Mortal Allies

See, Katherine knows me too well. I mean, this wasn’t just about trust, although that was no doubt part of it. She just knew how senselessly and remorselessly competitive I can be. She knew how hard I’d work to beat her out, to vie for her client’s loyalty, to prove I was a better legal brawler, a more thorough investigator, a tougher litigator. She knew I’d kill myself to get ahead of her. And I very nearly did. She set it up perfectly.

Or maybe that wasn’t it at all. Maybe she went to all these great lengths just to put me in my place, to show me she really was better than me.

Or maybe it was none of that, because if there was one thing she’d taught me, it was that I’d never really know what was in that beautiful, brilliant head of hers. The woman was a walking enigma on stilts.

I was still shaking my head in shock as she walked over and pulled the chair away from the door.

I said, “Hey? Why’d you put that chair against the door?”

She returned the chair to its place beside my bed. “I don’t know. I just did.”

She was pulling her bag over her shoulder and ru

I said, “Y’know, someday they’re go

“Not if they do a psychiatric on you, Attila.”

“Yeah, maybe. But you know, I still have some vacation time built up. See, the last time I tried to take one, somebody ruined it.”

She put a finger on her lower lip and I swear to God, it was the most enchanting thing I’d ever seen. “So go to Bermuda. I hear they have Swedish stewardesses ru

“Nah, that’s just what they tell the tourists. All they really got is burned-out secretaries with big puffy hairdos and Bronx twangs.”

She nodded, like, Yeah, that’s what she’d heard, too.

“Well, Attila, I hate to run, but I have to be in court in one hour.”

I guess I looked dispirited, or bewildered, or maybe suicidal. She studied my face a moment, then bent over and kissed me again. And right on the lips this time. Maybe it was only what you’d call a pity kiss, or maybe it was a full-blown conquest kiss, but like I said before, I’ll take it any way I can get it.

Then she walked out the door and was gone.

The truth was I knew damned well why she put that chair against the door. Of course, you have to know Katherine to really understand it. I mean, she knew before she even walked in the room that I was sexually comatose.

That chair thing, that was a teaser.

Or maybe it was a rain check, a signal that as soon as I got out of this place, I could put a chair against her door.

Not that I was sure it would ever work. She really is the most co