CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
" morning, Alma," I said as I walked through the door. "How are you this fine morning?"
"Good morning, Miss Raines," Alma said peering at me from behind her round lenses. "I'm well, and today's weather forecast appears to support your assessment of what type of morning it is."
"Very well, thank you for that information, Alma," I smiled. "Are Jordie and Roger in yet?"
"The gentlemen are in the conference room and have been there all night, I believe," she said in a voice that was very obviously disapproving.
"Are they doing something they shouldn't be doing?" I asked.
"Miss Raines, I was hired to be a secretary and a receptionist for this firm," she replied. Her lips were set in a grim line across the lower half of her face as she murmured, "I was not hired to mind grown up children who still need a mother."
"I see," I nodded. "I'm sorry that you've been subjected to the boys' bad behavior, Alma. I'll go see what I can do to get them to change their ways and act a little more like adults."
She nodded as she turned back to the letter she had been typing when I entered and I listened as her fingers flew across the keyboard transforming our words into something presentable. I didn't want to lose Alma over a misunderstanding, so I walked straight to the conference room where I found a scene that caused me to drop my bags and stand staring at the mess.
"What in the hell have you two done?" I asked as I looked at the walls of the conference room now papered in post-it notes. It looked like a windstorm had set down in a paper factory and left a wild random flurry of multi-colored snow covering every square inch of the room.
"We've been trying to hash out a way to make the finances work until you land Malone," Roger said in a tired voice. Jordie nodded in agreement as he rested his chin on his hand and almost nodded off. "We got worried that we were going to lose it all if we didn't come up with a backup plan, but I think we figure it out."
"What in the hell did you two do in here?" I repeated. "And what did you take in order to stay up all night and do this?"
"What are you talking about Brooke?" Jordie asked.
"You know full well what I'm talking about," I said in a disapproving voice. "You two bought something to help you push through the night and work. I know it, you know it, we all know it. So cut the crap and just admit it."
"Fine, whatever, we took some uppers we bought from one of the corner boys," Roger said throwing up his hands like a kid who'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "What the hell? We've all done it, Brooke. I don't know why you're getting all high and mighty on us."
"Maybe because when I came in this morning our receptionist said she had been hired as a professional office worker, not a babysitter for adult children," I said. "But then maybe it's also because you guys know better! We're a law firm not a frat house, dammit!"
"Sorry, Brooke," Jordie yawned. "We were just trying to make it all work."
"I know you guys mean well, but you're going to sink us if you don't get your shit together and get out there and help me drum up some clients!" I yelled. "I'm out trying to convince Malone to hire us as his next legal counsel and you guys are in here popping uppers and wallpapering the conference room with post-its!"
"Sorry, Brooke," Roger echoed Jordie. "We only wanted to help."
"If you two lunkheads want to help, you need to get your asses over to the courthouse and figure out who doesn't have representation in their bail hearing, and then offer to represent them," I said. "You guys are so much smarter than this. Stop acting like first-year law students and start acting like professionals who know what they're doing!"
"You guys are both off today," I said. "Clean this mess up and then go home and get some rest. Come back tomorrow and we'll work out a plan for how you can actually help."
"Okay," Jordie yawned. "We'll clean this up."
"Jesus, you two," I said shaking my head as I picked up my things and walked into my office where I sunk down in my chair and hoped that tonight's meeting with Dax would offer the solution to our problems.