Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 74407 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74407 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
“Yes, and I’d do that again tomorrow. Trust me, he wouldn’t have been half as scary as I imagine your mom would be if you told her I didn’t approve of any of her wedding plans.”
“You could be right there. The best thing you can do here is just go with the flow. Choose the lesser of two evils at every turn,” Finn suggests.
I nod. It seems like that’s about my only choice at this point.
“How do you feel about some dessert?” He asks.
I want to, but I shake my head. “No, thank you. I’m not really hungry to be honest.”
“Really? I saw you salivating as they went back with the dessert trolley,” he teases. “I know we’re never going to be best friends or anything, but we’re stuck with each other for the foreseeable future now, so we might as well at least attempt to be civil to each other.”
“It’s not that,” I mumble, looking down at the table, not able to meet Finn’s eye.
“Then what is it?” He asks.
I look back up and feel the heat flooding my cheeks as I do. “You were right. I feel completely out of place here and I really don’t want to hang around any longer than I have to.”
“Got it,” Finn says, standing up abruptly.
Great. Now I’ve pissed him off. The one time I wasn’t even trying to. “Finn…” I start.
He turns back and grins at me.
I feel relief flood through me to see he’s not pissed at all.
“This place is hardly me either, Ashley. Let’s go grab a burger and maybe some pancakes,” he suggests. “I know a great place downtown.”
I feel myself smiling as I nod. “Now, you’re talking.”
6
Finn
The drive to the pancake joint is a lot more relaxed than the drive to the restaurant was. In some ways, I think meeting my mom has subdued Ashley a little, but in other ways, I think it’s actually made her like me a little bit more.
By the time we’re sitting down, eating pancakes dripping with maple syrup and loaded with whipped cream, fruit, and nuts— we haven’t insulted each other once. This has to be a record. It’s been at least half-an-hour. Maybe she can see now that I’m not half as bad as she thinks.
“Do you realize something, Finn?” she asks, grinning at me over her glass of diet Coke. “In this place, you’re the one who’s totally out of place. You’re so overdressed in your designer suit.” Her eyes are twinkling.
I know she’s joking and I find myself grinning, instead of snapping back. I shrug. “You’re right, but this is who I am, and if people don’t like it, they’re perfectly welcome not to look. And really, if the people here have nothing to talk about other than my clothes, I feel sorry for them.”
“You thought the people in the restaurant would judge me for what I was wearing,” Ashley points out.
“Oh, I knew they would. Because I know they have sad little lives where criticizing someone wearing the wrong clothes or picking up the wrong fork at the dinner table is the most interesting topic of gossip they can possibly think of.”
“You know, sometimes it sounds like you have such contempt for the world you live in,” Ashley observes.
I frown.
She shakes her head and smiles. “That was a compliment Finn.”
It’s my mother’s world and I don’t actually hold it in contempt, but I guess to her, it is a compliment so I just smile back and let it go. I like this Ashley and I don’t want to go back to arguing. “So you worked in a law firm?” I ask, changing the subject.
“Yeah,” she tells me. “I was a contract lawyer. I spent my days finding loopholes, so rich guys could screw over poor guys.”
“Sounds fun,” I comment.
“It was and it wasn’t. I hated what I was doing to small businesses and everyday people.” She pauses, “But I must admit I enjoyed the intricacy of the work. Scouring five hundred pages to find the one word that changes the whole meaning of the document. When I left that world, I actually debated doing something similar, only on the side of the little guy.”
“Why didn’t you?” I ask. “I know what you’re doing now is probably more rewarding, but why did you give up something you love?”
“When I really thought about it, I knew I just couldn’t do it. I knew it would be too heartbreaking. I admire anyone who puts themselves on the line like that day in and day out while knowing they will lose ninety-five percent of their cases. I know all of the corporate tricks because I’ve used them all. Do you have any idea how many unwinnable cases I won because I dragged the case out with continuances, and swamped the guys with thousands of pieces of paperwork, knowing they didn’t have the resources to cope with it? It was just a waiting game until the little guy ran out of money and lost his lawyer and then the case was over. I couldn’t bear to be on the other side of that.”