The Law of Attraction (4 page)

“Why? The air conditioning is set to subarctic.”

“Just do it. All the booze you’ve been drinking should keep you warm.” I slid my suit jacket off, hanging it on the back of my chair. I was a little self-conscious because the white sleeveless shell I had on underneath was snug, and it made me look like a waitress at Hooters, but the beer and tequila were really kicking in and so my self-consciousness was diminishing rapidly. Alcohol will do that too.

“What if he still isn’t interested in anything but a one night stand though?” I asked. I had a quick flashback to my humiliating college experience. “I sense much awkwardness on the horizon.”

“Then he isn’t interested. You didn’t ask him out. He asked you to hook up and you turned him down but said you
might
consider dating him. Big deal. Now let your hair down.”

“What, am I going to bed?”

“Maybe – depends on what they come back with. Don't question it, just trust me.” I sighed and reached up to do it. It felt good to take my hair down out of its elastic band and I shook it out and let it fall freely down my back and over my shoulders. Then I ran my hands through it to straighten it out a little.

“Anything else while I’m undressing?”

“Nope. That will do,” she said with a smirk. “I think he's adjusting himself under the table.” I noticed that at the angle she was sitting she could see the other table out of the corner of her eye.

“Braden? He was watching me do this?”

“Yep. Now that you've announced that he's man enough to handle your mouth he’s barely looked anywhere else. He probably wants to throw you down on that table and make you see God.”

“Well, at least we have that in common. He’s not talking to Mark?”

“He’s listening to Mark while watching you. It looks like they’re engaged in some pretty intense discussion. It should be interesting to see if he’s going to go for it.”

Before I could ask her what she meant we were descended upon by herds of semi-drunken guys in business suits who had caught sight of us sitting alone. (Sometimes the hungry lions came to the baby gazelle.) One by one, and sometimes two by two, a steady stream of males smelling of beer, scotch, rum and various other potent potables, were stopping by to say hi and introduce themselves. They attempted to chat us up, buy us drinks, and stare at our boobs. I needed a whip and a chair. I was afraid that the whip might attract more of them, though, or at least the kinky ones. In between fending them off, we continued to talk.

“The problem is that I don’t know what to say to him beyond making snarky comments.” I was starting to sound panicky.

“What are you so nervous about? It's not like you've never attracted a guy before, Gabrielle. At least ten have tried to pick you up since Mark left the table”

“He's so sexy, Jess. He probably dated entire sororities in college.”

“More likely they just blew him in the bathroom. If he asks you out on a date, Gab, then he seriously likes you. He doesn’t date. He fucks.”

“So, why are you encouraging me here?” Get it On by the Power Station was playing and I was tempted to start drunk dancing but nobody needed to see that.

“Because I think that he
does
seriously like you.”

“Do you know more about this than you’ve shared?”

“Look, I don’t know anything for sure, but I have a gut feeling and my gut’s usually right. I’m also not sure that he’ll do anything about it, even if he does like you, but he might now he knows that you’re interested too.”

“He doesn’t even really know me, though. This is the first time he’s seen me outside of court.”

“Do you feel like you’ve gotten to know him by being in court with him practically every day for the past six months?” She had a point there. It was something I had thought about myself.

“I guess that I have gotten to know a lot about his personality.”

“Well, he’s gotten to know a lot about yours too. You guys
do
know each other well. You just don’t know all the details.” She looked up. “Uh oh. I think we’re being summoned now.”

That feeling I had before? That wasn’t panic.
This
was panic. Even a bit boozed up I was nowhere near ready for a face to face flirt. Flight seemed out of the question, though, as Jess was already up on her feet and I didn’t want to be left alone to face the horny drunken businessman brigade. I took a deep breath, grabbed my jacket and followed along. Several prosecutors had moved on and there were plenty of empty seats. Thanks to Jessica's decision to throw her body across three of them, though, I found myself seated directly across from Braden. This wasn't getting any easier.

“Was there something that you wanted?” I asked Adam, hoping that I just sounded saucy and not like my clients who worked the corner outside the Triple X Theater.

“Why don’t you tell her what you want, Braden?” Adam laughed. I had a feeling that I could guess. Braden was giving me a really heated look. I had never seen him look at me like that, but then I had only ever been with him in court. It would be kind of odd to glance over in the middle of a carjacking case and see opposing counsel looking at you like he was picturing you naked. And I was pretty sure that’s what he was doing. Although he wasn’t being openly rude, he seemed to really like how I looked in a tight shirt in a cold room, if you know what I mean.

“We figured we would save you from having to turn down any more guys trying to buy you drinks,” Mark said, tossing a peanut into his mouth.

“It’s the least you could do, since thanks to you I actually
am
under the influence
now,
Mr. there are people going to bed sober tonight all over the world.”

“Hey, it’s not my problem you’re a lightweight,” he teased. “I didn’t force you to chug those two cups of beer, Animal.”

“I can’t
wait
to hear what she has to say when she’s been drinking,” Adam joked.

“Perhaps I’ll just sit here quietly and be entertained by your sparkling wit,” I said and started torturing a napkin in a way that it had done nothing to deserve. Suddenly Braden, who had been quiet up until this point, reached down and picked up my hand. He held it up to examine it more closely and my pulse shot into the stratosphere. At this rate I was going to need a cardiologist soon.

“Yale?” he asked, looking at my class ring with amusement and then laying my hand back on the table. So, I picked up his hand and held it up for my own examination. It had seemed casually sexy when he had done it. I, on the other hand, was squinting, which made it look like I was giving him an appraisal. After two beers and two shots of tequila, I was lucky I could still see straight.

“You went to Harvard?”

“Go Crimson,” he said, giving me a cocky grin. I put his hand down, afraid that if I didn’t, I would yank him across the table and kiss him stupid for daring to be that sexy.

“The Bulldogs are ahead by ten games now you know.” Way to be charming, Gabrielle. Maybe you should arm wrestle him too.

“That's just because Harvard's busy attracting world class scholars.”

“You mean the ones who couldn’t get into Yale?”

“I’ve heard that anyone could get into Yale.”

“What?” I smacked him on the arm.
Oh shit
! I had just drunkenly hit a freaking prosecutor. I slouched down in my seat a little hoping to look less drunk and disorderly… and violent. He seemed to be highly amused though.

“Did everyone see that? She just assaulted an assistant district attorney,” he said with a grin.

“She’s a naughty girl. I think she needs to be punished,” Mark said.

“Make sure you cuff her first,” Adam said with a smirk. “I hear she’s dangerous.”

“I’m not afraid of a little danger and I like naughty girls,” Braden said with a suggestive smile. He was openly flirting with me at close range. My heart felt like it was trying to escape my body through my throat and it occurred to me that it might be too late for a cardiologist. I forced myself to act cool and calm though. I held his eye contact and gave him a saucy smile. To that extent the tequila was actually quite helpful.

“You want to cuff me, you’ll have to catch me first.” I was getting pretty cocky over there myself, which was pretty impressive considering I was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown.

“Uh oh. I think we just hit foreplay,” Adam said and I wondered what exactly would happen if I actually lost consciousness. Would someone try to revive me or would people just step over me on the way to the bar?

“We seem to have a rivalry, folks. I think we should see how Harvard matches up with Yale in beer trivia,” Mark said, pulling out his phone.

“What is this, a frat party?” Jess asked.

“If it were a frat party we would play strip beer trivia,” Adam explained. I could tell that Adam missed his fraternity days.

“Here you go, plenty of trivia online,” Mark said. “And hey, there's sex trivia too. Hmm. The Harvard-Yale Beer Sex Trivia Challenge. I like the sound of that.”

“How about a little wager that Harvard can take Yale?” Braden smiled. The look he was giving me was getting hotter by the minute. You know how flames have that blue part? Well, that’s what his eyes looked like. I felt like I was about to spontaneously combust.

“You want me to wager Yale's honor on Beer Trivia?”

“Beer
Sex
Trivia,” Adam corrected.

“I’ll respect Yale’s honor,” Braden replied, taking a swig of his beer. “Loser takes the winner out to dinner. That’s what you wanted, right?” Out of the corner of my eye I saw Adam and Mark exchange knowing looks.
Jesus in a sidecar!
He was going for it!

“Maybe,” I said hesitantly. This was only his opening offer — he was agreeing to one date.

“Oh yeah, Harvard's definitely going to take Yale.” Adam smirked, watching us like he was watching two samurais circling each other. Or possibly like he was watching porn.

“Harvard's going down,” Jess shot back, and I could hear barely suppressed excitement in her voice. She just couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen next.

“Sounds like Yale will too, judging by our opening conversation,” Adam retorted suggestively.

“Okay, forget the games,” Braden said, sitting back and looking at me like he was ready to rumble. “You and I have been facing each other in court for six months and we’ve negotiated plenty of agreements. So, let’s negotiate.” The gloves were coming off. Bring it baby.

“Why don’t you make me an offer, counselor?” I was hoping it would be an offer that involved getting naked at some point. I wanted to take off more than gloves. My chances of that were probably pretty good with Mr. Private Misbehavior over there.

I sat up straight with my shoulders back and my chin up. I may have had one fuckinormous crush on this guy, but I could be one tough broad when I needed to be. Hothouse flowers didn’t allow themselves to be locked into ten by ten concrete rooms with guys who had “Blood Killa” tattooed on their knuckles.

“If I understand your position correctly you want more than a one nighter with a meal plan.”

I shot Mark a deadly look
. Big mouth.

“It was funny!” he said defensively.

“I’m stealing that line, by the way,” Adam informed me.

“That’s correct.”

“I’ll take you out to dinner tomorrow and you can choose where we go and what we do. Everything we do. I won’t even try to touch you unless you ask me to. Nicely.”

“Keep talking.”

“We could also go out next Friday and you could choose again then if you wanted, although, there should be an implicit understanding that if we were hitting it off there might be some private misbehavior on the agenda. I’m not saying that I expect to hook up with you. I’m just saying that you should expect me to try. ”

“Is that it?” I was playing hardball. I probably would have accepted it but I had a feeling he would offer more.

“You could also come over and join us for game night on Sunday at my place.” I raised an eyebrow. Game night? “And I have a fundraiser for my family’s charitable foundation that I have to attend next Saturday night. There would be dinner and dancing involved if you would want to come with me to that. So, that’s four dates in two weekends and I’m not even anticipating any really good misbehavior until the third one. I think that’s more than fair.”

“Hold on,” Jess broke in. “Game night counts as a date? As in she can come over and watch the Phillies, eat pizza and drink beer with you
and
your buddies here?”

“What, that’s not romantic enough for you?” Braden joked. “I’m sorry, but that’s what I had scheduled already and I don’t plan to blow off my friends or my obligations. I also don’t plan to drag this out for a month. If we want to keep doing this, we should figure it out quickly. Besides, she gets to choose what we do on two nights.”

I could feel the expectant looks of everyone else at the table focused on me as they waited for me to answer. As usual, Mr. Pierce had made me a fair offer. I didn’t really care what we did, to be honest. Frankly, I would have been willing to watch ping pong with the entire DA’s office to spend time with him. Hell, I would probably have
played
ping pong with the entire DA’s office to spend time with him. I took my time and held his gaze. Neither one of us was going to look away first. In the background
April Skies
by the Jesus and Mary Chain played. This had to be the coolest jukebox ever.

“It's a deal,” I said finally. I had gotten what I had asked for. I was jumping on this opportunity before I lost my chance. I reached into my purse, grabbed my cell and handed it to him. He called his phone with it and we both typed in the contact info.

“The only thing is that I have to pick up my brother at Georgetown Sunday morning and move him back home, so I can’t stay out too late tomorrow.”

“Oh, perfect!” Jess muttered.

“I wasn’t prepared for this!” Braden said defensively. “If I were, don’t you think I might have picked something other than game night and a fundraiser?”

“What about the other condition?” Jess asked.

“When would I have the
time
to screw around during this little introductory dating period?” he asked her.