“Thanks, El.”
“Don’t thank me. You deserve it. You worked your ass off to get here and even put up with me.”
“That last part is true!” He laughed.
“Come on. Let’s get to this meeting.”
Averie
I stepped off the elevator and saw Patterson Law Firm in large gold letters on the wall. It was my first day in my newly decorated office space on the twelfth floor of Ankh Towers, the same building as Valentine Law. All of my employees were excited about the move. We all receive designated parking spaces under the building, and our clients would utilize the free valet parking. I didn’t need the same floor security because the security in the building was top notch and through. They weren’t letting anyone up without an appointment or an ID.
I was all prepared to bring over my office furniture from the old location, but Samuel surprised me with all new, white furniture. My office was now large enough to have a couch and another seating area with chairs. He purchased a new couch and chairs to match. He told me to pick out the pillows and other décor that I wanted. He also gifted me one of his hourglasses that I’d become fond of.
“Your office is nice, Averie,” Caroline said as she entered.
“How do you like your office?” I responded.
“It’s nice. It was a smart move to come to this building.”
I always had to listen carefully to what Caroline said. I had to read between the lines and pick up on context clues because I knew she was up to something.
“I think it was. That’s what it’s about, right? Thinking outside the box?”
“It is.”
“Did you want something?”
“Ummm, no. Not really. I just wanted to say hello. We don’t talk as much as we used to talk. You didn’t even tell me about this move until the day before the movers came.”
That’s because I don’t trust your conniving ass,I thought.
“Yeah, it was sorta spur of the moment.”
“I get it. I still would like for us to be friends, Averie. I know I messed up, but I want to make things right.”
“How would you do that Caroline?”
“Well first I would need for you to share things with me again. You are so closed off. We used to sit down and discuss strategy and girls ruling the world.”
“Then you tried to sink my company.”
“I know that it may appear that way but I promise nothing that happened during your time at Valentine was intentional. It just happened at the worse, possible time.”
“All you had to do was tell me. I had to find out through the grapevine.”
“That was my error. I didn’t want you to be disappointed in me,” she responded while trying to squeeze out some tears. “I really wanted to do well for you but things fell apart before I realized it,” she said while wiping away the only fake tear she could muster.
“You know me and you know my sensibilities. You knew how to approach me but you chose not to. Then you had a meeting with Bell. That was some underhanded, conniving, sneaky ass shit.”
“Averie, I really was trying to help!”
“You know what, Caroline? If that’s what you were really trying to do then time will tell. Now, if we don’t have anything else to discuss, I would really like to finish unpacking these boxes. We only have a few days before we start seeing clients again.”
* * *
It wasday four of our first week at the firm’s new location, and I called a meeting with everyone to go over some housekeeping items and to get their feedback on the new place. I gave everyone a chance to speak uninterrupted and voice any concerns they had. Everyone seemed to be very happy with the new location. I ordered lunch for everyone and was sitting at the table in the kitchen talking to Liddy when my cell phone beeped with a text message. I saw Samuel’s name in the notification and figured he was texting to find out how my day was going. It wasn’t a text; it was a picture. A picture of a long, brown, hard penis…Samuel’s penis. I almost dropped my phone as I quickly stood from the table. The caption under it read;“This has been happening all day.”
I took in a deep breath.