The Girl He Didn't Want

Chapter 29

James POV

All the hard work, the long working hours, the numerous files that had to be read thoroughly, the meetings, the sleepless nights – they were finally over for now. The white desk that had been my only seating spot for the last two weeks was now clean and no more papers were lying everywhere. It was neat and structured as it was before this bigger case came up. 

My hands were resting on my chin and my third cup of coffee was about to be emptied when Christel walked into my office.

Christel was one of my co-workers. She was a lawyer herself and was one of the sharpest lawyers in the firm. She was the one who helped me, and Brian to get the case and to win this case. She walked into the room with the high heels on and her perfectly matched clothes. Her hair was not long, but stylish and cut shorter.

'James, we have to celebrate that we made it through with this huge case. We did our part now and now it's up to the judges to evaluate'

I nodded and took a sip from my coffee. Then Brian knocked on the door and made his way into my office too.

'James, nice work pal. Wanna go out and get something to eat with us?' He pointed at him and Christel. I thought for a while. I wanted to just head back home and call Maya up to have a talk with her. I wanted to explain to her why I had been so distant lately. 

I knew that it wasn't fair to her to be so absent. I had this ongoing case that took all my time, but, I knew I had the time to at least call her. I just had to figure my thoughts out. And it was hard to do that when my job took all my focus in the middle of it. I sighed and thought about the offer my colleagues came with. It wouldn't be a true feeling of winning if we didn't somehow celebrate it tonight. I looked at my watch and saw the time was five in the evening.

'James, come on. You especially deserve to celebrate this. You made a huge difference to make things work with this case. We want to finish this off with some nice food and great drinks!' I looked at Brian and he knew at that moment that he got what he wanted. We all agreed to go out to get something to eat and then later get a drink.

I promised myself to call Maya the next morning though.

As we all went together towards the center of New York City I thought about how these couple of weeks had been for Maya. Was she doing okay? I wondered how she was and what she had been up to.

I missed her. I just didn't have the time to realize that until now. As we walked together as a group I noticed Christel walking close towards me. She was indeed a beautiful woman. She went to the same college as me, but she was two years older than me. So we hadn't seen each other at the college back then. But she was smart, and she really knew how to work hard. I admired her for her disciplined work ethic.

'What are you so caught up about James? You seem like you're thinking hard about something else' I looked at her and smiled. 'Nothing. Just a little tired, that's all'.

She smiled back, 'Well, I hope you don't feel too tired to celebrate with us'

We then talked about some other work issues and finally after about half an hour we came to the restaurant where we were planning to get dinner together. Brian walked beside us and talked about the new house that he bought recently.

As we got a table at the restaurant we sat together and looked over the menu card. I was so tired and I truly just wanted to go home and sleep. However I pulled myself together to find something that I'd like to eat.

I ordered a steak and Brian did the same thing. Christel ordered a smoked salmon with some salad on the side.

My mind wandered back to Mayas homemade cooking and all the spices that she usually used in her food. I longed after her even more now. I tried to push her out of my brain but failed numerous times throughout the evening.