“I’m feeling a lot better now, thank you.”
“Hey, what are girlfriends for?” I asked.
“Girlfriend?” Cooper asked, not seeming averse to the idea.
“Yeah, kind of slipped out.”
He didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to push him, particularly after what he had gone through last night, but his smile spoke to some hidden thought process. I got the feeling maybe he wasn’t ready for that right yet but might be soon.
“Would you like to do something physical?” he asked.
“What did we just do?”
“I meant in public. Like an outing,” Cooper said, I figured he’d meant a date but resisted the urge to tease him.
“Sure. I have some chores to do, but I think you should spend some time with Sequoia while she is in town.”
“She could come along. If that wouldn’t be too weird.”
“A triple date with your mom. Oh, no, mot weird at all,” I teased, “of course I don’t mind. I like Sequoia.”
Thus started the great phone-tag. Instead of going out and doing something fun, Cooper hung around my place, trying to call his mom, always getting her voicemail. Leaving a message just in case.
“You dying or something?” I heard her say when she finally picked up early in the evening.
“No, but I was wondering if you were,” Cooper snarked back.
It seemed a bit mean at first, but I soon realized that this was just their dynamic. I had seen him do the same with Camilla before.
“I’m fine, little one. I won’t be here tonight if you want to bring Sarah over.”
“Why not—actually don’t answer that.”
“Your mother has a lover,” I laughed as he hung up.
“I never knew you had such a dark side,” he whined.
“It’s what makes me such a good lawyer. I could be quite the rich bitch when I was younger. Come to the bedroom, and I’ll show you my other side.”
Chapter Fifteen
Cooper
It was a wonderful week, despite the less than ideal circumstances. I was spending a lot of time with Sarah both in the bedroom as well as out of it, and we were really getting to know each other as people. I never really bought into the idea that all it takes to change a man is the love of a good woman, but it certainly did help. I barely heard the anger drums at all anymore, and most of the time, the burning turned out to just be acid reflux. I spent a lot of time with my mom to which was something we hadn’t done in a while. Not since she moved to New Mexico, telling me to take care of Camilla before she left. To be fair, that was nearly a decade ago when Camilla was only seventeen.
Most of the time with Sarah outside the bedroom was going over the case, but there was some fun stuff, too, like cooking together and cuddling on the couch watching movies. Particularly bad movies. Turned out she loved to hate-watch Troma flicks as much as I did. It became a nearly nightly ritual. It almost started to feel like we were an actual couple. I did a lot of the same thing with my friends, back when I had them, though not combined with sex, which added a whole new dimension. I also thought there was something to the idea of the most suited lovers also being friends. It was kind of hard to spend time with someone, let alone a lifetime, if you have little to nothing in common. I started to realize that friends with benefits really was the best way to describe our dynamic. At least at the beginning.
I pinpointed the point when things started to change to the first time we ate breakfast together—a new experience for both of us from what I could tell and a significant change in our overall dynamic. I hadn’t even flinched when Sarah referred to herself, off-handedly, as my girlfriend. I actually sort of liked the idea. But I wasn’t quite ready to say it out loud.
The day to hash out the case had come. After a few arguments, mostly for strategic advantage, a place for the meeting had been chosen. Sarah looked amazing. Powerful and commanding. Even Lars Ivanov would have to be impressed.
“You can use my past if you need to,” I offered.
“Shouldn’t be necessary,” Sarah said, keeping up her power-march of a walk, “Anderson doesn’t have to remove himself. I can take him. No one is going to hurt my baby.”
“Sweet, but I’m pretty sure that should be my mother’s line,” I chuckled.
Speak of the devil. We both stopped cold as we entered the conference room. Sitting at the head of the table like the queen of the universe, with Ivanov and Anderson on either side of her, was none other than Sequoia Camilla Jones herself.
“We should go inside,” Sarah said, clearly rattled herself.