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“Okay. You’re right. Omit it.”

“Fine. Ask me another question.”

“What do you mean you have a lot at stake?”

Fuck.I walked right into that one.

“I just meant that it’s an important case.”

“I don’t think that’s all you meant. We had a deal, Dani.”

I know giving him this information will probably come back to haunt me, and I can’t even say why I’m compelled to give it in the first place. All I know is that my mouth is opening before I can stop it.

“My boss has agreed to put me up for junior partner if I win.”

“Wow.”

“But that doesn’t mean I want you cutting corners or babying me,” I stress.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he says, a smile still in his voice. “That’s not who we are.”

“Right. So just forget I even said anything.”

“I’ll do my best,” he answers softly. “Do you have another?”

“I think your objection to Request Number Seven is plausible, so I’m not going to contest it, but you objected to Request NumberNine on the basis thatthe request potentially seeks attorney work product and attorney-client privileged information. You then go on to state thatno documents are being withheld pursuant to these privileges. If there are no documents subject to these privileges, why are you objecting?”

“Can’t argue with that,” he says. “Feel free to omit.”

“Good.”

“Why don’t you like me?”

I blink in surprise, taken completely off guard by the question. “Excuse me?”

“I mean, I don’t think youactuallydislike me, not anymore,” he says, setting off a flicker of annoyance in me before he goes on. “But the night we met, you decided I was some asshole within one conversation. Why?”

I can’t help but remember the night in question, thinking back to the moment I saw him laughing at the open bar of the party we were both attending—the memory of his smile fixing me in place still vivid after so many months. I knew who he was; how could I not, with him and his stupid Heartbreak Prince nickname floated around by other lawyers, but being that he’d only just moved back to Austin after a stint in New York for the last few years, I hadn’t actually run into him before.

“You were talking to another woman,” I say, remembering. “Smiling and laughing while she ate it up.”

He makes an indignant sound. “Wait, so I’m being punished for talking to other women before I even met you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I huff. “It was just…clear how into you she was. She was hanging on your every word, Ezra.”

“I’m still not following.”

“You looked up and saw me, and you just…walked away fromher. You barely even gave her an excuse. You just came over to me and started flirting with me. It was clear to me how little you appreciate a woman’s attention, even then, so why would I be excited about the fact that I can’t seem to stop being an idiot enough to stop giving you mine?”

He doesn’t say anything for a long time, so long that I almost feel likeI’mthe one who’s done something wrong.

“Well, say something,” I urge.

“I never thought about you seeing it that way,” he says, almost like he’s only just considering it for the first time.

“Of course you didn’t,” I scoff. “Because that’s all women are to you.”

“Is that what you think?”