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the time on my lunch break. I’ll make sure I get everything filed before I leave today.”
    Her reply came in the form of a stern gaze. Her looks were more intense than a thousand words.
    Once I settled into my desk, I dared to check my cell phone. I’d missed a bunch of calls from Grace the night before, but I still wasn’t up to listening to them. I also had a missed call from an unknown number. I sincerely hoped it wasn’t Brad, and a little part of me hoped it was someone else. Someone I’d kicked out of the house hours before. There was no way he could have gotten my phone number, was there?

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    “ H ey , are you okay?” Rachel, the only female attorney in the office, stopped by my cubicle.
    “Yeah, sorry. Do you need anything?” Rachel was always nice to me, but she never stopped by to chitchat.
    “No, I saw you when you passed my office. You looked out of it.”
    “Oh. It was a long night.”
    “Want to talk about it over lunch?” Rachel usually went out for lunch by herself. I assumed she was meeting a boyfriend or something. I knew from studying her resume when I first applied for the job that she was in her first year out of law school. Even though she was only a few years older than me, that degree set us in different worlds. She was on a career path, and I wasn’t.
    “I have to take a fifty-eight minute lunch today.” Brenda would be watching me like a hawk.
    Rachel laughed. “I think we can manage to be back by then.”
    “All right, sounds good.” I wasn’t really in the mood for small talk, but I wasn’t going to say no to one of the attorneys, especially not Rachel.
    I grabbed my stuff and met her in the lobby before we headed outside.
    “Want to go over to Slightly North of Broad?”
    “Sure, sounds great.” I usually packed lunch, but since I had nothing in the house I’d have had to go out anyway. At least if I was splurging, it was going to be good food.
    We waited a few minutes for a table, and I tried to resist looking at my watch too often. I didn’t want to seem rude.
    “Relax. You won’t get fired for taking a long lunch.”
    “You want to bet?” I glanced at the crowded restaurant.
    “Who? Brenda? She’s all talk. Besides, I’ll say you were helping me if she complains at all.”
    “Thanks.” I still didn’t understand why Rachel was being so friendly. Hopefully this wasn’t some excuse to talk to me about something I messed up.
    “No problem, I’ve been meaning to ask you out to lunch since you started, but work’s been busy.”
    I’d only been working there a few months, but it felt like years. “Oh, thanks. Was there a particular reason? ” I asked nervously.
    “You seem nice.” She smiled.
    Our table was ready so we followed the hostess to a small table by the window looking out onto Bay Street.
    “Oh thanks. You seem nice too.” I slid into my seat. I sounded beyond lame.
    She picked up her menu. “Have you been here before?”
    “Once on a date my junior year.” It was with the same guy who’d broken my heart into a million pieces my senior year.
    “So you went to college around here?”
    “Yeah, Harrison.”
    “Cool. I went to Emory, but I grew up in Charleston.”
    “You majored in Political Science.” The words slipped out, and I looked down at my menu. I probably sounded like a stalker. “Sorry, I know from your bio.”
    She laughed. “Glad you do your research.”
    “You probably do too. I mean since you’re a lawyer and all.”
    “I do when it comes to my job.”
    The waiter came by to take our order. We fell into some office talk while we waited for our salads to be brought out. The second they arrived, I dug in.
    The food seemed to signify a change, and Rachel moved the conversation away from work politics. “Do you live with college friends, or on your own?”
    “I live alone. I’m house sitting down on the battery right now.”
    “Oh yeah? I had a friend in high school who lived down there. Gorgeous house that looked