Shine Not Burn (15 page)

“Well, they identified what they claimed to be their bags and we allowed them to take them.”

“What did the bags look like?”

He whispered to someone on his end before answering.
 
“Four duffel bags, ma’am.
 
Like athletic bags.”

It was the ma’am that he used that made something click in my head.
 
“Was one of them wearing a cowboy hat?”

“Yes!
 
In fact, all of them were.”

I nodded, sadness washing over me. He’d left.
 
Without even a goodbye.
 
Or maybe
with
a goodbye but not one I remembered.
 
“It’s okay.
 
It was my friend’s bag.
 
You’re cool, I’m not mad.”

He breathed out an audible sigh of relief.
 
“Oh, good, good, good, that is wonderful news.
 
And for your trouble and stress, please allow me to offer you and your guests a free voucher for another night’s stay with us.”

I raised an eyebrow at that.
 
“I’m leaving today.”

“It has no expiration.
 
Surely you’ll be back someday, yes?”

No.
 
“Sure, maybe.
 
I’ll come get it when I check out.”

“Wonderful, perfect.
 
Thank you, Miss Andie.”

“You’re welcome.
 
Bye.”

I hung up the phone, staring at the claim ticket.
 
Why did it bother me so much that the cowboy had taken his bags and gone?
 
I looked at the trashcan and stretched my hand out to toss the ticket in, but at the last second, I didn’t.
 
Instead, I walked slowly over to my bag and shoved it into the side pocket.

Shaking my head at my own silliness, I went about the work of getting ready to leave.
 
Our flight was leaving soon and we had breakfast to wrangle and a taxi to hire.
 
I ignored the haunting memories that were telling me there was something I should be remembering.

Chapter Fourteen

TWO YEARS LATER…

I FROWNED at the stack of messages on my desk.
 
Each one was worse than the last, with phone numbers missing, names misspelled, sometimes with nothing
but
a name.
 
I read the last one with disbelief as I pressed the button on my phone that would make the light blink on Ruby’s:
 
‘
Someone called you about something related to the Blakenship file.’

“Yes,” came her clipped voice.

“Rubes, could you come in here?”
 

“The name is
Ruby
.”

“Okaaaay.
 
Ruby
, could you come in here, please?”

“I’ll be there in a moment.”

That moment turned out to be ten minutes long, and I’d bet a box of doughnuts she pretended to be busy the entire time just so she could make me wait.
 
These days, Ruby did everything she could to piss me off.
 
It had to stop now, though.
 
We had to have the confrontation that had building for months.
 
I had too much on my plate to deal with her shit anymore.

She stood in the doorway, her back so stiff she looked like she had a pool cue up her big butt.
 
She never relaxed around me anymore.
 
It was all business, all the time.
 
I wasn’t even allowed to call her Rubes anymore.

“Have a seat, please.”
 
I motioned to the chairs in front of me.

“I prefer to stand,” she said, lifting her chin a fraction higher.

I sighed loudly.
 
“Ruby, please.
 
Don’t make me lose my temper again.
 
I’ve had a really long day and a really long week, too.”

A fake-confused expression bloomed across her face.
 
“Oh, I’m sorry.
 
Am I the one to blame for your temper now?
 
I suppose I’m also to blame for you losing the Goldman motion and for you getting that speeding ticket on your way to work last week.”
 
She folded her hands casually in front of her ample waist.
 
“What should I do now?
 
Apologize?
 
Or maybe you want me to resign.”
 
She raised both eyebrows at me, still with the fake innocence thing going.
 
It made me want to slap the look off her face.

Her words hurt, cutting me through with their mean, serrated edges.
 
I held up the stack of messages she’d taken while I was out.
 
“You’re to blame for a lot of things, but right now I’d just like to talk to you about these.”
 
I decided to save the conversation about letters never sent and forms mis-filed for another day.
 
She was a handful when she was cranky and right now, she was definitely cranky.

She said nothing, she just stood there giving me silent attitude.

“Ruby, please don’t make me ask again.
 
Come inside, shut the door, and sit down.”

She hesitated a few more seconds, just to let me know she could and would, and then she did as I asked.

Once she’d settled herself in the chair across from me, I let some of the heat out of my voice.
 
“What’s going on?
 
Can you please just tell me?
 
I can’t take much more of the stress, I have to be honest with you.”

She broke eye contact with me and stared at a paperweight on my desk.
 
“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Ruby, please look at me.”

She looked at the ceiling, blinking her eyes deliberately.

“I want to know what happened.”

Shrugging, she said, “You took a long lunch with
Bradley
and a lot of people called in while you were gone.
 
I took messages.
 
I don’t know what else you want from me.” She tapped her long fingernails on the arms of the chair.

“Do you have to say his name like that?
 
He’s my fiancé, Ruby.
 
It hurts my feelings when you say it with such disdain.”

She wiggled around in her seat a little but didn’t respond.
 
The fingernail tapping started again.

“I didn’t mean the messages,” I said, although that was one of the many symptoms of our problem.
 
“I’m talking about what happened between us.”

She finally looked at me, raising a cocky eyebrow.
 
“Us?
 
Whatever do you mean?”
 
Again with the innocent act.

I wanted to scream, but I restrained myself.
 
Anger just got Ruby going even more, making her more cold-hearted toward me than usual. “I mean
us
.
 
You as Ruby, me as Andie.
 
We used to get along.
 
I used to love working with you, and I think you used to love working with me.
 
But for a long time now, things have been going downhill.”
 
The tone of my voice rose up a notch.
 
“And now they’re to the point where I almost don’t think we can work together anymore.”
 
I gave her my best pleading look.
 
It worked really well on juries.

Her nostrils flared, but she didn’t say a thing.

“Are you hearing me Ruby?”
 
My heart spasmed with the pain of rejection.
 
Ruby hated me, but I still loved and respected her.
 
She had been so good to me once.
 
Without her I’m not sure how I would have worked my way through learning to navigate the quagmire of civil procedure.
 
She’s an expert in her field, and I’m not the only young lawyer who she’s helped mold into a litigating machine.
 
But now instead of helping me, she seemed to spend every minute of her day trying to make me angry by undoing my work or making my work twice as hard as it should have been.

“Yes, I’m hearing you.”
 
She finally looked at me.
 
“The question is, are you hearing
yourself?”

I frowned.
 
This, I wasn’t expecting.
 
“I think I am.”

She shrugged just the slightest bit.
 
“I think you’re not.”

“Explain,” I said, curious.

“No, thank you.”
 
She put her hands on the arms of the seat as if to lever herself up.
 
“Will that be all?”

I pointed to the chair.
 
“No.
 
Don’t get up.
 
I’m not done.”

“Oh, and it’s all about what
you
want, isn’t it?”

Now we were getting somewhere.
 
“Not
all
the time, but I am the attorney and you are my assistant.
 
What’s bothering you about our relationship?”

“If you’re talking about being your assistant, then nothing’s bothering me.
 
Not one single thing.”

“What if I’m
not
talking about you being my assistant?”
 
I was fishing now.
 
I had no idea what she was getting at, but I damn sure wanted to find out.
 
If I could fix whatever was broken with Ruby and me, it would turn my life into a bed of roses again, especially considering how many hours I worked in this place.
 
Or almost a bed of roses.
 
Yes, there would still be some thorns, but I could live with
some
thorns.
 
A girl has to live with some of those if she’s going to marry a man.
 
I’d accepted that as a simple fact of life.
 
A necessary evil that went with being around a guy.

She clarified.
 
“Not as your assistant?
 
Okay then, if you’re talking about us as two women who mutually admire one another, then that’s a different story altogether.
 
There’s plenty bothering me where that’s concerned.”

That hurt my feelings.
 
I prided myself in my people skills.
 
I was known as the Rainmaker at the firm, single-handedly bringing in more new clients than any other junior partner for the last two years running. Everyone liked me.
 
I got invited to all the parties and networking events.
 
“How so?” I asked.

“I like my job.”

I thought her response through for a few seconds, but reflecting on it didn’t help ease my confusion in the least. “What does liking your job have to do with anything?”

“It has
everything
to do with everything.
 
If it hadn’t been for my need of this job, you wouldn’t have … done the things you’ve done maybe or I wouldn’t be working here anymore.”

I dropped my face into my hands, trying to keep myself from displaying the frustration that swirled around inside me.
 
I didn’t have any idea what she was getting at, but there was no way I could let this go until I had figured it out.
 
She was finally talking to me after more than a year of the silent treatment or sometimes even straight up disrespect.
 
It was time to put it all to bed.

My voice came out muffled as it battled to make it through my fingers.
 
“Please tell me what the hell you’re talking about, Ruby.”

“See, that’s one of the problems right there.
 
Your mouth.”

“My mouth?”
 
I lifted my head and looked at her again.

She pursed her lips and shook her head.
 
“Hm-um.
 
I’m not saying anything more.
 
I need this job.”

“Are you saying that you feel like you can’t talk to me because if you do, you’ll get fired?”

She gave me a tight smile.
 
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.
 
See, you’re a smart girl.”
 
She stood.
 
“I have files to work on, so if you don’t mind…”

I was angry now.
 
“I do mind.
 
Sit.”

“Don’t you talk to me like that!
 
I’m not your dog!”
 
Her southern accent came out towards the end, the one she worked to keep out of her voice at work when surrounded by us lawyers.

I stood up, my voice louder than it should have been.
 
“I know that, Ruby!
 
I
know
you’re not my dog!
 
I’m just asking you to sit down and have a civilized conversation with me for a change!”

The door opened and Bradley’s head popped in.
 
“Trouble, sweetie?” he asked, not even looking at Ruby.

“No,” I waved him away, “I’m fine.
 
Just give us a few minutes.”

“Yeah, sure,” he said stepping into the room.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Ruby rolling her eyes.

“I just wanted to firm up our date at the country club with The Coral Group?
 
Tomorrow at seven sharp.
 
We can’t be late.”

“Yes, I remember.
 
It’s in my calendar.”

“Okay, great.”
 
He flashed me his good-job grin, the one that used to make me feel all warm inside but now just made me want to slap him.
 
I immediately felt guilty.
 
A girl probably shouldn’t feel that way about the man she was going to marry in just a couple weeks.

“Do you mind?” I said, trying not to sound as annoyed as I felt.
 
“We’re having a little meeting right now.
 
If you need to chat, I’ll be out in a minute.”

“Oh, you want me to leave?”
 
He looked at Ruby.
 
“What’s the matter, Rube?
 
You screw something up again?”
 
He gave her his best cheesy, movie-star smile.
 
When Candice and Kelly were still talking to me, they said it was too perfect.
 
At the time I’d argued.
 
Now, seeing him here kind of harassing Ruby, I wasn’t so sure.