Page 46 of Take What Hurts

He sat back and surveyed her. “I’m not disappointed. At all. You’ve done all the hard work with that stroke of genius with the text messages. The client should take the offer, and that’s what I’ll tell her.”

Elliott kept it together with only minimal leg shaking and skin picking, but literally sagged with relief behind the desk when Mattias left her office. They had a ten-point plan written out on a legal pad on how they were going to manage the handover and the notification to the client and the other side. Elliott had tasked Hannah with notifying Mackenzie’s office of the change in representation, and Mattias would speak with Matilda. Elliott and Hannah would be locked out of the file, and they wouldn’t be present at file-management meetings when the matter was discussed.

When Hannah had received the acknowledgment from Mackenzie’s office, Elliott succumbed to the tingling excitement that had been fizzing in her belly since she’d sent her handover to Mattias, and she finally texted Mackenzie. It was new and free, and she relished the delicious heaviness in her cheeks that accompanied her face-splitting smile at the thought of what later today could look like.

Elliott 9:32AM

Was nice working with you. Hope your discussion is going well. See you later?

Less than a minute later, Mackenzie’s name appeared on her phone screen, and the tingling became a euphoric swoop.

Mackenzie 9:32AM

You were a fkn pain to work with Lucky you’re cute. Just going in for it now. I have a standing dinner with Frankie tonight, but will talk to you later?

Elliott smiled and typed out an affirmative response. Her heart swelled with opportunity. She would eventually meet Frankie—properly. And Mackenzie would meet Hannah. And she and Mackenzie could spend years getting to know the people who were most important in each of their respective lives. She hoped, anyway. It all made her head light. With the cloud of gray alleviated, she finally allowed the excitement that she had forcibly kept at bay until now to run free. The excitement of chasing after the person who, she was now certain, was the girl. Her girl.

TWENTY-FOUR

MACKENZIE

Frankie’s mouth was a perfect O, and a laugh bubbled up out of Mackenzie’s throat. She’d been waiting all day to tell Frankie about her weekend with Elliott. And though she did feel a kernel of hurt when Frankie reacted in utter surprise after Mackenzie regaled her with the details of how she’d taken charge and kissed Elliott senseless, she could be honest with herself: It was out of character for her. What could she say? Elliott brought out a confidence in her nobody else had before.

The words finally seemed to finish processing in Frankie’s brain, and seconds later, Mackenzie found herself underneath Frankie on the couch, trying to protect her ears from a loud squeal in her ear and to breathe as her ribs were being crushed against her lungs by surprisingly strong arms. “Oh my god.” Frankie pushed off Mackenzie, whose breath left her with a hard “umph.” “Shut the front door. You kissed her? And then she kissed the living daylights out of you? And then you did it again?”

Mackenzie’s cheeks were beginning to hurt. The laughter was akin to exhaling after holding a breath too long—the tears that came with it the definition of release. Frankie started bouncing on the sofa, and Mackenzie reached for a memory as bright as this one. Aside from those featuring Frankie, the rest featured Elliott.

“Ugh, and then she got herself off the matter so she could be free and clear to woo you and date you and fuck you so well that you literally forget everyone else in the world exists?” Frankie flopped onto the sofa, limbs loose and arm flung over her face—the embodiment of a Victorian-era woman sent to convalesce at the seaside. “Stop it. Where can I find one of these?”

Mackenzie wiped her eyes, sat up, and patted Frankie on her bony ankle. How could she answer that when the likelihood of finding Elliott—accepting and understanding and compassionate as she was—was so slim and the reality so fantastical that it might as well be a fairy tale? “I don’t know, Frank. It took me thirty-three years to find her.” Mackenzie leveled Frankie with a sharp look and pointed a finger at her. “Now, you stay away from her.”

Frankie gasped in mock offense and, with a smirk, proceeded to tackle Mackenzie back into the sofa. When Frankie finally released her and had returned to her end of the sofa, Mackenzie chewed on her bottom lip, wondering how best to relay her conversation with her managing partner from earlier in the day. “The only thing is that my managing partner wasn’t too happy with me.”

Frankie scowled. “Why? What does he⁠—”

Mackenzie shook her head, wanting to clarify. “I had to tell him why Elliott was recusing herself, and the firm doesn’t like anything that might give it any level of negative exposure. Anyway”—she shook her head, getting back to the point—“basically he requested that Elliott and I keep things on the down-low for a while. They haven’t booted me off the file, either, so…” Mackenzie trailed off. She was still processing her feelings about that. On the one hand, she was pleased she would still have the opportunity to finish this file and use it to negotiate her promotion. On the other hand…

Frankie rolled her eyes with a scoff. “I mean, I get it, but also, like, who are they to dictate to you about what you do in your free time?”

Mackenzie twisted the ring on her finger. “I take your point. But, like”—she huffed out a breath—“I don’t really have much of a choice. I want that promotion, Frankie. Which means I need to finish this file well. And Anna is borderline psychotic, in my opinion, so yeah, I kind of understand where they’re coming from, in a way. Also”—she picked at a thread in the seam on the sofa—“Anna kind of terrifies me. I get a really bad vibe. She’s said some things that—” A shiver skittered down her spine, cutting her off. Tightness gripped her chest as she contemplated the next part. “Anyway. Basically, it might be a good idea for Elliott and I to just, I don’t know”—she huffed—“hang out for a while?”

The words had tasted fucking wrong in her mouth before she’d even heard how much more distasteful they sounded out loud. Because the truth was, she didn’t want to just “hang out on the down-low” with Elliott. Elliott made her feel soft, and warm, and, frankly, more aroused with her lean frame and her dark eyes than she’d ever been with another person. Like she’d found the thing she’d been missing and it was a part of her now. The thought of not running straight into Elliott’s arms and declaring that she categorically and unapologetically wanted to be with Elliott warred with every natural instinct she had.

But also, especially after how pissed her managing partner had been about the entire situation, she worried she hadn’t exactly toed the ethical line in recent weeks, and perhaps playing it safe was best for now. She rationalized with herself that if Elliott felt for Mackenzie anything close to what Mackenzie felt for her, another few weeks of getting to know each other without the complication of, well, sex wouldn’t make a shred of difference.

If Frankie could read Mackenzie’s thoughts, she clearly didn’t agree, and she grimaced as she mused, “I guess you have to ask yourself whether you’d be willing to take that sort of chance with a person that could actually be good for you. Way better for you than a job that bleeds you dry every day of the week.” Catching the way Mackenzie’s face must have collapsed, Frankie rushed on. “But, honestly, it might also be… fine?” She brightened, and Mackenzie tried to keep up. “Maybe we could go and do something together as a group. I could third wheel!”

Mackenzie shot her a sharp look. “That doesn’t mean what you think it does. And certainly not in this context, anyway,” she finished, gently kicking Frankie in the stomach. “Besides, Elliott has a friend, Hannah. And I’m pretty sure she’d want to bring her own friend shield if she’s being thrown to the wolves.” Mackenzie winked at Frankie, who did her best impression of a wolf with bared teeth, before they both descended into laughter.

Mackenzie figured that wouldn’t be the worst thing. They could all go for a walk along the harbor together or go for a hike in the national park. How bad could it be?

TWENTY-FIVE

ELLIOTT

“Let me get this straight.” Mackenzie huffed, a hand on her hip, staring daggers at Frankie. “Despite our prior agreement”—Elliott snickered into her own palm, earning her a swift backhanded slap on the arm from Mackenzie—“you are going to insist that I put those on my feet and then try and stay upright on a literal sheet of ice?”

Elliott looked on as Mackenzie glared in horror at Frankie, who, despite the veritable dressing down, grinned stupidly from behind several sets of ice skates with gleaming, razor-thin blades that she held up in front of her face. Elliott gently nudged Mackenzie’s shoulder and shot her a smirk. “Come on, it won’t be that bad.”