My Best Friend's Boyfriend

“Am I an unbiased party if I worked on their case even a little bit?” I asked.

“Please?”

I sighed as I unfurled my arms.

“Okay. I’ll be in your office around a quarter to one, and then we’ll head into the meeting together.”

“Thank you so much, Ava. I owe you a massive one.”

“I’ll see you then. And try to lay off the caffeine before the meeting, huh? I’d rather you fall asleep than blow through the roof.”

“Yep. I can do that. I’ll try. Oh! And Ava?”

“Yes, boss?”

“Thanks again.”

“Not a problem.”

Once inside my office, I flopped down in my chair. Sued. We were being sued, one business to another business. Great. This was not the sort of distraction I had wanted when I’d walked into work this morning.

I unpacked my bag and threw myself into work that needed to get done, watching the clock tick down the entire time. The closer it came to twelve forty-five, the more nervous I became. Was I in trouble with this somehow? Would I be caught up in it since I’d worked on the project a bit? I wasn’t sure, but my nerves were getting the best of me. I looked at my cell phone, and the only person I wanted to talk to about it was Logan. Not Camilla, like usual.

I groaned and leaned back in my seat. Even a lawsuit couldn’t get my mind to stray away from him. I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes and sighed. Fuck. I really was screwed. I forced myself to finish up the paperwork before I grabbed my purse and pushed away from my desk. It was time to meet my boss. It was time to go sit down with our “excellent” lawyers. I hoped they were as advertised.

“Thank you so much, again, for coming with me,” my boss said as we came upon the meeting room.

“It’s really not a problem. I mean, what could possibly—?”

“Mr. Craven. Miss Leary. Have a seat.”

I panned around the room of lawyers, and my eyes fell on a familiar face. My lips parted in shock, and I couldn’t help the snicker that fell from my mouth. Of course Logan was one of our lawyers. Of course my company kept him on retainer for situations like this. Of all the lawyers in all Manhattan, Logan had to be one of those who my company paid to leap at circumstances like this one.

He looked just as shocked as I was.

“Ava? You okay?”

I looked at my boss before I cleared my throat.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. Sorry. Just—it’s all hitting me now,” I said.

“Don’t worry. I promise you’re not caught up in all this,” he said.

“If the two of you would like to take a seat, we’ll get started.”

“So, how serious are these charges?” my boss asked.

“From the looks of it, not serious at all. They’re claiming fraud, but what they’re really doing is nitpicking at the contract. They’re claiming that because the company didn’t fully deliver on their expectations, the company defrauded them out of their full payment when it came due.”

“Then why didn’t they come to us with their worries? We would have been happy to fix anything or even go back to the drawing board. It’s all lined out in the contract,” my boss said.

“Not exactly. Their lawyer is looking at loopholes to get them some of their money back. What we have to do is prove there’s an ulterior motive, otherwise they might win.”

“What do you mean by win?” my boss asked.

“From the digging I’ve done,” Logan said, speaking up for the first time, “it seems as if the company suing you is having financial troubles. They’ve put some of their eggs in the wrong basket and have lost out on a few top investments.”

My eyes stayed connected with his as he continued to rattle on.

“If there’s the slightest chance we can prove they’re suing to get some money back to keep their company funded, we can get the case tossed out the window.”

“So, let’s do that. Ralph, you and I can sit down over lunch and talk. How does that sound?” my boss asked.

“Who’s Ralph?” I asked.

“I am, Miss Leary.”

I looked at the mob boss of a man who sat among the company’s retainer employees.

“And all these guys are…?” I asked, waving my hand around the room.

“Friends of mine in the industry I trust with my privacy and my life. I promise you, Miss Leary, none of what happens in this meeting goes anywhere,” Ralph said.

“You can trust him. Ralph has been a dear friend of mine for years,” my boss said.

I nodded slowly as my eyes panned over to Logan. So, his good lawyer friend was friends with my boss? That was how all this had happened? I could tell Logan was slowly dropping the pieces into place as well.