The Exception by Lauren H. Mae

Eight

“Ihate him.” Cat shoved a handful of popcorn in her mouth, brushing a couple of stray pieces from the pink hat on Lucia’s head. Her seven-month old daughter continued to sleep in the Moby wrap, oblivious.

“Of course you do,” Dani said. “He has a penis.”

Cat’s huge brown eyes popped. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“You’re a man hater. Besides, Sonya said he’s hot. Jerk or not, she should at least get to enjoy the eye-candy for a while.”

“I most certainly did not say that.” Sonya kicked Dani’s high heel and got up to refill her glass of sangria from the spigoted Mason jar on the counter.

Emma’s theme for tonight’s girls night was Spring has Sprung for Cinco de Mayo. A mixture of fresh flowers and fiesta streamers decorated her kitchen, along with a full buffet of Mexican dishes. It was… a lot.

They’d all complied, though. Cat wore a Mexicana floral t-shirt over her leggings. Dani had on a crown made of silk flowers that Sonya was pretty sure was left over from a bachelorette party, and Sonya had dug out the Spring Fling UVA sweatshirt from the back of her closet.

“That’s what you got from that entire story, Dani?” Cat perched on the arm of Emma’s couch and flicked Dani’s crown. “That he’s hot?”

Dani shrugged.

Sonya gulped her drink and topped it off again. “I did not say he was hot.”

Emma had been quiet while she relayed the story of her new assignment with Mr. Almost Paramedic, but something was brewing behind her brown eyes and pursed lips. “Say it, Em.”

“It’s just that you did say he was hot.”

“I saidhe would have been hot if he wasn’t so loud and wrong. And, oh my God! Did any of you listen to the professional consequences of this story? I’m going to have to work with him three days a week and he infuriates me.”

Cat held a hand up. “And that’s why I hate him. You’ve worked too hard. You need to get out of this inmediatamente.” She punctuated her Spanish with a slosh of her wine glass.

“But wouldn’t that be worse?” Emma asked. “She requested the assignment.”

“Also,” Dani held her glass in the air. “Hot.”

“No,” Cat said, ignoring Dani. “Because backing out now for completely acceptable conflict of interest reasons would show she has scruples. She saw the issue and fixed it.”

Cat was a lawyer and she was drinking for the first time in over a year. Sonya had expected a closing argument. And she’d expected Dani to bring the levity. But she’d been hoping for more from Emma.

One more top off, and she paced the tile in front of Emma’s kitchen island. “Okay so option number one is I go to Abi and nip this thing in the bud. I lay out my reasons, ask for another assignment and wait for one to present itself.”

Cat raised her hand in a silent vote.

“Or,” Dani said, “you suffer through the internship, really lean into this whole sexual tension thing, and when he graduates, you hate-bang him in a medical supply room to get over Marcus. Two birds, one bone.”

Cat gasped, then sprayed wine from her mouth on a giggle, barely missing Lucia’s head.

Emma’s mouth froze in an O, her pale cheeks the color of a sunset.

Sonya crossed the room, tipping Emma’s chin closed as she passed, and took the baby before Cat’s husband came to pick them up and found his daughter smelling like booze.

“You,” she said, pointing at Dani, “are off the counsel.” Dani shrugged and Sonya snuggled Lucia while Cat cleaned the wine from her chin.

She pressed Lucia’s head to her nose and breathed in the soft, powdery baby smell, now with a hint of rosé. “I’m not hate-banging anyone and I don’t even hate him. I don’t care enough about him to garner that strong of a response. He’s an obnoxious man in a world full of obnoxious men. I just… don’t need the conflict in my life right now.”

The back of her throat burned with the confession. She’d done well so far, keeping Marcus in the little room for him that she’d made in her brain, but wine and baby smells and talking about another man’s hotness—even if she had no intention of going there—was a dangerous trifecta. She blinked a few times, feeling her cheeks get hot. When she looked up from Lucia’s sleepy face, Emma was staring back at her.

She forced a smile. “Okay, someone else’s turn,” she said, sniffing. She cocked her head and zeroed in on Dani, gesturing to the baby. “When are you and Dylan going to give us one of these?”

Dani made a show of chugging the rest of her wine, smacking her lips when she swallowed. “Don’t hold your breath.”

* * *

With the wine gone, Cat promptly fell asleep on the couch, her head in her palm while Dani tied her hair in pigtails. Sonya bounced Lucia in her arms, watching Emma pick up napkins and empty plates from the counter.

“I think I’ve made my decision,” she said.

Emma dropped a bottle in the recycling and took a seat on the kitchen stool. A silent opening. She always knew how to say something without saying it.

“I’m going to turn down the assignment.” She held a hand up as Emma started to speak. “I’m not backing down from the challenge because it’s hard.”

Emma gave a firm nod. “Okay.”

“I would never do that. Normally.” She sighed and nuzzled Lucia’s hat. “And this guy, there’s something about him that really makes me want to give it to him.”

Emma raised an eyebrow.

“Professionally, not… whatever Dani said.”

“Right.”

“But the thing is, I feel a little like a baby sea turtle right now.”

Emma’s mouth tipped into a grin. “Okay, I was following, but—”

“I was watching this documentary the other day about these turtles. When they’re born, they just go on auto-pilot…” She paused, the word pilot cracking as it came out of her mouth. It was a stupid slip. “Anyway, they don’t look around, they don’t feel the breeze or explore the beach, they just head to the water. It’s instinct. They survive. I think maybe that’s all I have in me for a little while. I’ve just hatched out of this weird egg I’ve been in for years and I’m wobbly and a little confused and I just need to get to the damn water.

“Ben Travis, this assignment, it’s a challenge I don’t have the energy to engage with because right now survival is the only goal.”

Emma leaned back in her chair and nodded. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“I meant it when I asked Abi to give me more responsibility. I meant it when I said I wanted to throw myself into my career for a while. But…”

Emma shook her head. “It doesn’t have to be this. There will be other opportunities.”

“There will be. It’s weird. I just… I can’t figure out what it is that I don’t like about this.”

Emma stood and wrapped her arms around Sonya and the baby. “Well, maybe that’s the first thing you do,” she said, squeezing without squishing Lucia. “Step away, and figure out what your gut is trying to tell you. You have to look out for you right now.”

“Thanks, Em. I think you’re right. Now I just have to break it to Abi.”