Legal Briefs (Lawyers in Love) (16 page)

I found a pair of sweats with a drawstring waist and elastic around the ankles. Those should work. I also found a Philadelphia Eagles sweatshirt and I threw it on and rolled up the sleeves. I could hear Hannah, Sarah and Abby laughing and talking as I headed out to the living room.

“Hi Lily,” all three of them said in unison.

“Hi,” I answered, feeling a little embarrassed at my messy state. I’m sure I looked very freshly fucked, and I hoped it didn’t creep them out too much that I was with their little brother. It seemed like they were taking in stride though.

“We’re sorry we got you up … at noon,” Hannah teased, looking at her watch.

“I think this might be yours,” Sarah said, scooping up my dress from the floor where I had tossed it the night before. I felt my face heat up.

“Okay!” Adam broke in, grabbing my dress and handing it to me. “Let’s order!”

We sat around while Adam’s sisters told me what was going on in their lives. The eldest, Hannah, was a stay-at-home mom, and her husband had just made partner at his firm. Her little boy, Joshua, was four, and she was pregnant with their second baby. Sarah, his middle sister, was finishing her PhD and had begun dating a young professor. Abby, a fellow attorney, was doing some white-collar criminal defense at her firm involving computer hackers that she found really interesting. Our brunch arrived and while we sat around his table eating, Sarah brought up a new subject.

“So Adam, I guess your ‘Get out of jail free’ card has expired.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you owe us about a thousand Jewish Life Cycle events,” she replied.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said dismissively.

“Oh shut up!” Abby laughed. “Adam, while we have attended every bris, every bar mitzvah, every wedding and every funeral for years, you have managed to get a pass on at least half of them since college.”

“But now you’re dating a nice Jewish lawyer,” Hannah said, practically glowing. “Mom won’t worry that everyone thinks you’re a loser because you didn’t bring a date, and dad won’t worry that you’ll show up with some chick you found in a bar the night before.”

“Keep your evenings free for the next week or so, Lily,” Abby said. “Our cousin Rebekah is about to have a baby boy.” Uh oh. I knew what that meant – the ritual circumcision.

“Oh no way! No
way
am I going to a bris!” Adam said forcefully.

“Why not?” Hannah said. “It’s not like you’ll be the only guy there.”

“And not one male present won’t be cringing and wishing he could grab his crotch the whole time. Going to Josh’s almost traumatized me. I can’t do that again. I can’t look at some infant lying there all happy and oblivious and trusting …”

“Oh Adam,” Sarah said, sounding exasperated. “You don’t remember
yours,
do you?”

“I don’t care! At that moment, I’m sure I was highly pissed off.”

“We’ll make sure you have the details,” Hannah said to me with a smile.

Adam seemed very agitated and he looked like he was about to tell Hannah where she could stick her details when his phone rang again. He went over to answer it and then went into the other room to take the call.

“I hope you don’t mind too much, Lily,” Abby said. “Think of it this way, you’ll get to meet our whole family.” I knew she was teasing but I actually
didn’t
mind. It may sound weird, but I had always wanted to be included with the Roth family. Being an only child, I had watched longingly as the kids laughed and joked together. Not to mention the fact that their parents seemed so warm and so … not my parents. I would have loved to have gone home with them, even if it meant having to be around Adam all the time, and that should tell you something.

“Yeah, well keep in mind that we just started trying out this dating thing. Adam and I tend to battle a lot.”

“That’s because nobody else has ever been able to get him so worked up. I’ve always said that he must be in love with you,” Hannah offered.

“I hope you didn’t say that to him, or you may have been taking your life in your hands.”

Adam came out of the bedroom then with a strange expression on his face. He put his phone down and gave me a funny look.

“Lily, you know that report we filed? Well, some people want to talk to us about it. I told them we would be there in an hour.”

“What report?” Hannah asked.

“I ran into a neighbor last night and he said something kind of odd that I thought I should tell the police about. Is that who wants to talk to us? The Philly cops?”

“Yeah, along with some other people. Okay, women. I’ve fed you. We have stuff that we have to do now.”

“Fine, just kick us out,” Sarah said, getting up and clearing up the table. Within ten minutes they were ready to leave, and to my pleasure, after giving their brother a goodbye hug, they gave me one too. As the door closed behind them I turned to Adam.

“What’s going on?” I asked suspiciously.

“Apparently, your ex wants to see you. Maybe he misses you. “

“Who, Jacob? Adam, we dated for a few months back in law school. He graduated and went off to D.C. to work for the U.S. Attorney there. It wasn’t a big break-up or anything.”

“Sorry. It’s just that he and I get competitive sometimes. I think because people compare us a lot. Some people even confuse us.” Something about that comment struck a chord.

“Really? They actually confuse you?” I furrowed my brow and tried to think back …

“Yeah, I’m not sure why. We don’t look
that
much alike.”

“My neighbor, the bleeding one? The first time I spoke to him, I mentioned the bad neighborhood and he said at least I knew a prosecutor. I asked how he knew and he said he had to be in the criminal courts building for his job.”

“Yeah? And?”

“I’m wondering now if it was you he saw or Jacob. He just said prosecutor and criminal courts building. He didn’t say if it was the Philadelphia or federal court. Then last night he said tell the Moretti prosecutor. Maybe he confused the two of you.”

“It’s possible I suppose. I’ll tell you one thing, if a federal prosecutor, about to begin a big trial, is coming in to meet with us on a Sunday, he must be really interested in hearing about the fox in your building for
some
reason.”

“Where are we meeting them?”

“At the U.S. Attorney’s Office and I think you’re a little under-dressed. I’ll take a quick shower and change and then I’ll run you home so you can change before we meet with them.”

“You don’t want to shower together?” I asked with a flirty smile. God, I was such a little nympho, wasn’t I?

“It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s just that it won’t be a quick shower then,” he answered, heading off to the bathroom. “I’ll make it up to you later,” he called over his shoulder.

We sat in the conference room for about ten minutes before the door flew open and Jacob, dressed to the nines and looking impeccable, even on a Sunday afternoon, came striding in with four other guys in suits following in his wake. He did really resemble Adam a lot, or at least, they were both tall, handsome men with dark hair and eyes. While they were both also very intelligent men, though, Jacob’s personality was different than Adam’s. He was more serious and he didn’t have Adam’s quick sarcastic wit. As I looked at him, I recognized that while I had once found him sexy as hell, he had never created the kind of reaction in me that Adam did.

Jacob took a seat at the head of the table, of course, while his companions spread out around him. He had the air of a king presiding over his court and I started to understand how he would really rub Adam the wrong way. Adam’s irreverence, in turn, probably drove Jacob nuts. He put the files he was carrying down on the table in front of him, leaned back in his chair and looked up at me without saying anything for a few seconds.

“Lily, it’s good to see you,” he said finally.

“Thanks, Jacob, you too. I understand that you know Adam.”

“Yes,” he answered without actually
looking
at Adam.

“Well, hello there Sachs. It’s always so nice to see you,” Adam said, brightly. I didn’t like the feeling of tension in the room, and I didn’t have time for a pissing contest, so I got the ball rolling.

“My neighbor, the guy in the report, saw Adam and me together, and I think it’s just possible he may have confused Adam for you,” I began.

I went through all of the details from the very beginning, mentioning how Dan said he had overheard my comment and thought he recognized Adam. When I got to the details about what had happened at Inferno, Jacob sat forward attentively.

“Think very carefully about his exact words, Lily.”

“He just said ‘tell the Moretti prosecutor the fox is in our building.’ Then, um, he wanted a ride.”

“He said ‘I need a ride’?”

“No, he said ‘drive.’ I think his exact words were ‘details on drive.’ I just figured he meant he would explain why he was drunk on the drive home.” Jacob made eye contact with a guy off to his left.

“He didn’t give you anything, Ms. Adler?” the guy asked.

“No, that was when I saw the guy in the devil costume and I passed out.”

“Tell me about your other neighbors,” Jacob said, sitting back again.

I sighed and started on the first floor with Mr. Booty Call. About half an hour later, I had given him every last detail about every encounter I had ever had with the lovely folks who lived in my building.

“Why are you so interested?” Adam asked when I was done. “You planning on paying her a visit?” Jacob looked at him but didn’t answer immediately. I think he was considering what he could say. Finally, he spoke.

“We’ve been concerned about the possibility of an attempted hit on a federal witness, and we’ve heard rumors about someone called the Fox being involved somehow. It’s possible that Dan McGuire could have been trying to pass on some information that would be of interest to us.

“What are you planning to do about it?” Adam asked.

“We’ll see if we can find McGuire and we’ll have agents watching the building.”

“When I’m there I’ll keep my eyes open,” Adam offered and Jacob seemed to consider that carefully for a minute.

“Maybe you’ll even get to prosecute some of this,” he replied in a measured tone. The two of them seemed to share some unspoken communication. It made me curious and a little apprehensive.

With that, it seemed that the meeting was over. Jacob nodded to his colleagues who got up and left. He gathered his things to go, but he paused before getting up to leave.

“Roth, would you mind if I had a quick word with you? We’ll be out in a minute, Lily.”

“Okay,” I said, hesitantly, and went out to the hall. I found a chair and quickly texted Gabrielle. I had decided just to stay in that evening and I wanted to let her know I wouldn’t be at Girls’ Night. I promised to call her soon to fill her in on all the details of my weekend. Adam and Jacob came out a couple of minutes later and Jacob said goodbye. As he headed down the hall I turned to Adam.

Before I could ask what that was about, though, he surprised me by putting his arms around me, pulling me close and kissing my neck. “So, I was thinking we could just stay in tonight. I’ll stop and pick up some things and then I’ll spend the night at your place.”

“We have work tomorrow, and I probably should do some writing tonight. Besides, we didn’t get much sleep last night.” I think part of me was afraid of getting too used to his company. It would just make me miss him and feel more lonely when he wasn’t around.

“So we’ll go to bed earlier.” He trailed light bite-like kisses up to my earlobe which he gently began to nibble and lick. My nipples got hard and my skin heated up.

“Are you going to try to distract me with sex whenever I don’t agree with you about something?” I asked, tilting my head back so he had better access to distract me.

“As a matter of fact, I am, and considering how good the sex is, and how often we disagree, you may be walking funny from now on.”

“Shakespeare had nothing on you.”

“Would you rather I wrote you sonnets or made you see God?”

On the car ride back we listened to music, quietly. The fact that Pink was singing
Try
wasn’t lost on me. I had begun to wonder about the significance of the songs Adam listened to. I knew that words were as important to him as they were to me, and I didn’t think his choice of tunes was coincidental. If he had been a teen in the eighties, he would have been king of the mix tape.