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I sat across from them both; they had chosen a table in the corner, so if I moved the wrong way, I would collide with their knees, as they were both so tall.
Jude took off his black suit jacket and leaned across the table. Tattoos peeked on his wrist and my eyes widened before glancing away and looking at Maverick instead. He gave me another warm smile and I handed him my portfolio.
“So, Miss Cates—why do you want to protect our assets?” Jude asked.
3
Maverick
The day got progressively worse as it went along. I started at five as I did every morning to train at my home gym. Having a home gym wasn’t about being pretentious; it was just easier to work out and then get ready for work without a commute in between. It was strictly cardio, so I ran my three miles and had a steam before dressing in one of my usual navy suits.
I had my typical breakfast, consisting of black coffee before I got to the office and an egg and spinach omelet as I read emails. When nine o’clock rolled around, I had my meeting with the support staff that Jude never attended.
Needless to say, my life had become a monotonous routine, or at least that was the case until the sudden shift with Hatchett that I still had no idea how to recover from.
Jude always said I worried too much, but that’s because he never worried about anything. That might have been why we’d been friends and successful business partners for so long. The company was everything to both of us, even if Jude liked to pretend it wasn’t his pride and joy.
In light of the ongoing crisis with Hatchett, I forced Jude to come to the next meeting. Whether he wanted to be there or not, I needed his support because the whole situation was driving me mad. I was even losing sleep, spending far too many hours watching the market as the numbers dropped, rose, held, and then dropped again.
“I don’t know why you’re so worked up about this. It’ll blow over,” Jude said, once we’d dismissed the partners from our meeting.
I paced the conference room, frustrated. The days never used to go like this. Previously, I would show up and work hard before taking off at the end of the day, sometimes with Jude if he wanted to go to the bar we frequented or to meet with women. Some of these women intuitively understood it would never go any further than just sex. Yet, Jude never exactly made these agreement entirely clear, and therefore sometimes had to deal with them not wanting to leave the following morning.
Regardless, on this day, there had been nothing on my mind but the stock with that tech start-up.
“And if it doesn’t?” I snapped. “We end up in the hole, our stock takes a dip, and then it becomes a fucking snowball effect!” I turned and eyed the whiskey, but it was too early for that.
Jude rose and met me on the other side of the conference table. “Chill, Maverick. You’re giving me a headache.”
The room over-looked the city, towering over the rest of the buildings. Jude and I had put hard work into this business, and I’d be damned if I let some weasel pull us out of it.
“Right.” I leaned on the glass as I faced him, finding his permanent smirk in place and his eyes glinting. I could honestly never tell what he was thinking, but the two of us had been friends way too long to not be able to take a good guess. Looking at him, I knew that he’d done something out of the ordinary. I just didn’t know what it was yet.
“Anyway, you’ve got to fix this mood because we have to interview someone for the asset lawyer position at one,” he said.
I glanced at my watch. It was already past one. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.
“Martha just told her this morning because I honestly didn’t want to call anyone in until then,” Jude continued.
I arched a brow. “You were around early in the morning?”
He frowned. “Fuck you. Yes, I was. Anyway, this applicant—she graduated a year ago, but had a lot of internship experience. Really, I just want to know why no one else has hired her already. It doesn’t make sense to have that kind of resume and no job.”
“She might not have been actively looking. Who is she?”
“Henley Cates.”
“What does she look like?” I cocked my head and held his gaze, but he met my stare with a killer poker face.
“She might not even come, so don’t worry. She’s already late,” he said.
I couldn’t imagine being late for an interview as big as this. Anyone in or near the industry knew we were the leading company alongside Hatchett. Our resume piles had their own room and even their own email address that we never checked. Our positions were elusive, hard to get, and harder to keep. “Has she known about it for a while?” I asked.
“Well, since this morning when I decided to call her in.”
I paused, shooting him a look. “I’m sorry, but did you just say told someone about an interview just hours before they had to show up?” I almost laughed at the absurdity of it.
Jude shrugged and adjusted his cuff links. “I wanted to see how she did under pressure.” He checked his million-dollar watch. “And, so far, she’s not doing very good.”
