A Legal Trap Ch. 13

Cal and Michelle happily accepted the assignments I gave them and seemed to sympathize with me about being in the direct line of fire for all of Gina Barnes' intensity and inevitable ire. We all knew she was going to be difficult to work for, but I told them I would be their liaison and shield them as best I could, given my new 'lead' powers. On her list of thirteen research tasks I took the hardest one's, going through the emails and finances for Janet and Martin. What was I thinking?!

I was nervous that being Trans would be a put off to Cal or Michelle? I didn't get any weird vibes from either of...

"You look miles away."

I sat up straight as if jolted by electricity passing through the seat of my chair. Holy shit!

"You startled me..." I tried to eke out calmly, though I wasn't even close to being calm at the moment.

"Sorry about that. You okay," Paul asked.

"I was ten-seconds ago," I flashed a feeble smile that was probably more scowl than a 'Happy to see you' smile.

"I stopped by earlier, but you weren't here, assumed you'd left for the day."

"Yeah, well my 8 - 5 normal schedule just got flipped upside down."

"I heard..."

"Really? What did you hear," I asked with a raised brow.

He hesitated a moment, "That you're leading a research effort for Gina Barnes."

"You have anything to do with that," I asked with a little more bite in the question than I intended.

Again, Paul hesitated, "Yeah, I might have been in a meeting with Jacob, Gina, and Gillian and a few others. I might have mentioned I thought you would be up for the challenge."

I watched his lips cracking the slightest of smiles and lost it, "Are you kidding me! Gina Barnes eats para's up and spits them out. Three people have quit working here while working for her since I've been here Paul! What were you thinking? I haven't even been here four months and I'm directing others and assigned this huge high-profile assignment! I can barely keep up with my regular assignments," my voice trailed off as my complaints ran out of steam.

"You underestimate yourself Liz. Hell, you were directing me in Phoenix, what's the diff?"

"The diff is we're not in Phoenix Paul! Gina Barnes, she's a huge difference! Researching data on Janet and Martin for an ethics case? That's a huge high-profile diff!" I ended my snarky outburst by taking in a long slow breath. Actually, if I thought it out a little more helping find Amber was higher profile, higher stakes.

I know I was staring him down through all of that and sat back, spinning my chair so I could look out into the darkness outside my office window. What the fuck was he trying to do to me, get me fired? The office was eerily quiet except every breath I took sounded like a roar in my ears.

I saw movement in the windows reflection of the office behind me and watched as Paul came over to my side of the desk and sat on it. I'm pissed at you! I'm not talking to you right now. I looked at the windows of the building next to ours. No fancy view like the partners in the firm.

"Okay, be pissed at me, don't talk to me, but this is a great opportunity," he paused, "As soon as I mentioned you for this assignment Jacob was like, 'Gillian, let's make that happen'. I swear, that's exactly what he said. And there were no complaints or weird looks from Gina or the others in the room. Look, you can do this."

When I didn't say anything he continued, "What assignments did you take from the list Gina gave you?"

Nope, not talking to you right now!

Paul tapped the back of my chair, "Really? The silent treatment," he spun my chair slowly, so I was facing him, "Maybe I can help you? Be your silent team member."

"Look, I'm not... Do you get any of this stress that this just laid on me?"

"I get it, but you run into an obstacle and ya figure out how to get around it or over it. You've been doing that for years Liz, this work is no different."

"I'm reviewing emails and financials. There's probably over one-hundred-thousand emails for Martin and probably that many for Janet. I've got six days Paul," I was looking at his face for a sign of understanding. "That's like," I paused to do the math, "One-hundred and forty-four hours," another pause for math, and after a few seconds I gave up, "That's over eight thousand minutes at least. How am I going to review two-hundred-K emails and all their financial shit by next Monday," I asked, my voice trailed off with that rhetorical question.

"Where's the file cabinet with all these emails," he asked.

I shook my head absently like I hadn't heard his question, "What?"

"Emails Liz, electronic Mail - emails. Those are stored on servers, I can help with that. I've got tools that can scan those two-hundred-K emails for key words in a dozen different ways in probably ten minutes. That result set can be sliced and diced a hundred different ways. As for the financials, where does the firm keep its money matters? Not in some book form ledger. On our servers. I can help you with that also."

OK, so I didn't think my assignments out very well maybe, but don't talk down to me! I looked out toward the window, "Sure, you're my silent team member. When do you want to start?"

"I don't know, but not any time soon. I'm starving, how about dinner? Your treat with that big bonus you got toda..."

My head snapped back toward his and I blurted out before he could finish his sentence, "And how do you know about that?!"

"Ah, I was part of the conversation with Jacob about the award," he replied sheepishly.

Is he stalking me? He reads my mind, he knows shit that is going on around me. Augh!

"Really? Then why only five-thousand and not ten," I asked.

"Actually, when Jacob asked about a fair amount I said a grand, he's the one that pushed it to five-thousand dollars," he said with a smile, "You're lucky he doesn't listen to me sometimes."

"So, what was your bonus?"

"Twice yours, but I had Jacob let me add that as a line item on my next invoice, so it will be taxed as regular pay. Save a few bucks that way."

"And you want me to pay for dinner? I think not Mr. Kline. Let's get out of here."

March 15th 8:49 PM

About this time of any given work night I should be pulling the comforter over my body and sound asleep before 9 PM, but I wasn't. Instead I was sitting in Paul's car in a guest parking spot at my apartment building wondering if I should ask him to come in. Did I want that? I wouldn't have thought about it if I didn't, right?

I didn't have the flashiest of furnishings or even lived in the nicest of areas. That was a bit embarrassing, but I hadn't just lain around all yesterday after getting back from Phoenix. I spent some time cleaning up the apartment because I had hoped to ask him in sometime this week. And here I was sitting here nervous and unsure. Would seeing more of my existence scare him away?

"You know, I've seen your Facebook posts, right?"

Snapped back to the moment I just stared at him for a moment. I had posted a few shots of my apartment when I first moved in a year ago. He must have been pretty bored to go through all my photos. I should probably lock my account down better!

"Is there anything you don't know about me," I asked.

In the dim light I could see he was smiling, "I'm sure there are a host of things. I anxious to learn more though, can you blame me."

"You want to do that tonight?" I had no idea what my mouth was doing and waited for his recoil at the suggestion. He didn't flinch.

"Liz, I'm happy to just be spending time with you. Come in, don't, lunch tomorrow, dinner... I just want to be in your orbit."

He looked more serious than he had been all night. Up until this point of the evening conversation flowed well with topics generally work or Amber related. We laughed a lot about nothing and everything, but now it felt like everything had shifted to the subject of 'us'. That's not a bad thing, right?

I leaned over and kissed him quickly. His want was returned in that faction of a couple second kiss.

"Okay, come on up."

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