The Bad Judgment Series: The Complete Series Read Online Free PDF Page B

car.
    Walker shrugged. “I’m pretty sure I need a drink.”
    “Me too, son, me too,” David said, and braced himself to get through the crowd.

Chapter 4
    A fter we got back to the office, David told me to go home. It seemed like he and Walker might be going for drinks, which was understandable.
    I realized once I let myself into my apartment that it was the middle of the day and Mike was locked in his office downtown. Relieved, I fell into a dreamless sleep for three hours. I cringed when the alarm went off, my heart pounding. But I had to get back to work. I took a hot shower, happy to be washing my hair, and then I carefully towel-dried it and blew it out. I put on extra mascara, but still wore my glasses. I selected one of my newer black suits and some new high heels; I thought I looked respectable but attractive.
    Andrew, one of the other associates, was waiting outside of my office when I got back. It was after five and Tammy must have been gone for the day, otherwise she would have scared him away. “Your hair looks nice and I know why,”Andrew said, tauntingly. “I just saw Broden Walker going into Proctor’s office. I know you’re working on his case — we saw you on TV,” he said. “You might want to check it out. You looked a little orange.”
    Orange? I thought, dreading the image. This sort of taunting, of competition, was normal between the associates. We were all jockeying to be the best, to get the best assignments, the biggest bonuses. The orange had me worried, though. Still, I couldn’t let Andrew get to me.
    “It was a healthy glow. Not orange,” Mandy said, bustling into my office and interrupting us.Andrew and I looked at her in shock. Not because of what she said —because of how she looked.She’d gone home and performed some sort of extreme makeover on herself. She was wearing a new, formfitting black dress and sky-high patent-leather heels. She’d flat-ironed her hair so it hung straight and sexy; she was wearing more makeup than I’d ever seen her wear, including creamy eyeshadow that set off her gorgeous brown eyes. She looked positively transformed. Curvy. Radiant. Sexy.
    Andrew was just staring at Mandy, enraptured; he’d completely dropped his tirade against my clean hair and orange skin. I looked down at my plain black suit and cringed. Then Alexa stuck her head in and I cringed some more: she look liked she’d hit the salon and had her hair highlighted and her makeup professionally done. She was wearing a white suit I’d never seen her in before, with a plunging black tank top that showed off every inch of her toned, enviable assets. Apparently, they’d both gone out shopping and had their makeup done while I went to court and went home and slept. Great, just great.
    I made myself stop looking at my plain suit and looked up at Alexa. “What,”I said, flatly.
    “Time for our meeting with Mr. Walker, girls! Mandy, you clean up nice,”she said. “I never would have guessed. Nicole, you look like you just got back from the sale rack at Bargain Basement — whoops —I forgot I’m not supposed to make fun of your taste, ‘cause your father’s a janitor.”
    “He’s in building maintenance,” I said, shaking my head at her shamelessness.
    “Right. But it’s not politically correct for me to say you look cheap because your family’s poor. But I just did. At least you don’t look as orange as you did at the press conference earlier. Oh, and Andrew, shut your mouth, you’re gonna get drool on your tie.”
    Andrew shut his mouth and glared at Alexa. I glared at Alexa. Mandy, however, blithely ignored Alexa and scrolled through emails on her phone. She’d probably built up an immunity from years of Alexa’s abuse. Plus, she must have known she looked hot.
    Alexa smiled back at us, enjoying our glares. “Sorry to leave you alone Andrew, but the three of us were hand-picked to work Broden Walker’s case,”she said. “So you should scurry back to your desk and