Page 1 of I Love You, I Hate You
Prologue
Two Years Ago
Victoria Clemenceaux had never been more ready in her life. She had some pre-court jitters, but those were to be expected for her first appearance. But you didn’t get a job like this at twenty-six by being timid and downplaying your abilities. Plus, the case was easy. Victoria might have been a little uneasy when it came to Smorgasbord’s ridiculously exploitative employment practices, but they didn’t pay her to care about that. They paid her to win, and that was exactly what she was going to do.
Victoria braced herself and pushed open the heavy courtroom doors. The clerk was already calling her case, so she hurried to the front, eyes snagging on a man about her age with striking blue eyes and red-blonde hair that was just a bit too long to be professional. He grinned at her, friendly and relaxed, and she wanted to smile back. She had spent so long in law school building up her walls, brick by brick, keeping everyone else out. It was easier to not let anyone in, to keep away anyone who could make her feel vulnerable.
And yet, with a single grin, this guy had her reconsidering. She wasn’t here to ogle, though, so Victoria tore her eyes away and swept past him to step up to the defendant’s table before the judge.
She had been guessing her opponent would be the square-jawed, grey-haired man three rows back—he looked like roughly three-quarters of her coworkers—but suddenly Courtroom Hottie stood and hustled to the plaintiff’s side. Victoria stiffened, and when he looked over at her again, she kept her eyes firmly on her paperwork. She couldn’t afford to be distracted, not now. His handsomeness and appealing smile were utterly irrelevant to the job at hand and she ignored him until he looked away. She had worked too hard and come too far to let one good-looking guy distract her.
She took a second to smooth down the dove-grey suit she was wearing, picking off a tiny thread she’d missed last night. Her eyes had been blurring by the time she finished tailoring it, but it was worth it. Victoria would bet good money no one in the courtroom would be able to tell it only cost $60 off the clearance rack. She straightened, ready.
“Your client is claiming breach of contract, Mr. Pohl?” the judge began.
The name stuck out, oddly familiar. For a second she couldn’t figure out why but when she did, Victoria’s eyes widened. She should have recognized him earlier from Cassie’s Facebook photos, but those must be a few years old. His hair was longer now, and he definitely wasn’t wearing a suit in any of those. Of all the people to take a Hail Mary case against one of the state’s biggest employers, she hadn’t guessed it would be the son of one of the richest families in the Upper Midwest. While a part of her might find that admirable, a bigger part of her was really fucking annoyed. Owen Pohl had grown up in the lap of luxury and gone to an Ivy League law school before starting his own firm, while Victoria had bounced around from crappy apartment to crappy apartment with her mom, barely scraping together enough money and scholarships to attend the University of Minnesota. She had loans the size of a mortgage she’d be paying off until retirement and had to take the highest paying job she could find, conscience be damned, and meanwhile this guy had a trust fund. Of course he was smiling and relaxed going into battle against a major corporation—it didn’t matter to him if he won or lost. His job wasn’t on the line.
“Yes, your honor.” Owen flashed his grin at the judge and was rewarded with the glimmer of a smile. Victoria narrowed her eyes, knowing exactly what game he was playing and not buying it for a second. Guys like him coasted by without ever putting in the work while people like Victoria had to fight tooth and nail for every little scrap.
“And Ms. Clemenceaux, I assume Smorgasbord would like to start with mediation?”
“As is required by their contracts, yes,” Victoria said without looking at him.
Owen cleared his throat. “Actually, I’m moving that since Smorgasbord was in breach of contract, the mediation clause is void. I’d like to proceed straight to litigation.”
Victoria blinked. It was a big swing, proposing this right off the bat. While Owen might think the combination of his daddy’s money and his laid-back charm entitled him to skip a few steps, Victoria hadn’t graduated at the top of her class for nothing. She scoffed audibly and rolled her eyes. “If you’d read the statute, you’d see that if the plaintiff wishes to avoid mediation they are required to appeal to the board of directors first,” she said, finally looking at him. He attempted a smile, probably hoping to disarm her, but she shot him a cold look and it withered on the vine. She allowed herself a small moment of pleasure at getting one up on him, and then got back to business. “Have you bothered to tell your clients that?”
“Right, because the company that wrote the contract gets to decide if it’s in violation of it? That’s garbage and you know it.” He was way out of line, but that was exactly what she wanted. An opponent who was mad was an opponent who was not thinking clearly.
She made sure she looked affronted. “That’s the law, counselor.”
“The law your company wrote,” he retorted.
“It’s still the law,” she said icily. He was glaring at her now, all the merriment gone from his eyes. In its place was pure loathing.
“It’s still bullshit, is what it is,” he snapped.
“That’s enough,” the judge interjected. “Ms. Clemenceaux is right, counselor. You can’t skip mediation without first appealing to their board. Would you like to petition them, or go straight to mediation?”
Before Owen could answer, Victoria dropped the hammer. “If I may, your honor, if you look at the statute’s third subsection and the following appendix, you’ll see that attempting to circumvent mediation at all prior to the petition being filed with the board is grounds for dismissal entirely. Since my opposing counsel didn’t bother to do his homework, I move that the case be dismissed.” She looked at him, stone-faced except for her eyes. She couldn’t keep those from dancing.
Owen curled his hands into fists. “Your honor—”
The judge shook her head. “I’m sorry, counselor, she’s right. Case dismissed without prejudice. You may refile once you’ve completed the outlined terms in the correct order.”
Owen’s face went ashen. She’d won. And even quicker than she thought. She smirked at Owen as she swanned past, floating on the high that came with doing her job well. He gathered his things and hurried after her, anger making him clumsy. “What the hell was that?” he hissed when they hit the hallway.
She stopped, eyebrows lifted. “You know, the generally accepted way of greeting someone is ‘hello’ followed by introducing yourself,” she said coolly. “I’m Victoria, by the way. And you are?” She was just being a dick now, but she couldn’t help it. It felt good to put a rich kid in his place.
“Owen,” he said through his teeth. “And I repeat,what the hell was that?” he growled.
She smirked at him again and turned on her heel. “That was you losing. Get used to it.”
Eighteen Months Ago
Direct Messages: Nora @Noraephronwasagenius
@Lukethebarnyardcat