Worth the fight

much to be called Bill or Billy, that he feels the need to correct people.  I mean, when someone uses a nickname it’s meant to be friendly, isn’t it?  William has the polite manner in which he corrects people down to a science.  Somehow it doesn’t come off as rude.   It’s telling that I wonder why it bothers him,  yet never ask. 
    The two men chat for a while and in less than ten minutes William manages to solicit the guy ’s legal work and the man promises to call the office the next day.   The way he does it doesn’t come off as sleazy ambulance chaser type speak.  William is smooth and professional.  It probably comes naturally to him, being his father, grandfather, and brother are all lawyers too.
    We finish our dinner without interruption and our conversation is easy and natural.  It’s been that way since we met in our last year of law school.  We clicked instantly and I would categorize him as one of my closest friends, if I wasn’t sleeping with him once a week for the last eighteen months.
    “I rented Possible Cover . I was hoping you’d want to come back to my place after dinner.”  It’s just like William to rent the latest action movie, which he will most likely despise, because I am an action movie junkie.  William is more of an artsy-Woody-Allen-type-movie person.
    “Can I take a rain check?”  I see William’s face wilt slightly.  This is the second week in a row that I’ll be cutting our date off after dinner…and before sex. “I have to be in the office at 6am to prep for a deposition.”  I feign disappointment in my voice as yet another lie flows freely from my lips.
    I’m not sure if he buys my excuse or if he’s just too polite to call me on it.  But I don’t care.  I’m not in the mood tonight.  The last few months our sex life has become a challenge for me, although William doesn’t seem to have any idea.  It’s not his fault either.  He has good equipment and it operates well, for the most part.  But I’ ve been having trouble getting myself to my happy place during our nights together lately.  Maybe that was part of the problem.  If I wanted a happy ending with William, I had to get myself there.  He just doesn’t seem to be able to get me there on his own anymore.  So I seem to have become one of those sex-once-a-week women who have to fake it.  And I’m not in the mood to fake anything else tonight.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter 2
     
    Elle
    My co-workers at Milstock and Rowe are an eclectic group of people.   William and I did our internship here in our last year of law school.  After graduation William went on to his father’s Madison-Avenue-type law firm that was started by his grandfather more than seventy years ago.  The firm is well established and caters to the elite advertising industry.   Leonard Milstock, the namesake in Milstock and Rowe, offered me a position as a junior associate at the end of my internship and I happily accepted. 
    William and I don’t disagree often, but we argued quite a bit when I had decided to stay at Milstock and Rowe.  He didn’t think it was a good career move to take a job with such a small unknown firm.  But I was comfortable there and Milstock allowed me to do work that most junior associates at a big firm could only dream of getting their hands on.  That was one of the perks of working for a small place, and I thought it outweighed the low salary and lack of prestige.  William, on the other hand, thought the scale tipped completely in the opposite direction.  Salary and prestige were high on William’s career priorities.  Not so much on mine.
    “Morning Regina.”   I smile at the receptionist as I walk into the office fifteen minutes past the official start time of eight.  No one seems to care that I’m perpetually late, especially since I usually stay until long after seven on most nights.  Timeliness just isn’t my thing. 
    “William called, he wants you to call him back.  He had me check your calendar to see if you’re available for a consultation for a new client of his.”   
    Damn .  Now he knows my early morning deposition was a lie.  “Regina, would you mind having Gigi call him back and book whatever he needs on my calendar?”  I raise my eyebrows at Regina and she knows what I’m asking and smiles, excited to be in on whatever it is that I am asking her to do.
    Regina has been our receptionist for almost a year.  She’s in