Stipulation Read Online Free PDF Page A

this is just sex, and our conversation is probably nothing more
than the passing of time so that he can eat his breakfast.
    When he finishes, he
helps me with the dishes, bumping his shoulder companionably against
mine. But then he says he needs to get home and take care of some
things.
    I wait for him to
say he wants to see me tonight, but he busies himself with putting
his jacket on and grabbing his briefcase. When he walks to my front
door, I finally blurt, “So… what are you doing this
weekend?”
    God… did that
sound pathetically hopeful?
    Hopefully not.
    He turns to look at
me with a tight look on his face. “I have plans all weekend, so
I’ll see you in the office on Monday.”
    His words have a
finality to them. He’s not going to share what those plans are
and, clearly, I’m not included. A deep pang of hurt hits me in
the center of my chest, but I don’t let him see it. I keep my
smile bright when I tell him, “Cool. Have a great weekend, and
I’ll see you Monday.”
    Kissing me on the
cheek, Matt says goodbye and leaves without a backward glance. He
doesn’t hold me in his arms and tell me he’ll miss me.
    He’s already
dismissed me from his mind.

My plans may not be
with Matt this weekend—again, still smarting about that—but
I do have plans.
    I’m in the law
library at Columbia doing a huge research project on how to pierce
the corporate veil for Lorraine that’s due on Monday. Yes, I
almost fell asleep just thinking those words.
    Boring!
    I could easily do
the research at the office. Matt and Bill spared no expense on the
online legal research software for Connover and Crown, but I love the
law library at my alma mater. There’s something about the dark
cubbies and green banker’s lamps on each table, emitting their
soft glow, that makes me feel smarter. Like I can absorb the
yawn-inducing material better. I’m always in my research zone
here.
    I’ve been at
it for two hours, and I think I have most of my research collected.
Now I settle in to read it in detail. I make frequent trips back and
forth to the copier, and let my yellow highlighter mark the passages
that apply to our case, or could poke a hole in our case.
    That takes another
three hours, and then I’m ready to begin typing a Memorandum
that will summarize all of this work into an easy, twenty-minute read
for Lorraine.
    Yup… pisses
me off that I’ll have probably seven hours of work into a
Memorandum that Lorraine will be able to read in twenty minutes and
be well versed in the law. Such is the life of a lowly associate
attorney fresh out of law school.
    Once my Memorandum
is finished, and I’ve proofed it three times—because if
Lorraine catches a comma out of place, I’ll get an
ass-chewing—I print it and head to the copier for one last
round of copies. One for Lorraine, one for me, and one for Matt, just
because I know it will piss Lorraine off that I think I need to copy
Matt on this.
    As the papers are
shooting out from the copier into the collection bin, my mind
wanders. Of course, I think of Matt. I wonder what he has planned
this weekend, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was
obsessing on the possible fact that he could be hooking up with
someone else. Although we’ve been very clear and honest about
giving into our attraction to each other, we never talked about us
being monogamous. Matt has no need for loyalty to me because I’ve
not asked for it, and my stomach churns over the fact that he might
be screwing someone else tonight.
    Someone prettier
than me. Smarter than me. Sexier than me.
    Sighing in longing
and frustration, I don’t notice the man standing next to the
copier.
    “Legal
research gives me the same feeling,” he says, assuming my sighs
have more to do with the law than love.
    Looking up, I see a
very handsome man. He stands about six foot with dark blond hair and
warm brown eyes. Dressed casually in jeans and a polo shirt, he leans
one arm on the copier and pulls my copies out.