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before meeting her. That was two weeks ago, and somehow she was holding him responsible for some other dude's faulty grooming habits.  
    Tashana could definitely be such a bitch sometimes.
    "So…" she finally said, after approximately ten minutes and going through half the content on her plate. "It looks like the Bradford dreamboat is lifting anchor and sailing away for good."
    "Huh?"
    "He's leaving the firm." Suddenly she was in such a rush to share the news that she was all but bouncing on her chair. "Come January, Acosta, Bradford, and Chadwick will be no more."  
    Derrick set his fork on the table and slowly wiped his mouth. He'd lost his appetite. He couldn't even look at food right now.
    "Wonder who's going to replace him," she pondered. "Who would you say? One of the senior partners, perhaps? Then again, maybe Acosta and Chadwick won't care for it. I don't think the firm's work will be affected if—"
    "That can't be right."
    "Doreen from Communications and Media told Stacey from Real Estate. There was a big fight," she continued saying between bites. "At the end, Bradford told Acosta and Chadwick he was quitting, and that was it. Isn't that great?"
    "No, it is not ." He drummed his fingers on the table and glared at her. "Why are you so excited about this anyway?"  
    "Because you won't have to worry about sexual misconduct and all that crap you're constantly telling me about. I'll be sad to see Bradford go, don't get me wrong, but the silver lining is you can ask him out if he isn't your boss!"  
    "Those guys went to college and started the firm together," Derrick pointed out, ignoring Tashana's well intentioned but uninformed comments. "They're friends. I can't imagine a reason why any of them would leave."
    "Maybe they can't play nice anymore," Tashana said after taking a sip from her drink. "Don't forget Acosta and Bradford had that torrid affair ages ago."
    "They did not ."
    Roman thought of Sergio and Alan as his brothers. He would never get romantically or sexually involved with either of them.
    "Uh-huh, they sure did. Jeremy from Human Resources heard it from Tiffany. It ended badly when Bradford refused to suck Acosta's cock exclusively. You know how Latino lovers are. You've dated a few. Possessive and jealous and whatnot," she finished, wiggling her eyebrows.
    "Okay." Derrick slammed his hands on the table so hard the bottles of mustard and ketchup jumped around. "My love life is totally irrelevant right now." He wiped his mouth again. "And who the hell's Tiffany?"
    "A former legal assistant. She was assigned to Noah's cluster when she got fired for having sex in the supply room with—"  
    "Forget I asked," he cut her off. "There's never been confirmation that Sergio Acosta is gay. As much as ABC's employees love their gossip, the truth is no one knows much about the firm's owners."
    Sergio was gay. But Roman, Alan, and Sergio were extremely careful about keeping their lives private. Roman had mentioned they knew gossip was a sport among the firm's employees, and they preferred their names were kept out of the game. Sadly for the partners, it wasn't working.
    "True." Tashana took another bite of liver and onions and grinned at him. "But you don't seem to question the veracity of the rumors surrounding Bradford."
    He didn't have to. Same as Sergio, Roman Bradford was gay. Derrick had known that he was five seconds into their first meeting and personally confirmed his homosexuality months ago. But he had never shared that information with anyone. Not even with his closest friends.
    "I thought everybody knows he is," Derrick said evasively.
    "But it's never been confirmed, so we can't be sure about him."
    "What?" Derrick had to laugh at that one. "Bernice from Cafeteria's word isn't enough this time?"  
    "Don't be a jerk."
    "Can we focus here?"
    "Of course." She grinned again. "You're right, anyway. Let's not forget he was sued for sexual harassment by a male employee."
    There were rumors of a