Page 106 of Playing Dirty
"Aye, more or less." I roll the bottle between my palms. "And how am I meant to focus with her gone? She never did have an answer for that one."
"I'm not saying she's got it right." Fiadh shrugs. "She's going through hell and trying to do right by you at the same time. She has to learn it for herself, that disappearing isn't the way. But you can't argue her out of it, and God knows you tried. She loves you. She's just stuck in her own head, and everythinglanded on her at once. The press, the whole world having opinions on her, then her ex turning up on top of it. She'll be back."
"You're pretty damn confident for someone who met her twice."
"Twice was plenty. I saw how she looked at you, and the way she talked about you when she was telling us all stories." She gives me a wicked grin. "It was clear as day even then how head over heels she was. Just as lovesick as you were."
"Thanks, Fee." I look over at her and clink my bottle against hers. "Not to get all soft, but I don't know what I'd do without you.”
She snorts into her beer, nudging my shoulder and smiling up at me.
"Aye, well, same to you, as much as it pains me to say it." She gives a slow shake of her head. "I never figured I'd be the one helping you navigate a broken heart. Wonders will never cease. With the speed you used to cycle through girls, I'd begun to suspect you were missing a heart entirely. I figured you were just?—"
"I get the point, Fee." I laugh. "Call it my penance. It's collecting interest tonight."
"Payback for all those broken hearts," she teases with a playful nudge, and I can't help but smile.
We drink for a while in easy silence, the foghorn sounding somewhere out in the dark, the muffled rise and fall of my sisters' voices drifting through the glass behind us, Mam and Dad laughing at something in the middle of it. For a minute it could be twenty years ago, the whole family under one roof, Fee and me hiding from the chaos together, same as always.
She glances over at me, and there's something almost shy in it, which is not a thing Fiadh does. "You know that partnership seat? The one I said I hadn't a prayer at?"
I turn toward her. "Aye, I remember."
She smiles wide. "Well you're looking at the youngest partner the firm has ever made."
"What? Holy shit, Fee!"
I pull her into a hug, half lifting her off her feet while she laughs into my shoulder, and when I set her down I hold her at arm's length to get a proper look at her. She's beaming, looking happier than I've seen her in years.
"Partner," I say, the word feeling heavy and right. "Fiadh. A fucking partner."
"I know. Apparently the fraud settlement did most of the arguing for me." She takes a sip of her beer. "Even Doyle shook my hand. It looked like it cost him a kidney, but he did it."
"And you've been sitting on this all through dinner?" I shake my head at her. "You could have told me the second you landed."
"I was going to. But you've been under so much pressure, and then with all the Margot stuff, I didn't want to come swanning in like, hey, look how great everything's going for me. So, nobody knows yet."
"I'd always be happy for you. No matter what is happening in my life." I point my bottle at her. "And we're celebrating this. Properly. Champagne, the works. This is huge, Fiadh. You've been grinding toward this for ages."
"Ah, it's grand, but you don't have to make a whole?—"
"It's huge, Fee. We’re celebrating."
She laughs, and this time she doesn't tamp the smile back down. "Okay. Yeah. It's pretty crazy, actually. I keep waking up in the morning just grinning about it like an idiot. Me. Partner. I was sure they'd give it to Doyle."
"They gave it to the best lawyer in the building. Shocking outcome, that."
She smiles. "Thanks. It was killing me not telling you. I'm so excited I can barely stand it. So you'd best win tomorrow, because I am not flying back to start a new job on a loss."
I laugh. "No pressure, then."
"None whatsoever."
"You'll give them hell, Fiadh. I'm so incredibly proud of you," I say, and I mean every word.
She smiles at me, clinking her bottle against mine one last time and pushing off the rail. "Right. Come inside before they all wonder where we’ve gone to."
"One minute. I'm right behind you."
