‘He would. But it’sthisjob, Chessie. In Hobart. Where his sister lives. There are only two universities in Tasmania, and—’
‘How would you feel,’ Chess said, holding a finger up, ‘if you didn’t apply for this job, which has your name written all over it, so he could sail in and take it – and then he didn’t get it?’
That answer was easy. ‘Gutted.’
‘What about if he did get it?’
I bit my lip, trying to imagine a world where Jonah had moved on, ascended to the higher plane of secure employment, and left me behind.
‘You would feel like he beat you,’ Chess said, ‘and you didn’t even put up a fight.’
She tapped her fingernail against the table. ‘You’re a fighter, sweetie – and you’re not going to give up now.’
There had been something liquid in Jonah’s eyes when he’d sat across from me in the kitchen.I don’t want to fight anymore, Sadie,he’d said, his fingers tight around mine.
I’ve been fighting for so long I’m not sure I know how to stop,I’d replied,but I’ll try if you will.
I was both a truth-teller and a liar. I didn’t know how to stop fighting. And I wasn’t going to try.
‘No,’ I said, on a long exhale. ‘Of course I’m not going to give up.’
‘Of course you’re not,’ Chess repeated. ‘And you never were.’
She leant back in her chair, swirling the wine in her glass. ‘If you were seriously considering not applying, you never would have told me about the job in the first place. The whole reason you laid out this dilemma for me was because you knew there was no way I would let you self-sabotage.’
Not for the first time, I thought about how other lawyers must feel when they came up against Francesca Shaw. They must be absolutely fucking terrified.
‘This is what you’ve always wanted,’ she continued. ‘This is what you’ve been working for, all these years. And if you think I’m going to let some skinny little private school boy take it away from you because his sister is sad… well, I know you’re smarter than that.’
‘It’s his sister, though. Hissister.’
Chess reached across the table and took my hand. She, of all people, knew why Jonah’s story had affected me so much.
But then, ‘I don’t care how sad his sister is,’ she said. ‘If he – or she – or anyone – makes you get in your own way, I’ll have them assassinated.’
There’s not a person on this planet,Cardigan Jonah had said heavily, voice hoarse and throaty,who would fight for me the way Chess did for you.
‘I love you, Chessie,’ I whispered.
She squeezed my fingers. ‘You too, sweetie. To the end of the universe and back again.’
Then she let go. For all that Chess was a bulldozer, she knew exactly where the lines were – specifically, the lines that, if she bulldozed past them, would make me cry. ‘So that’s sorted,’ she said briskly, topping up our wine glasses. ‘Did you bring me any new books?’
‘Of course I did.’
I reached under the table for my bag. Every time I came around to Chess’s for dinner, I brought her a couple of new romance novels, sourced from my extensive network of online second-hand bookshops. Chess loved romances – I wasn’t the only Shaw sister to enjoy it when things turned out all right in the end – but she had stringent requirements that made her difficult to cater to. There was a fairly detailed list of tropes and plot points she point-blank refused to tolerate.
‘I’m going to pre-warn you that these two are pushing it a bit,’ I told her. ‘But there are valid reasons for their inclusion in the Francesca Shaw collection.’
Chess narrowed her eyes and took another sip of wine. ‘I’m listening.’
‘This one,’ I slidA Marvellous Lightby Freya Marske across the table, ‘is probably going to make you have some contract law feelings.’
The first romance trope that Chess just Could Not with was problematic paperwork. Her lawyer brain simply did not allow her to move past things like ‘sex contracts that people apparentlydefinitely have to stick toor else’ or ‘wills that mean two people have to cohabitate for a year or else risk losing their inheritance’.
If I ever write a romance novel, it’s going to be about a lawyer who goes around getting people out of these contracts,she’d told me once, at one of our boozier dinners.She’ll charge through the nose and she’ll barely have to work, because none of this is in any way legally enforceable so it’ll only take her, like, two minutes per client.
Who will the love interest be?I’d asked.
