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I follow her through the office and as we go I can feel all eyes upon me. I have no doubt that th
e employees of this business have no idea what’s really going on, and my presence alone is bound to cause whispers. I know why business owners do this, they don’t want to cause panic and low morale, but sometimes I’m sure the rumors are worse than the truth… although maybe not here.
“Hold on a moment, I’ll just go and see what Evan is up to. Please take a seat.”
I perch my butt on the edge of the chair and I wait. And I wait, and I wait a bit more. I can’t stop my eyes from darting towards the door of Mr. Debroils office and I get a strange feeling about what might be going on inside there. Normally I would know about a man’s reputation before I got involved, so I could prepare myself, but today I wasn’t given the time. I wonder how tacky it would be to do my research while I wait. Is this the sort of man who would fool around with members of staff? In my personal experience, that always leads to failure because of distraction, because of the strain that it puts on the business owner’s family, and because it’s just damn mess.
“Right.” Finally, before I get the chance to pull out my phone. “Evan is waiting for you.”
I search her discretely, trying to see any signs of fooling around, but there doesn’t seem to be any. Maybe I’m just cynical now and I’ve seen too much so I judge everyone whom I’ve seen in the past. Maybe what I need to do is go into things with an open mind.
I push myself into a standing position and I try my hardest to find a more positive mind set, then I step inside the office. A luxurious room with the largest mahogany desk I’ve ever seen. The illusion of money is definitely here, but not the actual cash flow!
“Hello there, Mr. Debroils, my name is Katy Atwater and I am your lawyer…”
“Yes,” he interrupts rudely. “Ally just told me. Where’s Grant? I specifically asked for Grant.”
His words sting me hard, I don’t like the way that they make me feel all inadequate inside. “I understand that,” I rasp. “But Grant is not available, so they have sent me.”
He runs his hand through his dark mane, looking incredible stressed. “But I wanted Grant for a reason, I know that he’s capable, we have worked together before.”
This gets my back up. I don’t want to be seen as any less capable as Grant from this man who doesn’t know me at all. Plus, I really can’t lose this contract now, it’ll absolutely kill my chances.
“I assure you, Mr. Debroils, that I am just as capable. I have worked on just as many cases as him and I have had more success.” Pride fills my chest as I realize how true that is. “I assure you, I will work hard for you and will ensure that we reach a resolution that suits you.”
He pauses thoughtfully for much too long, only stirring up my dislike for him. If he dares to make any derogatory comments because I’m female and I will flip. I’m just as capable, damn it! I stare at him, glancing over his piercing green eyes, his high cheekbones, his strong shoulders… I suppose he would be very good looking if he wasn’t such as ass.
“Fine,” he finally agrees. “I don’t see that I have any choice, so yeah, let’s do this.”
I part my lips, ready to say something else, when his cell phone blasts out. Without any consideration for me being in the room he grabs it from his pocket and he pulls it out. I can instantly tell from the way that his cheeks pale that it isn’t going to be good news, and I can’t help but wonder if it’s anything to do with the financial mess. I need all the details if I’m going to make this work. I’ve had people hide stuff from me before and it always comes out in the most embarrassing way possible.
“I just need to take this in private,” he tells me quietly. “I’ll be right back.”
As he goes from the room I try to assess how I feel about him, and it isn’t good. He’s arrogant, secretive, and potentially a sleaze. On top of all of that, he’s got his business into a royal mess as well. I don’t know how I’m going to make this work, but somehow, I need to do my best. My future career depends on it.
Chapter Five – Evan
As I end my call, I sigh loudly and I flop my head back against the wall in dismay. When Ally came to me and she told me that it was some female lawyer sent in Grant’s place, I lost it. I went mad and almost ended up ringing Harrison and Associates in temper. It’s just a good thing that Ally calmed me down and told me to just speak with the lawyer before I do anything rash. She doesn’t even know what’s going on, and she spoke wisely. I must thank her later.
Now, I might not be keen on working with someone who isn’t Grant, but I’ll just have to get on with it. There’s nothing I can do about, the time restraints restrict me. I’ll just need to make the best of a bad situation. Apparently, she’s won more cases than Grant anyway, so maybe this will turn out to be a good thing. Who knows, I have to find out anyway, so I might as well be positive.
I gather myself up and I make my way back to my office, preparing myself to face the music as I go, but as I make my way back through the door I’m struck by something else, something I didn’t expect. I was so busy stressing when Katy Atwater walked into my office that I didn’t notice something very important… I didn’t notice how striking beautiful she is. Sure, she tries to hide it under the pant suit that covers up far too much of her body, leaving everything to the imagination, and her natural, make up free face and her scraped back auburn hair, but I can see it. It’s there. She’s gorgeous.
I remain where I am for a moment with the breath stripped from my body. I’m shocked because I’ve never noticed the underneath beauty in someone before, I’m always more fixated on the obvious sexiness in front of me, like with Ally. Even with past relationships, it’s always been the outer beauty that captivated me before anything else had a chance to slip into my focus.
I don’t know what it is about Katy, but I can already tell that for some reason she’s different.
Eventually she senses me behind her and she turns to face me. Katy doesn’t seem to sense the new change in my attitude towards her because she looks just as furious as before. I’ve obviously hurt her with my instant dismissal, which is fair enough. I wouldn’t like that either.
“Who was that?” she demands, almost knocking me sideways with her icy coldness. “If that’s something to do with the case then I need to know. If that was anything to do with money…”
“It isn’t,” I reassure her as I move to the other side of my desk to sit in front of her. “It’s personal life stuff. Nothing to do with work at all.” I don’t say nothing I want to get into, but I think the meaning is very clear. The last thing I need right now is to get stuck into personal details with Katy.
“Right,” she drawls slowly. “Because you know that I need total honesty from you, don’t you? I cannot work with you if you don’t give me everything. The only cases that I’ve lost have been because of people lying to me. That’s why I only work with truthful people.”
I gulp, not liking the wart and all look we’re going to have to take over this, but I know it’s what needs to be done if I want to stand a chance in hell of saving my dad’s legacy. I already told myself that I’m not going to be stubborn and that I’ll embrace this. Now I just need to keep myself on the right track by sticking to this promise. “Yes, of course.”
“Right…” As she delves into the introductory speech, the one where she tells me what she knows about me and my issue and what she’s thinking that we should do right now. I can’t resist tuning out her words and focusing only on the movement of her lips. Partly because I don’t want to be reminded again of my short comings and partly because there’s something incredibly beautiful about the way that she moves her mouth. Especially as she’s saying such smart things.
