Tuesday's Child

Tuesday's Child

Mikala Aulani looked around her office for the last time. Now that her thirty-five-year professional life was packed up in boxes and the pictures, diplomas, and photographs off the wall, her personal space looked huge. Jay would have to paint the walls to cover up the telltale signs of where all the plaques had been hung. She eyed her old leather chair, which swiveled and rocked. She really had meant to have the crack in the leather repaired; it had been on her to-do list for years and years. She wondered now why it was she’d never taken the time to do it. But, then, she found herself wondering about a lot of things lately, not that it made a difference.
Jay Brighton and Linda Carpenter, husband and wife and newly minted senior partners, carried the packed and taped boxes out to the reception area. At some point later that day, someone would come and take them to a storage unit Kala had rented a month ago. All except for the single box that sat on top of her desk. That box was going with her. She was personally going to carry it down to the underground garage and personally put it on the passenger seat of her car, then drive it to her home, where she would put it in a closet in her bedroom. Sophie Lee deserved a closet rather than a storage unit, where her records would never again see the light of day.
Jay Brighton stood in the doorway. “That about does it, Kala. Told you we’d have this locked down in time for you to make your retirement luncheon.”
Kala looked up at her former partner and grimaced. “I decided I’m not going. Call Ben and tell him I have a bellyache.”Ben was Judge Benjamin Jefferson, Kala’s significant other of twenty-five years. Ben had retired two weeks earlier, and Kala had thrown a surprise luncheon, inviting all of his peers. For no other reason except retaliation, Ben had decided to do the same for her. His theory was if he’d had to suffer through the shitty food, the boring speeches, and the overblown testimonials, then so should she. Newly retired Judge Ben Jefferson loved Kala Aulani heart and soul.
Everyone said they were a match made in heaven. Sometimes, Kala believed it, and other times, she didn’t.
Steeping into the office, Jay replied, “Oh, no, I’m not calling him! You’re on your own, Kala. Hey, you aren’t my boss anymore, so don’t you dare look at me with those puppy-dog eyes. No! You sold Linda and me the firm, and I absolutely do not have to take orders anymore. Not showing up at your very own retirement luncheon would be a pretty crappy thing to do,” Jay said vehemently. Kala grinned as she stared up at her old partner. Six-foot-seven,probably the tallest lawyer ever to grace a courtroom. An imposing giant of a man, with his flaming red hair, which he hated, and his freckles, which, if anything, he hated even more. Juries loved him and his folksy manner. They likened him to themselves, just plain old ordinary people. They were wrong, of course, because there was nothing in the least ordinary about Jay Brighton, Attorney at Law. Jay had graduated at the top of his law class, had a photographic memory that did double time acting as a steel trap. He was almost as good a lawyer as she was, Kala thought. She’d trained him well, and he’d listened to every pearl of wisdom that came out of her mouth, soaking it all up like a sponge.

From TUESDAY'S CHILD by Fern Michaels Copyright ©2012 by MRK Productions