Office Hours |h.s|

sixty nine

Harry

Groaning, I slam my laptop closed for the millionth time, unable to focus on anything. All that keeps replaying in my head is that Maude doesn't love me. Something is wrong and she won't let me in to fix it.

I should be revising my final and making sure there are no mistakes. It's almost impossible to even look at the documents without picturing Maude sitting at a desk working on it. Or worse, not even showing up because she doesn't want to see me.

With my elbows against the desk, I put my head down in my hands, trying to calm myself down and refocus. It's impossible though, and I end up checking my phone for the millionth time, seeing if she's responded to my texts. She left so quickly this morning and I just want to know she's okay.

My heart races when I see a text from her sitting unread on my phone, and I rush to open it. It's a short message, and once I do read it I can't help but feel a bit disappointed. She just says she's fine and is going to lunch with Will. Nothing of substance for me to work with and definitely no way for me to start a conversation, so I just have to leave it alone for now.

Her text does give me some reassurance though. Not because she claims she's fine, but because I know Will is there to keep her from falling apart. And if she does fall apart, he'll help her pick up the pieces, no questions asked. I just wish I could have that role today.

Putting my phone face down on my desk, I lean back in my chair, running my hands over my face with a loud groan. Shaking out all my anxieties and worries, I open my laptop up again, dedicated to getting back to work. Or at least, that's my intention. My phone starts to ring, throwing a wrench in that plan.

It's Mitch on the other line. "Are you busy right now?" He sounds like things are not okay.

"Uh, not anymore. Why?"

"Check your email."

Furrowing my brows, I navigate my way to my inbox on my laptop, immediately seeing a new email marked 'URGENT'. "What is this?" I ask, clicking into it and starting to read.

"This is the Sterlings. They filed a motion last night after hours to exclude the blood evidence. Why would they do this, H? This was our chance, it showed that it wasn't just Tommy's blood on the scene, there were traces of blood that were unidentified. If the blood gets kept from court, we don't get to show that." My heart drops as I keep reading, and my eyes shut in defeat. He wasn't just testing Maude, they wanted real information.

How do I explain this? How do I cover for her now? Dinner last night was a mess, now if I really tell Mitch the truth about Maude and Lance, he'll want to kill me. Shaking my head, I pray that he just believes me as I speak out of my ass.

"Mitch... The blood evidence would have incrimated Tommy, maybe it's better that it gets kept out anyway-"

"No, Harry. It proves he didn't do it. His blood was only found on the knife and on her body. The unidentified blood was found all over the crime scene, mixed in with hers. It proves that he didn't do it, we need this evidence to go in. This makes no sense why they would file this motion."

I try to keep Maude in the dark about the case for this exact reason. She didn't know about the brother's blood being mixed in because I didn't tell her. It's not like it's some big secret that there was an unidentified third party placed at the crime scene, but by telling Lance, it only proved to them that we're making a timeline. By getting rid of the blood evidence, it makes the cut on Tommy's hand even more suspicious to a jury. Even I can't convince myself that this isn't as bad as it seems.

Thank god Lance hasn't come back to collect more information yet.

"I don't know Mitch, I'm just as confused about this as you are. Let me read the motion and I'll draft up an opposition and send it over to you."