stadium at the very least, and her emerald eyes positively shine when she’s happy.
“I was running away from the office,” Aaron says. “Donald Pierce, to be specific.”
Cynthia’s expression drops slightly. “I’d prefer you think of it as running to us, rather than away from work . . . but I guess I’ll take what I can get.”
Aaron accepts the rebuke. “Will the girls be joining us for dinner?”
“No. Lindsay is at rehearsal and Sam is working on some project with Olivia.”
“In that case, why don’t we go out for dinner? Caffe Grazie?”
“Wow. I don’t know what I did to deserve such attention from you—flowers and my favorite restaurant.”
What she did, Aaron thinks, is not give up on him when he lost his mind and betrayed her. It hardly matters that she didn’t know she was doing it; he still has a lot of making up to do.
At dinner, Cynthia appears to be in very good spirits. The two glasses of wine probably don’t hurt her mood any, but Aaron can sense that she’s missed him of late. She chats about her patients, the other doctors, general workplace gossip. Aaron’s thankful that she’s taken the lead, for the news at his office is not something he wishes to share, at least not tonight, when Cynthia is in such a good mood.
It’s lightly flurrying when they leave the restaurant, and Cynthia leans up against Aaron, holding his hand as they make their way down Madison. The girls are both home when Aaron and Cynthia return. Lindsay tells them that rehearsal was boring and Samantha complains that she and her partner can’t get their science project to turn out right.
At a little before ten, Aaron and Cynthia get into bed. Aaron puts the television on, but Cynthia suggests they do something else first, and slides down the sheets.
As he feels his wife’s hot mouth around him, his body releases tothe sensation of pleasure. But not completely. He knows how undeserving he is of her affection.
WHEN FAITH AND STUART get into bed, Stuart signals that he wants to have sex. She’s glad it doesn’t take long. Small favors , she thinks to herself.
He falls asleep immediately after, and she knows that’s not going to happen on her end for several hours still. It’s during this time, with her husband asleep beside her, that she feels most alone.
One thing that Faith learned early on as a lawyer was that there is no such thing as good and bad people. There are just people , who sometimes do good things and other times do bad things, and the idea that the guilty are punished is just something that people say; it isn’t even remotely true.
In fact, quite the opposite. People doing bad things are sometimes even rewarded for their misdeeds.
She likes to think of herself as a person who mainly does good things . . . but for the past six months, no fly on the wall of her life would have described her that way. First there was the affair with Aaron, and although there are countless ways she could try to justify it—Stuart’s own likely infidelity, his thoughtlessness toward her, his . . . general Stuartness—she knows that she was responsible for her own actions. And then there was the entire Eric Matthews debacle. Faith believed to her very core that every ruling she made in the case was right on the merits, but she also knew that her assessment was impossible to verify. No matter how you cut it, presiding over the case put her on the wrong side of the ethical divide.
In a just world, her conduct would have at least led to a divorce filing, if not impeachment proceedings. But Stuart didn’t leave her (or even know about the affair with Aaron, as far as she knows), and she wasn’t run off the bench in scandal.
Instead, Faith was rewarded, now on the verge of being nominated to the highest court in the land.
All she has to do to get there is engage in further misconduct: convict Nicolai Garkov and then sentence him to the max, regardless of the evidence.
She feels the pang of
“I was running away from the office,” Aaron says. “Donald Pierce, to be specific.”
Cynthia’s expression drops slightly. “I’d prefer you think of it as running to us, rather than away from work . . . but I guess I’ll take what I can get.”
Aaron accepts the rebuke. “Will the girls be joining us for dinner?”
“No. Lindsay is at rehearsal and Sam is working on some project with Olivia.”
“In that case, why don’t we go out for dinner? Caffe Grazie?”
“Wow. I don’t know what I did to deserve such attention from you—flowers and my favorite restaurant.”
What she did, Aaron thinks, is not give up on him when he lost his mind and betrayed her. It hardly matters that she didn’t know she was doing it; he still has a lot of making up to do.
At dinner, Cynthia appears to be in very good spirits. The two glasses of wine probably don’t hurt her mood any, but Aaron can sense that she’s missed him of late. She chats about her patients, the other doctors, general workplace gossip. Aaron’s thankful that she’s taken the lead, for the news at his office is not something he wishes to share, at least not tonight, when Cynthia is in such a good mood.
It’s lightly flurrying when they leave the restaurant, and Cynthia leans up against Aaron, holding his hand as they make their way down Madison. The girls are both home when Aaron and Cynthia return. Lindsay tells them that rehearsal was boring and Samantha complains that she and her partner can’t get their science project to turn out right.
At a little before ten, Aaron and Cynthia get into bed. Aaron puts the television on, but Cynthia suggests they do something else first, and slides down the sheets.
As he feels his wife’s hot mouth around him, his body releases tothe sensation of pleasure. But not completely. He knows how undeserving he is of her affection.
WHEN FAITH AND STUART get into bed, Stuart signals that he wants to have sex. She’s glad it doesn’t take long. Small favors , she thinks to herself.
He falls asleep immediately after, and she knows that’s not going to happen on her end for several hours still. It’s during this time, with her husband asleep beside her, that she feels most alone.
One thing that Faith learned early on as a lawyer was that there is no such thing as good and bad people. There are just people , who sometimes do good things and other times do bad things, and the idea that the guilty are punished is just something that people say; it isn’t even remotely true.
In fact, quite the opposite. People doing bad things are sometimes even rewarded for their misdeeds.
She likes to think of herself as a person who mainly does good things . . . but for the past six months, no fly on the wall of her life would have described her that way. First there was the affair with Aaron, and although there are countless ways she could try to justify it—Stuart’s own likely infidelity, his thoughtlessness toward her, his . . . general Stuartness—she knows that she was responsible for her own actions. And then there was the entire Eric Matthews debacle. Faith believed to her very core that every ruling she made in the case was right on the merits, but she also knew that her assessment was impossible to verify. No matter how you cut it, presiding over the case put her on the wrong side of the ethical divide.
In a just world, her conduct would have at least led to a divorce filing, if not impeachment proceedings. But Stuart didn’t leave her (or even know about the affair with Aaron, as far as she knows), and she wasn’t run off the bench in scandal.
Instead, Faith was rewarded, now on the verge of being nominated to the highest court in the land.
All she has to do to get there is engage in further misconduct: convict Nicolai Garkov and then sentence him to the max, regardless of the evidence.
She feels the pang of
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