Tell No Lies by Julie Compton Page A

talked more to Frank and Andy about the night of the dinner than they had with each other. They sat for a while, listening to the music.
    "I don't like that guy," she said finally. But Jack didn't want to discuss Frank.
    "Jenny?" She looked at him. "Why were you so hostile to me on the phone, and when I first got here?"
    She sighed, and he realized his mistake in asking her an open-ended question. "I'm having a really hard time at work right now, Jack. I'm sorry. You know I'm up for partner this fall. I feel like Stan's testing my commitment or something. He's loading me down with work. I'm billing more hours than I did when I first started. You'd think I was still in New York. Sometimes I think he asks me to do something at the drop of a hat just to see if I will."
    "Have you talked to him about it?" he asked.
    "No. He works long hours himself. I don't think I have a right to complain."
    He sensed she wasn't telling him everything. He thought of her outburst after they'd seen Mendelsohn at Newman's offices that night. "Is Mendelsohn giving you trouble?"
    She shrugged and was quiet for a moment before she answered, "Just the usual for him. You, of all people, know how he is."
    "What happened with me was different." He paused. "Jen, that night" —he looked down— "you said something about Mendelsohn trying to screw up your partnership chances . . . something about Maxine Shepard."
    She fiddled some more with the bottle cap and then took a drink. "It's nothing. I guess he just doesn't think I'm doing a good enough job for her. That's all."
    Jack waited. She finally met his stare.
    "Jack, really. You know how Maxine and I are like water and oil. She gets her jollies from trying to make my life miserable."
    "In what way?"
    "Mendelsohn says she's been complaining about me." She shrugged, as if to suggest she didn't care. "Really, that's all. Okay?"
    "You said something about him being 'into' something."
    She pretended not to have heard him. "What really pisses me off is that some of the guys are starting that crap again about how Newman has a reputation for hiring only good-looking women. As if that's the only reason I was hired. As if it doesn't matter that I do a damn good job."
    "Oh, come on, Jenny. You've never been one to let stupid talk like that bother you." He accepted that he wasn't going to persuade her to talk about Mendelsohn just then. "Anyway, it's not like you don't use your—how shall I say?—physical attributes to your advantage, when you need to." And then he thought that maybe he shouldn't have said that, given their current precarious situation.
    But the Jenny he admired, the tough one who consistently proved his first statement right, responded. "Yeah, look who's talking, Mr. Flashes His Dimples on Demand."
    "What dimples?" he said and gave her a big grin.
    She shook her head and laughed. And then, as if she suddenly remembered something, she eyed her watch. "Now don't get upset; I'm not being hostile. But I do have to scoot." She placed her hand on his knee, using it as leverage to get up. Maybe everything really was back to normal. "Will you call and let me know how your Tuesday meeting goes?"
    "I'll even call you before that."
    The corner of her lip curled in the start of a smile. She looked pleased, as if she thought everything was okay, too.
     
    Jack's mood dropped like a stone when he returned to his office and found Earl sitting in his chair. Earl held a paperweight in his hand, a large egg-shaped rock that Jamie had painted at preschool and given to Jack as a Father's Day gift. Earl turned it over in his hand, inspecting the boy's work. He wasn't smiling.
 
    Jack stopped in the doorway. "I think you stopped a few doors short of the right office."
    Earl set the rock down on the desk and moved Jack's calendar a bit closer, pretending to look it over.
 
    "What are you doing?" Jack asked, his tone more accusatory than he intended.
    Earl pushed the chair away from the desk, leaned back, and crossed