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What?
I stared at him, lost, and as the seconds slipped away, his frown deepened.
“Hello?” he called. “What are you doing? We're already severely behind.”
“No,” I shook my head. “I don't have a guy. I used to, but... things didn't work out.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” he asked, and I most definitely couldn’t respond to this because all I wanted to do was yell back in his face the exact same question but, of course, solely in my mind, “What the hell are you talking about?”
Eventually, though, and with a deep sigh, he turned around and continued on his way.
“Just use Guy's guy,” he said. “Make sure, though, that you don’t occupy him so much that he's not available when Guy needs him. He really hates it.”
“Okay,” I replied, and with my heart sinking, I watched him walk away. He had been even more useless and monumentally unhelpful than I had imagined.
Chapter Eleven
Guy
Eventually, it was time to leave, and despite how reluctant I had been in the very beginning about this meeting, I couldn’t help but admit that I was looking forward to seeing Judge Hillard. We went way back since my first case and have had many run-ins with each other since then that had demanded concessions to help the other out of one mess or another. So, he was a familiar face to stop by to see in his chambers in the building.
The unfamiliar face, however, I was currently having to deal with as I walked out of my office, was Hannah's. She was at her desk this time around, which was a welcome change. She was, however, looking so worried and lost that for a moment I wondered what was wrong with her. She had the phone pressed to her ear and seemed to be flipping through stacks of folders across her desk. I wondered what she was looking for. I wanted to ask, but ultimately, and as was the plan, I ignored her and walked out.
George had told me of what he had assigned her to do, however, and as I recalled just how confused she looked, I wondered if she even knew anything about being a legal secretary, not to mention being my legal secretary. And so, before I headed over to the elevators, I decided to briefly stop by Gloria’s office. She was on her way to lunch, so she got up, put on her jacket, and in no time, we were walking side by side and headed down.
“What's her experience?” I asked. “Which firms did she work for previously?”
“Hmm…” Gloria considered this, and at her prolonged hmm, I turned to her in shock.
“You brought a novice to my office?”
She couldn’t even meet my gaze.
“I swear to God I didn’t think it would be too much of a problem. We talked about it yesterday; she expressed her surprise that we had called her over for an interview so quickly, and then I was so eager to show her to you. You’d rejected everyone else, so I thought if you accepted her, then that would be good. She would need to learn for sure, but her experience is vast, and thus far, she has been able to adapt quickly.”
I couldn't believe her words.
“I’m a named partner,” I said, and she nodded, squeezing her eyes shut.
“I know, I know, I know what's at stake, but I was going to assign one of the other secretaries to help her out for a little bit and show her the ropes until she lands on her feet.”
“The others previously who got fired had experiences with being legal secretaries. But not only did you send someone who doesn't have that to me, you also put a ban on me firing her for the next three months?”
She went silent.
“You know this takes away your leg to stand on, right?” I asked, and she sighed.
“I know, but you have to give me time. Give me a week to work with her and get her up to speed, and if she still sucks by then, then you can fire her.”
“Being a legal secretary is not a walk in the park. She can't just-”
“I’ll assign someone permanently to her. Even if it takes her a year, as long as she works extremely hard, she'll get the hang of it in no time, or at least know how to ask questions and quickly search for the information she needs.” As if on cue, the elevator arrived on the ground floor, and we both stepped out into the lobby.
“You really went haywire with this hire,” I said. “I just cannot understand why.”
“I don't know either,” she said. “You just seemed to be a little drawn to her at the restaurant, and given your dissatisfaction thus far with every other secretary, I couldn’t help testing the waters with her.”
“Of course, you couldn’t,” I said, just as we strolled out of the building. “After all, I’m your constant case study for everything negative.”
