Stipulation Read Online Free PDF

Scanning it briefly,
he says, “Piercing the corporate veil, huh? Dry stuff.”
    Nodding, I give him
a smile in agreement. “Yup. Just spent a lovely seven hours on
this puppy. I’m not entirely sure I’m not in a coma right
now. Am I talking okay?”
    Laughing, he hands
me the copies and says, “You’re talking just fine. I’m
Cal Carson, by the way.”
    He sticks his hand
out to me, and I give it a shake. “McKayla Dawson, first-year
associate and relegated to the law library on weekends.”
    I take the copies
from him and slip them in my briefcase. Standing up, I look back at
Cal. “So, what type of law do you do?”
    “Corporate and
insurance defense,” he says, with about as much enthusiasm as a
man getting ready to have his teeth drilled. “But I’m
thinking of a career change. You?”
    “Oh, a little
of this, a little of that. Whatever my boss tells me to do,
actually.”
    “Been there,
done that,” he commiserates. “It will get better over
time.”
    We both start
walking out of the library together. “Didn’t you have
copies to make? I just assumed you were waiting for me to get done.”
    “Nah… I
just saw you standing there and thought I’d introduce myself.
Say… if you want me to read your memo, I’d be glad to. I
just gave a symposium on this very subject.”
    “Really?”
I ask, grateful to have another opinion. If I’m wrong about
something, I can get it corrected and save myself from a Lorraine
Special Tongue Lashing. “I don’t want to bother you or
anything.”
    “It’s
not a bother and certainly no hardship to help out a beautiful
woman,” he says, his eyes showing a tad bit warmer than they
were before. I blush prettily because his words are nice, and I’m
in a Matt funk.
    “Okay…
how about I buy you a cup of coffee across the street, and you can
take a gander at it?”
    Cal takes my elbow
as we exit the law library. “I’ll agree only if I buy the
coffee.”
    “But that
doesn’t seem fair.” I laugh. “You have to do work
and pay for coffee.”
    “Trust me,”
Cal says. “Being able to spend half an hour in your presence is
payment enough.”
    I look at Cal in a
different light right now. He’s clearly flirting with me, and I
like it. It’s been so very long since someone has done that.
Not even Matt has taken the time, because he knows I’m a sure
thing. He knows without a doubt that I’ll drop trou when he
crooks his finger at me.
    But this is
different. Since Pete, no one of the male persuasion has caused me to
blush or made butterflies dance in my stomach.
    Giving him a
blinding smile, I say, “Okay… I accept your offer of
coffee. Lead the way.”

This day couldn’t
get any worse. It was a Monday after all, and it came on the heels of
a craptastic weekend. I spent all weekend vacillating between working
my ass off and moping over Matt.
    I try to mentally
kick my ass over and over again for getting feelings caught up in
this strange ‘thing’ I have going on with Matt. It’s
a ‘thing’ because it’s not a relationship. We don’t really talk unless it’s to murmur dirty words to each
other. I mean, it’s not like we’re sharing our hopes and
dreams with one another. In essence, other than giving me
bone-melting orgasms, he doesn’t really care for me.
    Why is he plaguing
my thoughts so much?
    I figured coming
into work might help me take my mind off things. I mean, I was met at
my office door by Lorraine, who berated me for being five-minutes
late, and for a solid thirty seconds… I didn’t think of
Matt.
    No, I thought of
putting my hands around Lorraine’s scrawny neck and wringing
the ever-fucking life out of her. But then she simmered down and
asked to see the Memorandum I had drafted for her this weekend. She
sat in her office, all prim and proper, and silently read my work.
    The best possible
scenario occurred, and she looked up at me with lips thinned flat and
said, “I can use this. It’s passable.”
    The vision of my
fingers