ANMELDEN(Lily – age six)I'm six today, which is the best age, and I'd know, because I've been all the other ones.There are nineteen people at my party, a dog that isn't ours, and a cake shaped like a horse, even though I asked for a real horse.Mommy said the cake was the compromise.I don't really know what a compromise is, but she gives me a lot of them.Auntie Sonia gave me a tiara that's real, she says.Real means I'm not allowed to wear it in the bath.Great grandpa Elias isn’t here, but he sent an envelope, which is the most boring present in the world, except Mom's face when I opened it said it wasn't boring at all.She said something about shares and grandpa being too generous, but I don’t really care about that.I wish he was at the party to be all scowly at everyone laughing and being loud.Daddy thinks he’s scary, but he’s silly.There's a kid here I don't know who keeps crying near the bouncy castle. I hope his mommy comes to get him soon because I don’t want crying at my birthd
(Mason)The Brennan deal closes at 7:40 on a Thursday, and I lose.Not badly. But Imani Okafor walks out of that conference room with the better end of it.The way she's walked out with the better end of every negotiation we've been part of for three months.And I've never enjoyed losing this much in my life.For three months we've been on opposite sides of Brennan, and for three months she's been one of the brightest spots of every week.Everyone handles me now.They step around the headlines and the wreckage.Imani treats me like a man who's still dangerous.Which is the kindest thing anyone's done for me in months.She'd be appalled to hear me calling her kind.So I do the only sensible thing a man in my position can do. I try to hire her.I catch her at the elevator. "Buy you a drink?""Is this the part where you tell me I was very impressive for someone on the wrong side?""It's the part where I offer you a job."That stops her. For about a second.Imani doesn't do surprised for
(Mason)I drive Chloe to the appointment because she still doesn't have a car.Also because missing the appointment would take a better reason than the one I've got.The one I've got is that small rooms with her are starting to do things to my chest I'd rather they didn't.The waiting room is full of couples who are actually couples.We’re not that.We're a man, his ex, and the situation between them, which is roughly the size of a beach ball now and kicks whenever she eats anything spicy.Chloe's brought a folder of pamphlets, an app she won't stop quoting, and a crystal in her pocket she thinks I haven't noticed."Rose quartz," she says, catching me looking. "For the baby's heart chakra. You can roll your eyes. I felt you roll your eyes.""I didn't say anything.""Your whole face said something."She laughs, and it's the laugh that got me into this in the first place.Big, unembarrassed, the laugh of a woman who has never once worried what a room thinks of her.I spent three good mo
(Hannah)Elijah asks if he can stay at Natasha's for the weekend the way he asks for anything he actually wants.Sideways.Voice carefully calibrated to give nothing away.Halfway out of the kitchen, eyes on the floor, so a no won't have anywhere to land.I've known how to read that since he was four. It took his father about a month.I'm still in my scrubs after sixteen hours on my feet.This morning I had my hands inside a man’s chest.Tonight I came home to reheat pasta and get asked to hand my son to another woman for two days.A woman who’s not even married to Chase anymore."Whose idea was that?" I ask. Keeping my voice level is a skill I should be allowed to bill for."Mine." He finally looks at me. "Lily might start walking. I want to be there."That's the part that takes the wind out of me.It’s not about Chase or Natasha.A baby's first steps, and my kid has decided he can't miss them.His half-sister."What's it like over there?" I ask lightly.The way you ask a kid somethi
(Chase)The school uses the words "little altercation," which is what you say to a parent who owns a building with the family name on it.Hannah's in surgery. Her text is four words. Can you get him?I read it twice.A month ago I didn't exist to either of them. Now I'm the emergency contact.So I drive myself, which the office appears to find confusing.The CEO doesn't usually take the car out at two on a Tuesday, summarily canceling the rest of his appointments for the day.Elijah comes out with a split lip and a face daring me to say something about it.He gets in. Slams the door harder than the door deserves.I decide the Bentley can take it.I don't ask.That's the one thing I've worked out about this.James was right that I can’t just sit back and wait, but if I push when his emotions are running this high, he’ll clam up.So I pull out of the lot and let the quiet sit.I don't ask about the lip, or the other kid, or what a suspension does to a transcript.Three blocks of nothing
(Natasha)It takes four minutes to steal the account out from under Warren Global.Four minutes, one phone call I made last night, and a clause nobody on their side read closely enough.This is the part of the job I'm best at and least proud of.Find the soft spot in a thing that looks solid then lean on it until it gives.People think this work is all about crunching numbers. It's mostly knowing which person in the room can be intimidated, then leaning on them hard.The client's people shake my hand on the way out.Chase's people don't.Chase doesn't move.He doesn't reach for his phone.Doesn't lean to the lawyer on his left.Doesn't do any of the things a man does when you've just walked a contract out of his building with a lot of zeros attached.He sits at the end of the glass table and watches me like I'm the only interesting thing in a tower he owns.What none of them know, what only Chase knows, is that I just made myself poorer to do it.I hold Warren stock. Fifteen percent s
(Piper)Gloria finally texts me on Monday morning.Meet me for coffee at the place on Beverly at 10.No are you available. No if you can make it.Not even a question mark.She knows I’ll be there.I reply fine. No punctuation on my end, either.We’ve known each other for eleven years, and we’re way
(Gloria)I hang up the phone on a long exhale.A minute ago I would have told anyone who asked that I had no idea whether I'd say yes if he calls.Then I said yes without giving it too much thought and I have to admit I was just being precious about it.I'm in sweatpants and a sports bra, hair in t
(Nathanial)Tuesday morning.I’m on the couch with a lukewarm coffee, holding my thumb over the camera app icon until the screen shivers and the menu pops.I hit the X.The phone asks if I’m sure.I stare at the prompt, ignoring the little voice telling me I need to make sure she’s safe.I promised
(Julian)I have started showing up once a week.Not exactly invited, but Natasha hasn’t refused me entry yet.Or asked me to stop coming by.It helps that I’m not making any moves of a sexual nature.Let’s be clear, if she initiated anything I’d be naked and doing cartwheels in a heartbeat, but tha







