Free The Lawyer by Alice Bright Page A

about you is so fresh and unique and new. I love the way you look at the world around you. I love the way you handle how many obstacles have been thrown at you."
              "If you like so much about me, then what's the problem?" I pressed
              "Do you really think it's wise to immediately jump into a new relationship?" Alex asked me. He was serious when he said it, too. I didn't respond right away. Instead, I thought about the words as they melted into my mind. Was it? Was he right? Was I wrong? I hadn't broken up with Tim very long ago. I hadn't been single very long at all. Was it really fair to anyone for me to jump from one long term relationship straight into another one?
              I hadn't thought about it enough, not really. I had only thought about how good I felt when I was around him, how excited I got every time he kissed me, how much I wanted him to make me his.
              "You're right," I admitted. "It's probably not the best idea. I really, really like you, though."
              "I like you a lot, too, Liz," he told me. "But the thing is, this is complicated for me. You work for me, you live with me, and I like you. And I've been in the serious relationship before. I've been engaged before," he paused. I didn't say anything. Engaged? Really? What had happened? A million questions swam through my head. This was a part of Alex that I'd never seen.
              "It was a mutual decision to end the engagement," he explained. "But I loved her, Liz. I loved her deeply. And I don't want to jump into anything serious right now. I like you, but we have our whole lives. Why don't we take things slow?"
              On some levels it felt like a copout to me. I didn't say that, though.
              "Have you been in a lot of relationships?" I asked Alex.
              "Define 'a lot.'"
              "How many women have you slept with?"
              "Do you really want to know?"
              I thought about it for a moment before nodding. If we were going to do this, if we were going to actually pursue a relationship with one another and not just sleep together and move on, then I should know what I was getting into.
              "I don't know," he said. Alex's face held an array of emotions: disappointment, disgust, disbelief, confusion.
              "What do you mean?"
              "I mean that I've slept with so many people that I don't know how many I've slept with. There was a point when I'd bring home someone new every night. And yes, sometimes even clients. There was a point where I didn't even have to know her name. All I needed was someone to be with me."
              He watched me, waiting for me to say something. Alex seemed surprised when I didn't yell or scream. He seemed surprised when I didn't run out of the room.
              "What changed?" I asked him. Obviously, something was different. Obviously, something had happened to change his mind about relationships.
              "Tabitha happened," Alex said with a smile. And that's when it all came out: their whirlwind romance, their exciting engagement, his father's disapproval, her mother's death. "She couldn't handle the idea of marrying into a family where she wouldn't be completely accepted," Alex told me. "And I couldn't handle the pressure to pretend to be perfect. I'm not. In the end, we called off the wedding before the invitations were sent."
              "Do you regret not getting married?" It was a tough question, I knew, and probably not a very fair one, but I wanted to ask and Alex seemed open to being pestered at the moment.
              "I don't regret not getting married because I don't think it would be right in our situation. I would