“Well, a little birdie told me that you’ve been cozying up to John,” Anna sat down in the chair in front of Steph’s desk. Steph shot her a look as if to say, “You’d better get the fuck up.”
Anna took the silent hint as she rose to her feet and waited for Steph to confirm or deny the rumor.
“There’s nothing unprofessional going on with me and Mr. Pike. Now get out of my office. You’re only in here being nosy and I ain’t in the mood for you or your bullshit today,” Steph snapped.
“Ouch!” Anna shouted sarcastically, “Someone is in high bitch mode this morning. Remind me to never be nice to you again.”
“You’re not being nice to me now! So no worries. You can see yourself out,” Steph glanced toward the door.
Anna left without uttering another word to her imaginary nemesis. She didn’t get the answer she wanted but Anna wasn’t entirely sure what kind of answer she was expecting.
Steph had begun sorting through the stack of papers on her desk. There were files that needed to be pulled for cases and documents that needed to be faxed to clients. Her research assignments were an entirely different animal altogether. She sighed as she thought about the daunting day of work ahead of her.
Mrs. Cartwright knocked on the door a few minutes to lunch as Steph had nearly completed her paperwork. She looked around the office wondering where to sit. There were papers everywhere. Steph hadn’t expected company so she didn’t bother making a space available for Mrs. Cartwright to sit.
“I’m really busy right now,” Steph blurted out without taking her eyes off of her papers.
“I can see that,” Mrs. Cartwright stepped inside the cube of chaos, “I just wanted to be sure that you received the employee behavior manual.”
“I did,” Steph huffed. “I signed for it on the same day you offered me this position.”
“Well I hope you’ve had time to read it, because it clearly states that interoffice fraternization is strictly prohibited. I want to be clear that you and Mr. Pike keep things strictly professional!”
“For the last time, we are not and will not do anything outside the scope of my duties as a paralegal. And, if you want to be completely accurate, the manual doesn’t prohibit the actual relationship, it prohibits the use of relationships to disrupt the work environment and if there were any relationships to be formed, Human Resources would need to be notified and that’s it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work that I need to finish,” Steph was feeling good about herself being able to check Mrs. Cartwright and her know-it-all attitude.
Steph’s supervisor, Adam Bailey, tapped on the door interrupting the discussion. His eyes bounced back and forth between the two of them as he wondered what the weird energy was that he was feeling. He shrugged it off as he stared at the amount of work Steph had left on her desk.
“I hate pulling you off this, but Mr. Pike just requested to see you in his office as soon as possible,” Adam relayed.
Mrs. Cartwright groaned as her fears were coming to fruition, at least that’s what she thought.
“This is about work right?” Steph questioned the tiny white man.
“To my knowledge, it is,” Adam told her with a feeling of uncertainty. “I don’t know why he would have me retrieve you for any kind of personal matters. Just go see what he wants and emphasize the fact that you have three different cases you’re working on that you need to get back to. I really can’t have you tied up too long anyway. Is there anything you needed from me, Mrs. Cartwright?”
“No, Mr. Bailey, I was just wrapping things up here with Ms. Allen. I’ll let you two get to it then,” she made a face as she left the office that Steph rolled her eyes at. She knew why Mrs. Cartwright was on her case but it was unnecessary. Nothing was going to happen between her and John.
“What does he want? Oh goodness! I hope I didn’t screw anything up,” Steph questioned herself on the way to John’s office. She flipped through every recent assignment in her mind wondering where the flaw could be. To her surprise, she was not the only person waiting outside of John’s office.
Anna sat in her sexiest pose while John’s secretary scoped the hallway … undoubtedly waiting for Steph to arrive. Once she saw her approach, the woman buzzed into the office via the intercom to let him know the paralegals were ready to be seen.
John stood in the doorway. His charcoal gray suit fit him perfectly. Anna swooned and Steph tried to keep her eyes from traveling up and down his well sculpted physique. Determined to keep her word to Mrs. Cartwright, she greeted him first, “Good afternoon, Mr. Pike.”
“Good afternoon, ladies. Please,” he moved over for them to walk into the space, “Step inside. I would like to have a word with each of you.”
This was the first time that either of the women had been inside of John’s office. It was simplistic in nature but held some masculine features. There was a single art piece hanging on the wall of an African warrior hunched down watching a majestic lion in the distance. The subtle beauty of it struck Steph as a softer side of the man who sat down behind the desk. The view from behind him was of the city streets below. They were only on the fourth floor and it seemed odd he wouldn’t put himself in the penthouse suite, but these thoughts were random and only served as a distraction to keep Steph’s mind and eyes from wandering over his body.
Anna wasn’t as subtle. She leaned forward so her cleavage was at eye level, just before she took the seat in front of John’s desk.
“You may be seated, Ms. Allen,” John stated with a glaring expression to Anna. She should have waited to be asked before she took it upon herself to sit down. Steph sat down next to Anna and straightened her clothes so that none of her goodies were exposed.
“Normally, I would have your supervisor give you this information but I feel if it came directly from me, it would resonate more. I know you both worked on the Graham case. Whose code is 4611?” he peered at the two of them from the documents spread out on his desk.
“That would be mine, John,” Anna smiled with a wink to Steph. Steph shook her head and kept quiet.