THE NEXT MORNING
I pop into Conference Room B at 9:15 am. I tell myself that I need to see who’s interviewing for the position of my secretary.
I need to know what’s going on at my own fucking firm. Especially since Madilyn is conducting the interviews and that means Asher, is going to try to have some say into who gets to be my secretary.
But as soon as I enter the room and see Ruby sitting across the table from Madilyn, a few other associates and a partner, Paul— people whom I can only guess comprise the haphazard “hiring committee” Madilyn managed to throw together at the last minute— I know why I really came. Because I was hoping she was here applying for the job to my secretary.
And here she is. Looking up at me as if to say, “I’m here to do whatever you want.”
I feel as though I silently commanded her to come and she listened. Last night when I made myself come while I thought about her, I sent her a signal that she obeyed.
“Oh, hello, Cameron,” Madilyn says, smiling sweetly. “I wasn’t expecting you to be here.”
“I thought I’d stop by,” I tell her.
“Feel free to have a seat.”
She gestures at an empty chair beside her.
“We were just speaking with Ruby here,” Madilyn continues. “She’s a floater here at the firm, applying to be your legal assistant.”
“Yes,” I nod at Ruby, trying to act professional. “We’ve met.”
She stares back at me, her eyes nearly daring me to elaborate.
We’ve met and I couldn’t stop staring at her ass.
We’ve met and I can’t stop fucking thinking about her since.
We’ve met and I’m so captivated I came here to make sure she gets this job.
The things I could say about her are endless but I don’t say anything further. I just sit down next to Madilyn.
“We were discussing that Ruby graduated at the top of her class from Sandia Preparatory School,” Madilyn says. “She worked at a firm back East for a while with her uncle before moving back here. She would like to go to law school. Isn’t that right, Ruby?”
Ruby squirms in her chair a little bit. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen her look nervous. She usually appears very confident. My presence must be really getting to her.
“Yes,” she says. “It is.”
“I was explaining to Ruby that it’s a little unusual for floaters to move up to the position of legal assistant for a senior partner right away,” Madilyn continues. “But when she expressed interest we agreed to interview her because we’d heard some great things.”
“Yes,” Paul says, nodding his head. “She instituted a filing system that has been extremely helpful.”
“And she updated our calendar system and it’s more streamlined and efficient now,” adds an associate, whose name I believe to be Bill but I’m not quite sure.
“Yes,” Marilyn says to Ruby. “I’ve heard about how well you’ve done since you’ve been here for only a short amount of time and I think you’d be a great candidate for the promotion.”
“I tend to agree,” says Paul, who always needs to throw his two cents into everything. “And looking at your resume and high school transcript, it’s clear that you are intelligent and received excellent grades. Normally I would think the responsibilities are above someone with your experience but it’s obvious that you’re a fast learner and will easily catch on. Therefore, I see no reason why we shouldn’t advance you to this position right now, to be frank.”
“Well, it depends on what Ron thinks,” Madilyn says.
“Very true,” Paul agrees.
“But let’s not put him on the spot,” she continues. “Let’s give him time to think it over. Ruby, I think you’re a perfect candidate as well but we have some others interviewing and we’ll let you know shortly what we think.”
“Of course,” Ruby says. I can see that she looks rather relieved. And I have to admit that I do too.
I know I want her. I know that’s the whole reason I came here to this interview. But I also know it’s not the wisest decision to make. Because I want her in every way possible.
“Well, hello,” Asher says, popping his head in the same door to the conference room that I just did. “What’s going on in here?”
Madilyn smiles as if he’s fucking Santa Clause. And he winks at her mischievously.
These two. It would be obvious that they’re fucking from a mile away. And it’s even obvious that it’s more serious than that. They barely even try to hide it.
I guess I shouldn’t feel so bad about wanting to fuck Ruby. Apparently, that’s acceptable for Asher, so why shouldn’t it be for me as well.
“We’re just doing the interviews for Ron’s new assistant,” Madilyn says.
She’s about to say “honey” at the end of that sentence, I just know it. But she stops herself.
“Cool,” Asher says. “Oh, Ron, since I’ve got you here, I wanted to talk to you about that toy company account. That business owned by the potential client Damien Hudson.”
“What about it?” I ask.
“I really don’t think it’s a good idea that we take it.”
I feel the hair on the back of my spine stand up like a lion fluffing out his mane. Who does Asher think he fucking is, telling me he doesn’t want to do something I want to do in my own firm? And in front of Ruby?
“Well, I do.”
“Ron,” he sighs, as if I’m a petulant child he has to lecture into seeing things his way. “They make toys for kids with disabilities. That has got to be the smallest market ever. They don’t have the money to pay our fees, I’m sure of it.”
“Well I didn’t take it for the money,” I inform him. “I’m doing it pro bono.”
“Yeah right,” Asher laughs. “You mean an associate’s going to do it pro bono. And we don’t have the time or resources to take away from our associates right now to divest into having them do free work.”
“Oh, you mean because they’re a little too tied up doing lots of other things?” I ask him.
His eyebrows fly up in surprise. He knows exactly what I’m alluding to: the fact that it’s so hypocritical of him to say associates like Madilyn don’t have the time to spend on my passion projects when he’s taking up all her time with, shall we say, extracurricular activities.
My allusion to his prohibited office relationship as well as my tone are meant to warn him. Back off. He seems to pick up on it a bit, throwing his hands up in the air as if he gives up.
“We’ll talk about it later then,” he says, and shrugs. “It’s obviously a touchy subject. I didn’t realize how much you wanted to help this toy company.”
“Well, I do,” I tell him.
Asher has never felt particularly bad about representing the kinds of companies we do— oil companies, insurance defense, large corporations— or about the fact that we’re always on the side of the big bad company instead of the little helpless guy. I know it’s how we afford our lavish lifestyles and I don’t blame him for not questioning it.
But there’s some stupid part of me that always feels guilty and tries to make up for it by taking pro bono projects such as this. And I had already promised the guy I met from the company that we could help him out.
Damien Hudson. I met him on the golf course. He’s a decent golfer. Then we talked about his business on the phone and he sounded damn passionate about it, so I told him I’d help him out.
I didn’t say for free or even reduced fees but I’d implied it and at least in my mind it’s what I’d meant. I don’t like to go back on my word. And I don’t need Asher’s fucking permission to take a pro bono case or not.
“Let me just look at the amount of work involved and the numbers,” he says, with another shrug.
“Asher,” I warn him again. “This is my decision. I didn’t ask for your input.”
“Woah,” he says, throwing up his hands. “All right then. I’m just trying to help. For the good of the firm.”
“As am I,” I tell him.
“All right, Madilyn, everyone, good luck,” he says, nodding at all of us but keeping his eyes on Madilyn.
He’s looking at her the same way I’ve been looking at Ruby.
It’s my turn to claim what’s mine around here.
The pro bono toy case, and Ruby Mansfield.
If I’m honest with myself, neither of them are probably the best ideas I’ve ever had. But I don’t fucking care. I’m going to help the toy company and I’m also going to bang my assistant. Because it’s about time I took what I wanted at work just like I do outside of it.
And, I can’t help admitting, as I look at her gorgeous face and the cleavage poking ever so slightly out of her silk blouse, that she’s fucking hot and I want her so bad I can’t say no, even though I should.