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Making my way from my office to the break room down the hall, I run right into Miles Lexington, my boss and owner of Lexington Law, causing him to jostle and spill his freshly poured cup of coffee all over his white shirt and down his pants, ending in a puddle on the floor.
Completely embarrassed and horrified, I struggle to find the words, “Mr. Lexington! I am so sorry! I—”
Mr. Lexington holds his hand up to stop my stammering apology, “Mark! It was an accident, no harm done. And it’s Miles.”
He is far calmer than anyone who is covered in a scalding liquid should be.
I’m still in panic mode. “I’ll clean it up!”
Nancy appears with a mop, “Already on it.” She gives me a reassuring smile.
“Then at least let me pay for the dry cleaning,” I beg, feeling completely helpless. I need to do something.
Miles holds up his hand to silence me, “Mark, my boy, it’s coffee. It spills. Heck, I spilled some on myself just yesterday. I have an extra set of clothes in my office just for this purpose. If I had a dollar for every time I spilled coffee, I would be a very rich man.” His eyes twinkle.
How is this man real? My previous bosses would have had my head if this had happened. Paying for dry cleaning would be the least of my worries. I knew how to deal with that. This? I have no idea what to do next. I stand there dumbfounded for what I’m sure is several minutes rather than the actual seconds it is in real time.
“I’m going to have you shadow Troy for the next couple of days so you can get an idea of how we do things around here now that you have settled in a little more. This way you can start meeting some of our clients. We are a small group, so we don’t necessarily have individual clients but rather all work together. We also have a mixer of sorts coming up in a couple weeks where you will be able to meet a lot of them.”
“Yes, sir.” I correct myself, “Miles.”
“Did you hear that, Troy?”
Troy pokes his head out of his office like a gopher, “Hear what, now?”
“Mark is going to be shadowing you for the next couple of days. Show him the ropes. Introduce him to clients. You know the drill.”
“Sure thing, boss!” Boss? What is this NCIS? Unless Miles is going to Gibbs-slap him, because that I’d pay to see. It’s only been a few days, and I already don’t like the guy. He might be a great lawyer, but I’m just not sure about the rest. “I have that contract for Quimby that’s being picked up, and then shadow away!”
“Quimby! Perfect! They are one of our most prominent clients! Mark definitely needs to meet them.”
“Sure thing, boss.” Troy’s response is much less enthused this time.
As I walk back to my office, I pass by Nancy’s desk and whisper, “What’s Quimby?”
“Quimby Publishing, they are our floor-mates. We do a lot of work for them since they are such a small publishing house and don’t have their own law department. Troy has had his eye on one of the children’s editors for months. Truth be told, I think it’s probably because she wants nothing to do with him and the poor boy doesn’t know what to do with that.”
I think I’m going to really like Nancy, and that little bit of gossip makes me laugh. I want to meet this children’s book editor because Nancy is right, I don’t think Troy is used to rejection, and I respect a woman who doesn’t get easily seduced by big muscles and a wannabe smoldering grin.
Twenty minutes later, I’m sitting at my desk with the door ajar when I hear the office door open, and a bright cheerful voice comes through the door. “Good morning, Nancy! How are you doing today?”
“I’m doing good, sweetheart, how about yourself?”
“I’m excited that these contract revisions got done so quickly. I wasn’t expecting them until tomorrow!” Her voice is almost in a singsong pattern, and the animations seem oddly familiar. “How are you doing? Your granddaughter had her birthday last week, didn’t she?”
That voice! It’s so familiar!
The two of them are laughing as Troy comes bounding past my office like a cheetah stalking its prey. Have I mentioned that I don’t like this guy?
“Amelia, I thought I heard your beautiful voice. You are looking as foxy as ever this fine Friday.” Seriously? Who calls someone foxy in a professional setting? Forget cheetah, Troy is a snake.
“Hi, Troy.” The annoyance in her voice is evident though it is polite. “I was just telling Nancy how I wasn’t expecting the revisions to be done this quickly. Thank you for getting it done.”
“It was my pleasure to be of assistance to you. We should go out and celebrate later, if you know what I mean.”
“The contracts are enough.”
“Oh, come on. It would be fun.” Troy’s voice is oozing with what I think he considers charisma. It makes me uncomfortable, and it isn’t even directed towards me.
