they're both weird," Shane laughed. "Please swim with me, Lauren's told me nothing about you and ever since I met you I just neeeeded to know more!"
He talked and talked and he was friendly and sweet but Amy found her eyes staring off to that space where Karma had gone.
The curiosity was scary in it's own way. She was so entranced with this odd addiction to see Karma again that she didn't even notice she had changed on the patio at Shane's urging and become her normal self again with her hair down and no cares in the world.
"So, what do you think?"
"Of what, the pool?"
"No, the hollywood pair," Shane teased.
"I dunno," Amy said. She couldn't get a read on Liam at all, and then Karma…
"Come on, first impressions are important! I'll get it out of you sooner or later."
Amy was holding a cheap float on the top of the water and trying not to shiver at the temperature difference between the hot and the cold.
"I don't know anything about this firm," Amy confessed.
"Really?" Shane asked.
"Really," Amy confessed.
She could tell that a world of thoughts were going through Shane's mind. She heard a door slam inside and stared over to check it out. Out of nowhere Lauren came near.
"Where the hell did you go?" Shane asked.
"We have to leave," Lauren said. "Mom wants to take us out to celebrate your new job."
"How do you even know I have a new job?" Amy laughed.
"Oh, you're hired," Shane confirmed. "You're already on the payroll."
"I told you doofus, he just wanted you to swim in his dumb pool and tell him stories about your high school trauma."
"Really?"
Shane nodded and made a puppy-dog face.
Amy laughed. She liked him all of a sudden. He was like a kid in a way. "Well, at least I know you won't be assholes."
"It's comforting, right?"
"Come on, Amy," Lauren pushed. She turned and left.
"We'll have to do it again sometime."
"Sure," Amy said, but she felt weird about the whole ordeal. She didn't even know if she wanted to see these people again, let alone work for them. They seemed to be living a whole different sort of life.
Shane followed her out and wrapped her up in an oversized towel.
"I'll send your stuff home, I have a driver," he said. "And you should really look up the firm, we're kind of a big deal. People would kill for you job."
He walked around her and pulled his straw into his mouth to slurp the rest of her margarita up in the heat.
"Well, thanks," Amy said. "Sorry, I have to-"
"AMY!" Lauren yelled. Shane and her both jumped.
"You better go," Shane mouthed.
"Bye," Amy mouthed back, carrying only her shoes as she exited the mansion in the thick towel Shane had given her to dry off.