“Come on have another with me!” Kelly laughs and pops the cork off the second bottle of red wine and flashes a devilish grin my way.
“Oh, God…I…”
“Come on, girl! I just worked an eighty-hour work week, and I know you did what…seventy?”
“Sixty-eight,” I reply.
“Yeah, so basically seventy,” she says, snatching my empty glass from in front of me and filling it well past the midline. “It’s time to relax!”
I take the glass back, smile, and take a sip. She’s right. I really could use a breather after the long week I’ve had. And even if I felt otherwise, I know better than to argue with Kelly. She’s nine years older than me and one of the only women at the firm on track to become a partner. She’ll make it in the next couple of years too.
We became friends almost immediately after I joined out of law school. She was one of the reasons the partners accepted me. She was so impressed by the work I did as an intern on the Warner case that she put in a good word for me. We bonded quickly; our personalities just clicked, and we had similar interests, and I think she saw a lot of me in her as well.
“So Ron’s still at the office?” I ask. Kelly rolls her eyes.
“Either that or at his favorite watering hole with the other partners. I’ve given up keeping track of him anymore.”
I try not to let my feelings read on my face, but it’s hard. I always feel down when Kelly talks about her relationship with Ron. On the outside, anyone else would assume they have a perfect marriage. But being on the inside, I know that everything is basically just for show. The two of them haven’t been happy in a while. Well, at least Kelly hasn’t been.
“I’m so sorry, Kelly.”
She shrugs. “It is what it is. I’ve accepted it. Just don’t get me started on our ‘sex life.’ That’s the real tragedy.”
“Oh no,” I giggle, gulping my wine.
“I think a malfunctioning sex robot would have more passion than Ron at this point.”
I try to catch myself before I laugh but fail miserably and end up spraying wine through my lips like a scene straight out of the movies. Kelly bursts out laughing and tosses me a hand towel.
“What about you? Working all these long hours. Making time for any romance in your life?”
I pause as I’m wiping the counter.
This is what I like to call one of those crossroads moments. A difficult decision.
The easy answer would be to tell her no, of course, and I wouldn’t be lying; I don’t have a man in my life, and there definitely hasn’t been any romance. At least Kelly has a sex life to complain about.
But that also wouldn’t be the whole truth either, and Kelly is an extremely successful and high-powered lawyer who knows when people aren’t being truthful. She’s also my closest friend and knows all my tells.
“Well…” I say slowly, giving her ‘the eye.’ She instantly gets it and snaps her fingers at me.
“Spill it!”
I take a long drink, nearly finishing my glass. “Okay, but…I have to warn you. This isn’t going to be what you’re expecting. At all.”
“Oooh, surprises?” Kelly asks with glee, leaning in. “Tea? I love it. Tell me everything. Does he work at the firm?”
I almost burst out laughing. “Oh, no.”
Kelly gasps. “A competing firm? It’s not Brussel and Ryan, is it?”
“No.” I smile.
“Liber and Goldstein?”
Again, I’m on the verge of cracking up.
“Definitely not. I can promise you he does not work at a competing firm.”
“So he’s not in law at all?” Kelly asks, her interest piqued. “Where did you meet him? On the company retreat? Have you been going rock climbing with the guys from accounting and not telling me?”
“No, it’s not like that either…” I say slowly. I set my glass down and realize my palms are starting to sweat. “You remember the Warner case?”
“Do I remember the Warner case? The case of Bain Warner, ‘The Movie Star Murderer,’ that convinced me you were someone for our firm to keep an eye on? The case that basically got you hired? The case that made national news and boosted our firm’s notoriety beyond anything imaginable?” Kelly laughs. “No, Elena, I forgot.”
Nervously, I giggle back and sip more of my wine. God, I had no idea tonight’s conversation was going to go here. How do I even explain this to her? Am I committing some kind of ethical breech for even admitting what I’m about to admit? Kelly’s my friend, and I don’t want to put her in a bad situation. But at the same time, I don’t know anyone else I can go to with this, and I need advice.
My fingers nervously twist the hand towel as I try to think about the best way to explain my situation. But before I can come up with anything, Kelly bursts out, “Oh for God’s sake, Elena, just say it, would you!?”
“Bain Warner has been sending me letters!” I exclaim. “And he wants me to go visit him in prison for a…conjugal visit.”
The words are out of my mouth before I know it, and I’m instantly regretting them.
There had to have been a better way to say that, right? But it’s too late now. Kelly is looking at me blankly, like I just said something in a foreign language.
I blew it, didn’t I? I went from a college student who made a strong impression on a law firm while she was in law school and only an intern, to just a dumb girl with crazy sexual fantasies who should have kept her mouth shut. Now Kelly’s never going to think highly of me again. She’ll pretend to be my friend, then slowly distance herself from me, and things will never be the same.
God, I screwed up.
“A conjugal visit?” Kelly repeats.
“Right,” I reply flatly.
“As in…sex?”
“Yes.”
“And you don’t have to be married?”
I shake my head. “Only in California.”
My heart sinks deeper as she looks at me, her expression blank, her eyes like two unreadable globes of ice set in their sockets.
A long moment drags by as she looks at me. It’s like torture. I begin to picture my life without her in it – start to wonder whether or not I even have a future at the firm without her supporting me. But then, slowly, Kelly smiles.
“Holy shit, you have to do it!”
“What!?” I blurt out.
“Bain Warner wants to fuck you, girl, and you have a chance to do it while being surrounded by armed guards to make sure nothing will happen to you? Do it!”
I feel like I was just hanging above a pit of poison-tipped spikes and have been suddenly rescued. A warm, bubbling feeling of relief fills me, swims through me, and I burst out laughing.
“Oh my God, I thought you might think I was crazy!”
“Crazy!?” Kelly laughs. “Bain is hot! I remember the trial. There’s a reason that man’s picture was all over TV and the Internet. Sure, he may have killed a few people—”
“A few?”
Kelly waves a hand dismissively. “All mobsters. Who cares? They got what was coming to them. Besides, he’s in prison for life, isn’t he?”
I nod. “Life. Yep. No parole.”
“No parole, exactly! So it’s not like if he falls in love with your vajayjay he’s going to come and show up at your house when he gets out. He’s not getting out!”
“That’s true…”
“And can you imagine how ferocious he must be? He’ll bore a hole in your stomach, girl!”
I bust out laughing and have to set my glass aside so I don’t drop it. Kelly giggles and gives me those mischievous eyes she always gives me when she’s a little bit envious of something I get to do and she doesn’t. I was on the fence about this before, even about bringing it up to her, but now? She’s pretty much convinced me.
“You’ve got a point, Kelly,” I reply, raising my glass in a toast. “A really good point.”
