Free Walking Away by Adriane Boyd Page B

conscience told me. Just tell her. Taking a deep breath, I turned and faced my very best friend in the world; I knew that I was going to crush her.
    “What is it?” She asked, before I could even utter the first word. “Oh no! No, no, no. I know that look, Coraline, and you will go to this concert. Even if I have to drag you there by your hair, you′re going!”
    Plopping down on the foot of my bed, I pulled my feet and legs under me. Heaving a dramatic sigh, I launched into my counter. “Abi, I really can′t go; I don′t have it in me. It was supposed to be the four of us. You, Colton, me, and him. How can you expect me to go? How can Colton? It isn′t right. You two should go and have a good time, really. It isn′t like I haven′t got anything else to do. I do have a case to prepare for.”
    Abi leaned back against the door frame and crossed her arms. Anger seeped into her face, and I knew that she wasn′t going to accept anything I had said. Her grass green eyes sparked with barely concealed rage, rage not directed at me, but it may as well have been.
    “So that′s it, is it? You′re just going to let Blake′s walking out on you dictate every single thing you do from now on? How in the hell does that work, Cora? Really! Tell me, because I want to know. No, you know what? I don′t want to know. If you want to continue burying yourself in your work or hiding from life outside of this apartment, then go ahead because I′m finished. I′ve done all I know to do. Blake left you, Coraline. He′s gone and he isn′t coming back! I′ve been supportive of all of this moping and hiding and whatever else it is you want to call this, but it isn′t healthy anymore, Cora.” She darted out of the room and I heard the front door slam behind her as she left.
    Perhaps I′d been mistaken in my earlier assessment. Abi really was angry at me.
    Shaking off Abi′s blow up, I rose from my seat on the bed and made my way to the closet. I pulled out the clothes that I planned to wear to the office, and then headed to the bathroom for a shower. Everything she had said was true. Blake was gone, and by all accounts, he wasn′t coming back, but I hadn′t grieved long enough yet. Abi couldn′t understand it because she and Colton had been together since freshman year.
    After my shower, I dressed and gathered everything I′d need for my day. I locked up and headed to the office.

***
    “You′re early, Cora” Charlie commented as I stepped off the elevator and into the lobby of the building that held the law offices that I worked out of. Charlie was one of the partners in the firm, and I couldn′t help but be intimidated every single time I was in his presence. He was tall, if I had to guess I would say six foot three, with deep green eyes, short brown hair, and the body of a Greek god.
    “Yeah, didn′t have much to do this morning, so I decided I′d head on in to the office,” I told him.
    Charlie nodded, and I turned to go into my office. There wasn′t much to it really. As far as workplaces went, it was pretty standard. A desk, computer, and windows that overlooked the city. The carpet was pretty bare and I was in desperate need of a new chair, but the space was mine, so I didn′t see the need to complain.
    I hadn′t really had the chance to sit down when Mr. Randall knocked on the door and entered without waiting for my acknowledgment. “Morning, Cora. Have you got the assessment on the Wilkins case?”
    “I do,” I responded as I reached into my briefcase and removed the papers he was asking for. Taking a moment to make sure they were neatly stacked, I passed them to him. Mr. Randall leafed through them and grunted his satisfaction. Being the founding partner of Randall, Cross, and Horowitz, Alex Randall wasn′t a man a person took lightly.
    “Meeting in the conference room at ten,” he said as he left my office.
    Settling into my chair, I got to work. After making what seemed like a thousand phone calls and