Unnatural Acts (Stone Barrington 23)

Herbie sat down and ordered a drink. “What a day!” he said. “What a week!”

“Is that good?” Dino asked.

“You bet your ass it is,” Herbie said. “I got promoted to senior associate and pulled in two pieces of new business, maybe three.”

“What’s the third?” Stone asked.

Herbie told them about his dinner with Robert Bentley II.

“Sounds promising,” Stone said.

“Eggers is champing at the bit for me to get that.”

“I’m sure he is.”

“But I’m not going to rush it. I’m going to let him come to me.”

“That’s wise, if he comes.”

“He’ll come-his son is my associate.”

“How’d you swing that?” Dino asked.

“I didn’t swing it. The kid is the newest associate, and I’m the newest senior associate.”

“A marriage made in heaven,” Dino said.

“Don’t laugh, it could turn out that way. If we handle a major litigation for Bentley, it could bring millions into the firm.”

“Eggers would like that,” Stone said.

“I’m redoing my apartment,” Herbie said, apropos of nothing.

“Okay,” Stone replied.

“My secretary is doing it. Turns out she has a real gift. You should come and see my office-even Eggers liked it. He picked up the tab for it, too.”

“My word,” Stone said, “you did have a good week, didn’t you?”

“I’m going to make more rain,” Herbie said. “My goal is to bring in more business than a senior associate ever has.”

“The boy has ambition,” Dino said. “Who knew? Herbie-”

“Herb, please.”

“Ah, Herb, how’d you go from being a gold-plated fuckup to being a senior associate at Woodman and Weld?”

“Hard work and good luck,” Herbie said. “And good friends.”

“That’s an unbeatable combination,” Stone said, clapping him on the back.

Stone looked toward the door and saw Mike Freeman standing there. “Over here!” he yelled.

Mike came over and sat down. “You know, I went to Elaine’s automatically, looking for you.”

“I have to stop myself from doing the same thing,” Stone said.

“Stone, you up for a trip to L.A.?”