This story is LONG – I know that already. I thought about splitting it up into two sections, but it really wasn't written that way, and I couldn't find a very good place for the split. So I submitted it as one story. If you don't like long stories, please don't read it.
This story has some sex, but not very much. Rather, it is heavy in romance, even though I submitted in the "Mature" section. If you're looking for a lot of sex, this probably isn't your story.
One more important disclaimer – I am NOT a lawyer, and the law info in the story comes solely from my imagination. Please be kind if you are a lawyer, and don't make fun of the things I don't know!
As always, my stories are complete works of fiction, and all persons are of legal age. Your votes and comments are important to me, so after you read it, please share with me!
*****
She glanced at the clock on her desk that read 7:02 p.m. "Shit," she said to herself, "I'm never going to catch the 7:15 if I don't hurry." She quickly shut down her computer, stashed the two case files that were open on her desk, and checked to make sure everything else was in place before she locked the desk for the night.
Sarah hurried to the coat rack in the corner of the room and grabbed her overcoat as she headed out the door, pulling it shut and making sure it was locked. Truthfully, she wouldn't have needed the coat this evening, since the late April weather was playing its usual tricks – too cold to be without a coat in the mornings, and too warm to wear it in the late afternoons and evenings, when most people finished work for the day.
Her heels clacked loudly on the tile floors of the law office as she made her way down the hallway to the bank of elevators. Being here this late, she wouldn't have to wait long for one of the elevator cars to get to the 15
th
floor where the law firm she was located. It was one of the few perks of staying late, trying to keep up with a tough day's load that had been dumped on her earlier this morning.
It was Sarah's third year working for the law firm of Banks, Howell and Howell. She had been hired straight out of law school, graduating second in her class. While most people would be elated at that ranking, Sarah was crushed. All her life she had driven herself to be the best, so when the final rankings came out, disappointment was the least of her emotions. She felt as if she had let down all of the people who had helped her overcome adversity to become the first person in her family to graduate from college, let alone a prestigious law school as Williams.
Once her position with BH&H was secure, Sarah promised herself that she would make up for that #2 ranking by never being placed in a position where someone might work harder than she did. She was going to prove to the partners that they made the best choice when they hired her. While Sarah may have been disappointed in her final class ranking, the partners were pleased – they believed she had the proper credentials to fill one of their vacancies, and they were happy when she signed to join them.
The elevator car finally arrived, and Sarah stepped inside and pushed the button for the ground floor. She dug in her purse and pulled out her cell phone – 7:08 now. Normally it was a 10-minute walk from the front of the building to the train station. Even without the 3-inch heels, she didn't see how she could make it on time. But there was always the possibility that the train was running late. If she didn't catch the 7:15, she'd either have to wait an hour for the next one, or take a cab home. Neither of those two options was ideal, so as she exited the elevator on the ground floor, she prayed that tonight was a late train night.
It was cooler than she expected once she got outside, and she wished she had put her coat on before she left her office. As time was not on her side now, she pressed on, the rhythmic clack of the heels mimicking the ticking of an alarm clock, teasing her about the race against the train. She turned the corner, and two blocks ahead, she saw the train sitting in the station. She didn't know how long it had been there, but she knew that it usually only stopped for about five minutes before leaving.
She willed herself to pick up the pace. The alarm-clock-ticking of her heels gained speed. She had covered the first of the two blocks quickly, giving herself a chance to beat the odds and make the train. Unfortunately, just as she began block two, she heard the twin tell-tale blasts of the train's horn, the signal that it was pulling out of the station. She slowed her pace as she watched it cross the street in front of her, high on the elevated tracks that allowed the train to operate in the downtown corridor.
"Damn it, now what am I going to do?" Sarah cursed out loud, though no one was around to hear her. She looked around to get her bearings on exactly where she was at. Even though she had taken the train for the past three years, she wasn't familiar with the surroundings on the walk between the train station and her office building. She always had her head down, trying to solve some problem that work had presented her. For the first time, she was going to have an opportunity to survey the scene to find a way to kill an hour before the next train arrived.
She looked up ahead to the station, and noticed a neon beer sign lit up on a building just prior to the station itself. The sign said, "Pete's Pub." Not really being much of a pub person, she realized she had two choices – wait in the coolness of the outdoor train station for an hour, or wait inside Pete's Pub and hope to not be bothered for an hour. The warmth of the pub won out, and since she had to walk by it to get to the station anyway, it wasn't going to be out of her way.
The closer she got to the pub, the more interesting it became. Sarah could tell that it was a newer building, but it had been constructed to look like an old time pub from the turn of the century. It wasn't glamorous or showy. Instead, it had a quietly comfortable look, as if persons with any problem could come in, and for the time they were inside, they could forget about their real life situation and have a good time.
She opened the door and stepped inside. The pub was nearly empty – in fact there were only five other people present. There was a professional-looking couple sitting at a round table for two near the front door; a single gentleman slumped over a table on the other side, and an older man sitting about midway at a 12-stool bar. Other than those people, it was just Sarah and the bartender, a medium sized man with thinning gray hair and a little bit of a paunch above his belt. He was wearing an apron, and seemed to be happily washing and drying glass beer mugs.
There were large flat screen TV's playing on opposite side walls of the pub. Both were playing sports talk shows of some kind. Being a Wednesday in the spring, there were no games to watch other than NBA games, and the March Madness tournament was already over. The TV's were being watched by no one, but in a pub, apparently it was an unwritten rule that TV's had to be showing sports, so she knew they would be left on while she waited for her train.
Sarah moved to the stool at the right end of the bar. She lifted her purse up on the bar top, where it promptly fell over and spilled some of its contents. She started picking the mess up as the bartender came walking her way, still drying a beer mug. He approached with a smile, and there was something about him that put Sarah at ease.
"Good evening, and welcome to Pete's Pub. I don't believe I've seen you in here before. What can I get you this fine evening?"
She really wasn't much of a social drinker, and certainly never during the week. She couldn't take a chance of an accidental hangover affecting her ability to function at work the next morning. "Would you happen to have any iced tea?"
