Cal pauses chewing and just stares at me. I hold his stare, so he knows I’m not kidding. He quickly swallows his food and wipes his mouth. Pushing his sandwich aside, he leans across the table toward me. “Are you serious?”
Okay, at least his tone isn’t mocking me but he is in disbelief, so I need to convince him. “Yes. My mom was well insured when she died. I’m willing to put some of that money into opening up my own firm. And you are always telling me how you want to switch from doing defense work to plaintiff’s work. So, now is your chance. Plus, I have a really huge case, and I need help with it. If we win it, it will be worth millions. And if we lose it… well, I’ll need someone’s shoulder to cry on.”
Cal takes a deep breath and leans back in his chair, his lunch completely forgotten. “Let’s say I even entertain this idea. When would you want to do this?”
“In two weeks… I’m ready to start as soon as I leave Connover and Crown.”
“Jesus Christ,” Cal mutters, scrubbing his hand through his hair. “This case you’re talking about… tell me about it.”
I do one even better. I hand over the typed memorandum and eat my cupcake while he reads it. When he’s done, he looks up. “Well, the good news is, if I were to help you on this, at least my firm doesn’t represent this particular insurance company so there would be no conflict of interest for me to be involved in this case.”
Laying the memorandum down, he reaches over and picks his sub back up. “There’s a lot to consider. I mean, what type of firm would we have, where would we locate it, what do we need to do to go about setting it up? I mean… we need bank accounts, office space, equipment…”
Reaching down into my briefcase, I calmly hand over a thick document that I stayed up all night working on. The cover says, “Business Plan, Carson and Dawson, LLC”.
Cal glances down at it, and his eyes widen in disbelief. “You got to be kidding me. When did you do this?”
Shrugging my shoulders, I say, “It’s just a little something I whipped up last night.”
Giving a huge bark of laughter, Cal sets his sub back down again and picks up the business plan. He starts reading it and, because it will take a while, I go ahead and get to work on my salad.
I amuse myself by people watching, but amusement turns to sadness when I see Matt walk in… with Kylie Wynn right behind him. She’s talking animatedly toward him, and yup… there goes the classic laying of her hand on his arm. Apparently, that move never gets old for her.
After they pay for their meals, which I take a small measure of glee in noting that they paid separately, I watch as Matt scans the room, looking for an open table. His eyes pass over Cal and me, not giving much of a glance since our table isn’t empty.
But then his eyes snap back to me, and our gazes lock.
We stare at each other a moment and, for just a brief time, it’s like nothing bad ever happened between us. There is still a palpable connection, and our eyes hold all of those secrets. But then Matt’s gaze flicks over to Cal, and his face hardens a tiny bit.
I expect Matt to try to find a table as far away from us as he can, but he surprises me when he walks over to us. When he’s only a few feet away, I kick Cal under the table. He looks at me, and I nod over his shoulder so he knows someone is approaching.
Cal turns slightly and sees Matt and Kylie.
“Matt,” Cal says with a nod of his head.
Matt is ever polite, because he has to be since he and Cal deal with each other in the professional world. Matt nods back and introduces Kylie. While Cal makes small talk with Kylie for a few moments, I see Matt’s eyes glance down at the business plan I had just handed Cal. He sees the words Carson and Dawson, LLC clear as day. I watch his face carefully so I can gauge how this will affect him. I mean, it’s truly none of his business, but I imagine this would piss him off royally.
He does nothing more than bring his eyes up to mine though. They look sad for just a flash, and then he gives me a small smile.