Taboo Reflections Meeting Her on the Other Side

Claire had spent six months staring at Daniel across a conference table, two attorneys on opposite sides of the most bitter contract dispute either of them had ever handled. Every deposition crackled with tension that had nothing to do with clauses or damages. She told herself it was rivalry. He told himself it was respect. Neither of them believed it, and both knew that wanting the man on the other side was the one line a careful professional never crossed.

The settlement was signed on a rainy Thursday evening. The clients left, the paralegals packed their boxes, and suddenly the two of them were alone in the hushed glass office forty floors above the city. Daniel loosened his tie and admitted, quietly, that he had rehearsed this moment far more than any closing argument. Claire laughed, then stopped laughing when she realized he meant it. The case was over. There was no longer any rule standing between them, only the delicious memory of every rule they had obeyed.

She crossed the room slowly, letting him watch her the way she had caught him watching a hundred times before. When she finally kissed him, it felt like breaking a seal. His hands found the small of her back and pulled her close, and months of restrained glances spilled into something urgent and unhurried at once. Papers slid from the table as he lifted her onto its edge, the same table where they had argued so fiercely, now the stage for a very different kind of negotiation.

They took their time, exploring each other with the patience of two people who had waited far too long. Every touch was a confession, every whispered word a concession neither had been willing to make in daylight. The city lights blurred against the rain streaked windows as they lost themselves completely.

Afterward, wrapped in his jacket and sharing a forgotten bottle of wine from the client fridge, Claire smiled at him. Being on the other side, she decided, had never felt so good.