Jaime tilted her head. “Would you prefer 300 people lost their lives? Imagine the impact—the suffering of all those affected, all so you can live?”
“People generally want to live.”
“Unless they don’t.”
Olivia huffed. “I never thought about it that way. I guess I didn’t put myself in the friend’s shoes.”
“That’s the easier choice on the surface. We’re rarely selfish when it’s our own life.”
“I disagree,” Olivia argued. “Me not wanting to lose my best friend and allowing 300 strangers to die sounds pretty selfish.”
“It’s a different kind of selfishness.”
Olivia chuckled, a lovely, husky sound. “Oh, there aretypesof selfishness?”
“Of course. Motivation matters.” Jaime leaned forward. “You should know, being an attorney.”
Olivia smiled. “You’re right.”
“High praise, Counselor Gray.”
A blush dusted Olivia’s cheeks. “I’m sure there are extenuating circumstances.”
Jaime wondered just how far down that flush ran. She shook her head. “The wine?”
“No. I know exactly what I’m doing, Your Honor.”
Jaime bit her lower lip, her hands trembling as they dropped into her lap.
Olivia sighed. “I guess I never thought about how it would affect my friend—that my choice, while saving her, would also lead to the death of 300 people.”
“Understandable. Most ‘what if’ scenarios aim to elicit emotional responses instead of logic.”
“That’s what makes them fun.”
“To most people, yes,” Jaime conceded.
“But not you.”
Jaime hesitated. “It depends on whether you like someone trying to draw out your emotional instincts.”
“And you don’t.”
Once more, Olivia’s tone carried such certainty. Jaime shifted in her seat. “Statement or question?”
“A statement.” Olivia’s fingers drummed on the table. “Though I’d like to follow up with a question.”
Jaime clenched her jaw, her heart pounding, and despite feeling more than a little unmoored, curiosity won out. “Go ahead.” She grasped her glass.
“How about a demonstration?”
“Of what?” Jaime’s mind shouted at her to run, apparently quicker on the uptake of the oncoming capsizing than she was, distracted by Olivia’s enticing intensity.
“Of how fun it can be to let someone, me, in this case, draw out your emotional instincts.”
Jaime froze, a buzzing sound filling her ears as Olivia’s feverish gaze promised more than Jaime could hope to survive.
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