Sheryl grasped my arms and shook me a little. “Harley, honey will you stop torturing yourself? I told you already that you didn’t do anything. She just got dizzy, and then, I had to wake her because she had to go take care of that issue down in Orange County, alright?”

“But why isn’t she answering my calls, Sheryl?” I asked. “And she started acting really weirdly when Annie and Katy came by this morning.”

“And then she and Annie had a stare down of sorts, that even Annie won’t tell me anything about,” I added.

Sheryl pressed a new glass of her home-made mint tea with a fruit concoction into my hand. “Harley, I’m sure Aerin will be able to iron out everything soon enough, and, trust me, things will get sorted out. Don’t fuss or worry, ok? She admitted to me that she cares deeply about you. So don’t worry your pretty head about her. Don’t you have enough to think about already with that client of yours, and that whole partner thing that hasn’t been announced, yet?”

When Sheryl mentioned “client” and “partner” I automatically cringed inside.

During my meeting this morning, Veronica Desmond had unexpectedly called my office while Mr. Desmond and I were conferring on strategy, and she’d asked to talk privately with her soon-to-be ex. I’d written on a yellow legal pad that my advice to my client was that I should stay while they did so. When I’d told her over the conference room phone that I was staying, I’d thought that she’d counter with a suggestion that her own lawyer be on the call also.

Surprisingly, she didn’t, even after I’d warned her several times that she should wait for her lawyer.

They’d started off with a surprisingly warm conversation, catching up with one another’s lives. And when Mr. Desmond remarked more than once that they’d never had a conversation like that when there were lawyers in the room, she’d answered with a laugh, after his last mention, “Well, let’s just say that, for some reason, I trust that Harley will represent you well, but she won’t be an ass about it, like your other lawyers have been. So I feel okay about talking with you like this even if she’s there. I bet she’s already told you that it would be to your interest to try to be fair with me, right?”