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“Not true,” she laughed, just as my car pulled up to the curb. Suddenly, a thought occurred to me, and I turned to Gloria.
“Since she’s such a novice in all of this, shouldn’t she be following me around and learning names and faces and everything else as much and as quickly as she can?”
She stopped in her tracks then and considered my suggestion for a moment.
“You’re right,” she said, and then she gave me an apologetic look. “She’ll be down in five minutes tops,” she said, “I’m placing the call to her right now.”
My natural inclination was to reject waiting and to reject her, yet as I closed my door, I realized that I wasn’t quite ready to leave just yet. I watched from the tinted windows as Gloria began to pace and speak rapidly on the phone. It indeed took less than five minutes for her to arrive as promised by Gloria, but by then, my patience was already wearing thin. And this was because, in the silence and given the time to think, I finally realized and had to admit to myself that I had done this to more or less see her and get to know her beyond her awkward and painful visits to my office.
Shaking my head, I released a heavy breath and thought of changing my mind. This was sure to torture her a bit more and increase her desire to leave on my own. But as I watched Gloria speak to her, I realized that she would see through this right away and would be incredibly displeased with me. And from experience, she was never able to hide her displeasure, so even if I was her boss, she only held back when it was needed.
Soon, there was a knock on the door, and I rolled down the window. Hannah went around, and then she too knocked on the door slightly.
“We’ve discussed things,” she told me. “I’ll assign her to someone as soon as you two get back.”
“Alright,” I nodded and turned to see that she was once again doing that overly polite thing where she wouldn’t enter a space until she was explicitly and loudly told to. It especially made no sense now and annoyed me even further because we had invited her here, so why was she hesitating?
I gave Gloria an irritated look, which she immediately understood. In response, she said something to Hannah, and the door was pulled down. She got in, and although I tried to bemoan her presence in the space with me, I couldn’t help but admit that I liked the effect her flowery scent brought to the otherwise usual tobacco and coffee scent of the car. She smelled clean and sweet, and once again, it brought me back to the time in the shower when I had come to think about her. I wanted to do it, truly; the desire I had been trying my hardest to suppress once again arose. It was all me, and so in order to keep my hands to myself, I turned around and focused my gaze on the vibrant city outside as we drove.
Chapter Twelve
Hannah
This was complete bullshit. All of it. The day, the job, the man. The absolutely freaking ridiculous deadlines. Two o'clock was approaching fast and along with it the very important meeting with the client, and yet here I was still unable to contact Guy's guy. I was definitely going to mess this up as well.
The moment George disappeared and left me completely to my own devices, I should have known that I was screwed. However, I was sure that I would be able to get the answers I needed from the other employees. Turns out they actually did know about Guy’s guy, and most lawyers—the good ones anyway—seemed to have them. They were basically private investigators that were trusted to get them the information they needed. Information that wasn’t readily available anywhere and of course they all had their own private trusted sources. I most definitely didn't need a guy, so in the meantime, I had to rely on Guy's guy, that was if I was ever able to locate him. So far, it didn’t seem like this would ever be the case, as I was stuck waiting on Sandra to pick up her damn phone. This was the quickest way the other two had told me since they knew about him but hadn’t had direct contact with him. Sandra, however, was my last shot, but she was currently unreachable.
As I got into the car, I knew that this was no vacation for me. It was extremely tense at work, though given that the subject of my nervousness was right by my side, but this was no time whatsoever to be sensitive. I kept trying to call until eventually and close to tears, I had to give up. He didn’t pay any attention to me, and I wondered if it was right for me to just quit.
He could just drop me off and I would go back to the office because there was absolutely no way now that I would be able to contact the guy and get the needed investigation done before the appointed time. Currently, as his secretary, I didn't even know where we were headed, and this was yet another thing that made my skin crawl. I wondered then who was going to look even more stupid when we got to where we were going. I imagined him being the one, and as a result, decided not to quit just yet. He would be pissed, but since I had decided to quit, that wouldn’t be my problem in any way.
Sighing, I tried to calm myself down, and soon enough, we arrived at the courthouse. Everyone in this world seemed quite prim and proper, unlike the marketing world, which was a bit more casual. I had to say I appreciated this though and couldn't help but feel sad once again that I was leaving. I followed behind him completely empty-handed and had to remind myself that he was the one who would be humiliated. However, with every step that I took, the next one became even harder.
Eventually, we arrived at the office of the judge he wanted to see, and at the smile of the secretary waiting outside, I felt such immense envy that I didn't know how to possess it. She seemed so at ease, as though she had everything under control, while I, on the other hand, was falling apart inside like a two-dollar briefcase. The secretary, with a smile, showed us inside the office in no time, and I started to head over to one of the seating chairs outside, but then suddenly, he gave me a harsh look, as though to ask what the fuck I was doing. Before my butt could even touch the seat, I rose up once again and followed.
The judge had the kindest eyes I had ever seen. Yet, he was quite elderly but still somewhat looked stern. I never did like people peering at me from over their glasses, but the simple curiosity in his eyes was a welcome departure from the turmoil that was currently rolling in the top of my stomach.
“Templeton,” he greeted, and both men exchanged handshakes.
“This is my secretary, Hannah Walker,” Guy introduced and made all greetings in return.
“You can take a seat,” the judge said to me, and this time around, I did as I was told. They began their meeting, talking about some sort of copyright case that the judge was trying to convince Guy to take on. However, his message remained the same and unshaken no matter how many times the judge tried to convince him.
“I don’t do copyright cases, judge,” Guy refused, even after listening to the details. I couldn't help but wonder about his stubbornness. I realized as I found myself watching his every move just how attentive and unreadable he was, yet there was something fundamentally different about him. Here he was a bit more softened and calmed, and even the way he spoke was full of kindness. I couldn't truly understand it. So, then who was the real him? The polite man who turned down an older man as patiently and repeatedly as possible, or the vicious heart-torturing monster who had made the past few hours of my life a living hell.
Chapter Thirteen
Guy
She was awfully quiet. I mean, I didn't expect her to be performing a song in the middle of my conversation, but she was so still beside me that it was almost as though no one was there. Multiple times I had been so tempted to turn to look at her, but ultimately, and till the end of the meeting, I had ignored her. Eventually, the meeting had come to an end, and even though it had clearly been a waste of my time to come over, my presence had been received as respect, and so in the end, I'd managed to convince him to go with one of our junior partners for the copyright infringement case on behalf of a niece of his. I turned around then to leave, and she came with me.
I hoped she had been taking notes, as this was one thing to criticize her about. Perhaps I could have been kind enough to remind her of it, but this wasn't what this was about, was it? In the car, though, and unable to stand the silence and the defeat on her face, I had no choice but to speak to her.
“Did you get the details of all that was discussed as well as the junior partner that you're supposed to transfer the copyright case to?”
Just as I had expected, she stared at me as though she couldn’t understand a single word I was saying, but then, to my surprise, she nodded.
“Yes, sir, I did.”
