Burn for You (Club Mephisto 2)

“No, that wasn’t made up. I’m just...” She squeezed her forehead with both hands, then gazed up at him, searching for words to explain. “I guess the two main things I didn’t tell you—that I should have—are that I’m very rich and I’m very weird.”

Nothing she was saying was cracking his cool facade. “Rich and weird, huh?”

The waitress was back, dropping a sandwich and cola in front of him on her way to another table. Molly waited as he started eating, took a sip of her own drink for calm.

“So how rich? And how weird? What do you mean by weird?” Before she could answer, he burst out in sharp, defensive words that made her feel sad. “You know, it’s my fault. I should have known you weren’t— I mean, I could see something was going on with you, but I don’t know.” He shrugged and swallowed hard. “I liked you.”

“I liked you too. We were good friends. And none of this is your fault. It’s my fault.”

“‘It’s my fault.’ ‘It’s your fault.’ This is a stupid conversation. At the end of it, things just didn’t work out with us. It’s cool.”

Molly grimaced. “Is it cool? You don’t seem cool.”

“Well, I’m not cool.” He put his sandwich down and leaned closer to her. “I have this awful feeling of incompletion, like the things I wanted to happen between us didn’t come true. I’m disappointed.”

“I know,” Molly said quickly. “I feel that too.”

“But at the same time, you made it pretty clear I’m not ‘the right person’ for you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. I appreciate your honesty. But I can’t be glad. I can’t be all like, ‘oh, hi, Molly, great to see you’ and shoot the shit like we’re just friends now.”

“I would never ask that of you.”

He made a soft, reproachful noise. “Then why are you here?”

She reached into her book and slid the envelope from the pages, pushed it across the table to him. “I wanted to be sure you got this. I’ve thought about this a lot, and...well. Please open it.”

After a moment of hesitation, he picked it up and pushed a finger along the envelope’s flap. He unfolded her letter, straightened it, scanned it quickly. Then he opened the folded-up check that had fallen down onto the table beside his plate. He blinked at it for a few seconds.

“Uh.” He narrowed his eyes and looked again. “This is a check made out for $300,000.”

“It’s for law school. So you don’t have to work anymore while you get your degree.”

“Molly...” Eliot frowned, then gave a small hysterical chuckle. “This is a check for three hundred thousand dollars.”

“If you need more, let me know. But my late husband’s lawyers said that should be plenty, even for a really good law school.”

He shook his head and put a hand over his mouth. She knew what he was thinking. That it was too much, that she was giving it to him for the wrong reasons.

“Please take it,” she said. “It’s not a pay off, or because I feel guilty or bad. It’s not anything, just me wanting to help you. Just me wanting to do something really generous for a deserving person. My husband would have liked his money going to someone like you. Someone who wants to make a difference.”

He gave her an arch look. “How do you know I want to make a difference?”

“You wouldn’t be working so hard to go back to school otherwise.” She twisted her hands together. It’s not like she’d expected him to jump up and down and hug her, but she’d hoped he might be happy, excited at least. “I have so much money I don’t need. Please allow me to do this for you.”

He looked down at the oblong, beige slip of paper in his hand and shook his head again. “I can’t really believe this. Is this a joke?”

“I know you probably think I’m loony, but no. If you don’t have a good place to put that much money, I have a lot of financial advisors who’d be happy to help you set something up.”

There was an edge of anger in his piercing gaze. “A lot of financial advisors? An army of them, huh? When would you have told me how rich you are? That you can cut your friends three-hundred-thousand-dollar checks just because you want to help?”

“I didn’t think it was important. I didn’t think you’d care.”

Eliot put the check down in front of him, smoothed it out, scrubbed his hands down his cheeks, and then picked it up again. “What the fuck, Molly.”

It was a statement, not a question, so she didn’t reply, just sat and waited. He would take the money or he wouldn’t. She wanted him to have it, even if he was acting like an ass, but if he re

fused it she would live with that too.

“I just don’t understand why you’re doing this,” he finally said, his face still obscured with one hand.

Molly searched for the right words to say, to make him okay with it. “You know, I have a lot of lawyers, but they’re old. My husband’s old lawyers. Maybe I’ll need a younger lawyer one day. A really kind, young lawyer with a lot of integrity and an actual sense of humor.”

His face twisted. “You always say I’m kind. It sounds so...blech. It’s like saying someone’s nice.”

Molly flushed. She’d probably described him as “nice” to Mephisto and her husband’s lawyers about a hundred times by now. “Whatever. Do you see what I’m saying? I’m going to need people on my side, people I can trust, people I know. It would be great if one of them was you.”

“So this money comes with an entail, is that it? I can have it as long as I work for you when I have my JD.”

“Work for me?” Molly threw up her hands. “I don’t own a law firm. But once you’re out there lawyering or whatever, you can be hired? Right?”

“If I get into the kind of law you’ll need. Which sounds like financial law. Business.”

“Real estate, mostly.”

“I was thinking more about criminal law. Courtroom stuff. I don’t know. I guess I’m not really sure where law school will lead me.”

“You won’t become one of those horrible personal injury lawyers, will you? With those fake, sensationalist ads, offering people a free consultation?”

“Free consultations?” He seemed to consider that. “I don’t know. My time will be valuable. Maybe free toasters.”

Molly wrinkled her nose and they both laughed. Eliot ran a hand down the front of his work shirt, his expression thoughtful and finally a bit more relaxed. “All right. Wow. This is really a life changer for me. No more brown uniform.” He laughed abruptly, gave her his biggest, brightest smile. “I’m a stuttering moron over this. I’m sorry. Molly, thank you. I don’t deserve this, I don’t know how to repay you for it, but God, I’m so thankful for this. I’m sorry if I’m acting stupid.” He shook his head with a kind of wonder. “It’s just a really big surprise.”