Fireflies and Magnolias by Ava Miles Page B

baseline?”
    Felicia’s brow rose at that. “No. There are some standard pieces of information we take from them such as some form of identification to verify they are who they say they are, their marital status, and any children that are involved. Then we take their lead and ask them about the situation that brought them to the clinic. You refine your questions from there.”
    Her gut was burning now. “I can handle that.”
    “Well, you don’t lack self-confidence, do you?” Felicia asked, ignoring the phone ringing at her desk.
    “No one ever believed in me growing up. I had to believe in myself enough for everyone.” And that was true. Thank God it was all in the past now.
    “I know Professor Clark well, and since he’s one of your references, I’m willing to give you a shot. Go find the client in reception and bring her back to my desk. We can do the interview here.” She gestured to the chair beside the one where Amelia Ann was sitting.
    With that, Amelia Ann walked to the front and found the woman, biting her cheek to still the trembling in her body. Injecting every ounce of steel she possessed into her spine, she led the client back to Felicia’s desk, and once she was seated, settled into the chair beside her. After a brief nod from the petite woman, she started asking what she hoped were the right questions.
    The interview had broken her heart. She hadn’t been able to stop herself from grabbing the woman’s hand as she described, through a haze of tears and sobs, how her boyfriend had kicked her repeatedly in the stomach after knocking her down on the kitchen floor. Felicia had taken over at one point to describe how the clinic could assist. After escorting the woman out, Amelia Ann had firmed her shoulders and headed back to hear Felicia’s decision.
    The hand Felicia extended to her shot a spurt of hope through her heart.
    “Welcome to Community Legal, Amelia Ann.”
     
    * * *
     
    Over the ensuing week, Felicia had given her their standard de-escalation training and instruction on how to create healthy boundaries with clients. Of course, Felicia didn’t follow that advice herself, as she freely admitted. She gave her clients her cell phone number and was pretty much on call for them twenty-four seven. Amelia Ann knew she’d be the same way.
    Amelia Ann started to tone down her finishing school comportment and took to wearing off-the-rack clothes from a local department store she’d never before visited. Nothing that showed her legs since the men loitering on the streets gazed at her like voracious lions when she came to work in the used Honda Accord she’d leased from a nearby car dealer.
    The hours at Community always passed by in a buzz of activity, and yet it seemed as if there was never enough time to help everyone.
    On the way back to her luxurious townhouse in Hillsboro Village, she usually cried. The streets here were clean, well-lit, and safe, lined with happy families walking down to neighborhood haunts like Fido and Pancake Pantry. People didn’t typically walk around with guns stuck in the back pockets of their jeans. There were no obscene phrases painted on any of the boutique shops. She felt like Persephone most days, traveling back and forth between two worlds—one bright and sunny, the other dark and fearsome.
    But she did revel in the work, just like she’d told Felicia she would, even if she was relieved to learn her boss had been joking about cleaning toilets.
    Deidre, the receptionist, looked harried when she walked through the door on a crisp Monday afternoon. There were at least twenty people crammed into the waiting room. Someone had painted it a sunshine yellow, but there were smudges on the wall since so many people ended up leaning against it when there were no chairs left to sit in.
    She wasn’t surprised by the numbers. Monday was their official legal intake day, and they typically saw thirty to forty people in Amelia Ann’s two-hour shift. The process was