“Yeah. But things were really awkward between us, and I know I’ve jerked him around a little. How do I even get him to talk to me?”
“Regardless of what happens, you are my friend and he is my brother and you will definitely be invited to things together. So you’ll have to get used to seeing each other either way.”
“Might one of these events be coming up soon?”
“Caleb mentioned maybe wanting to get some friends together to celebrate his birthday. We celebrated plenty when we went out of town last week, but I could put together a dinner party or something.”
“That seems reasonable.”
“You have to promise not to make a scene, of course.”
“I would never.”
“Right.” Lauren laughed. “I mean, I don’t want to give you the key to figuring out how to get back in my brother’s pants or anything, because gross, but I think if you really want him? You have to be totally honest about how you feel. So what do you want to do? I mean, I guess you could just go over to his place and tell him how you feel, but—”
“No, it has to be bigger than that. I need to prove myself.” Paige thought for a moment. “I have an idea.”
The only question now was whether Josh would be willing to listen to her.
* * *
Aisha, another associate at DCL whom Josh had been working with, stuck her head in his door.
“Hey, kid, I just wanted to let you know in person that I’ve given notice and my last day is next Friday.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” said Josh. “It’s been great working with you. What are you doing next?”
“I got a job at the ACLU! It’s a bit of a pay cut, but it’s my dream job. I’ll be working mostly on women’s rights issues.”
Josh nodded, feeling like that was familiar. “Congratulations! I’m thrilled for you.” He smiled. “Can I ask why you came to work here if the ACLU was your first choice?”
Aisha smiled and walked into Josh’s office. She dropped into one of his chairs. “I’d been thinking about going to work for a nonprofit when I graduated, but I also wanted to pay off my loans.”
“I hear you.”
“I’ve learned a ton from Provost, but I don’t think this is the right place for me. I got into law to help people. My last case? I helped defend a grocery store chain against accusations of price gouging. And honestly? They were gouging on some items. Six bucks for a box of cereal is insane.”
“How did you even defend that?”
“Well, it didn’t end up in court, but the defense we were working on when the chain finally came up with a deal the attorney general could live with was that the store had to increase prices because of supply chain issues. And it is true that distributors charge more to deliver to stores in the city and that there was an interruption in the dairy supply chain after some kind of bovine illness broke out at a huge dairy farm upstate. But the chain was mostly just greedy. And I’m tired of defending greedy people in court.”
Josh nodded. “Oh, man. I so agree. I actually have a couple of cases in the queue that I’m excited about, but my very first time in court was on the Giardino case.”
Aisha winced. “That was a doozy. Giardino should be in jail.”
“I know. And now Provost is representing a real estate developer who wants to kick people out of their homes so he can build luxury condos.”
“Well, listen, if you ever want to break free from this place, give me a call. I’ll send you my personal email and cell phone before I leave. Provost actually said you were one of the better associates who has come along in a while.”
“Wow, really? He said that?”
“Yeah. I remember because I was a little offended.” Aisha laughed. “It’s all good, though. I can’t be mad because this new job is going to be amazing.”
After Aisha left, Josh thought about Penny at the DA’s office and the medical manufacturer case. He’d enjoyed working on that case mostly because he knew the outcome had the potential to make people’s lives better. And he was about to start work on a new case in which DCL was representing a group of local businesses who were suing a big cable company for not honoring their advertising contracts, and though it was still early in the discovery process, it sure was starting to look like the cable company had been suppressing some of the ads because of racism in the ad department. So he was actually looking forward to bringing that suit against the cable company.
Josh had studied criminal law in law school, probably because he watched too muchLaw & Orderin college, but he’d long pictured himself working as a prosecutor. Through circumstances—and a little nepotism; he had an uncle who had gone to law school with one of the DCL partners—he’d ended up with this job at a huge, prestigious firm with a great reputation. Some of his law school classmates would have walked over their own mothers to get this job. But Josh knew deep down that this was not a good fit for him. He was a little jealous of Aisha’s job at the ACLU.
But the good news was that he had options. He’d finish this year at DCL and pay those dues, and then maybe he’d cash in a favor. He’d had a professor in law school who had said once that defense attorneys made the best prosecutors because they understood how the defense thought.
