She stared at the view of the Opera House outside her new office window. Veronica had done well, nabbing a great space for them in the impressive tower. The Manly ferry pulled up to the wharf, unloading a small colony of workers and a few eager tourists onto the fastidiously tidy Circular Quay area far below.
She was just wondering if she had time to work out how to use the state-of-the-art coffee machine in the kitchen when her phone buzzed. She glanced down to find a text from Grant regarding the Star Burger case. Apparently some of the nineteen plaintiffs had arrived and were drinking cola and eating cake in the conference room.
Sending him a quick thank-you in reply, she rolled her chair back and scooped up her file notes on each one of her clients along with her laptop.
Even though she had emailed Sam the information yesterday morning, he had asked that she stop by his office an hour before the meeting to go over their strategy together. It was the last thing she wanted to do, given that she’d steadfastly avoided any contact with him the last two days, but it had to be done.
Today she wouldn’t be able to hide in her office if she thought she heard him outside her door, or turn the other way when he was coming towards her down the hallway, her insides jittery as she waited for him to call out to her and ask her to stop. Her fixation on his whereabouts in the office was making her crazy and, what was worse, interfering with her usually fanatical concentration levels.
Channelling all things serene, she pushed her feet back into her favourite don’t-mess-with-me stiletto heels and checked her immaculate red lipstick before making her way to the end of the hall, knocking sharply on Sam’s office door.
Sam uncoiled from behind his glass desk as she entered his lair, an unreadable expression on his face. She noted his impressive physique in his pale blue shirt, royal blue tie and charcoal suit trousers. He looked like the uber-successful lawyer that he was and she knew her clients would be incredibly intimidated by his powerful aura. Couldn’t the man tone it down just a little bit?
‘Why the frown?’ he asked, his voice gravelly as if he hadn’t spoken for a while.
Deep breaths, she told herself. He might live up to his new ‘hot’ label but she was a professional. Plus, she’d been there, done that, and now she was blushing and he was looking at her in that intense, curious way of his. How he didn’t know that they had been as close as two people could ever be was beyond her, and it was definitely absurd for her to be thinking like that when she was extremely happy that he didn’t know it was her at the masquerade ball.
Not that she should be thinking about that night at all. This case was incredibly important for her and she genuinely cared about her clients, who she had rapidly come to think of as ‘her boys’.
Boys who were only teenagers and new to the country, a couple of them barely speaking English but all of them hungry to learn and to find a place to belong where their safety wasn’t at risk every other minute of the day. Star Burger Restaurants should have provided them with a place of employment that espoused the egalitarianism that most Australians liked to be known for. It hadn’t, and it was Ruby’s job to prove that management had not only known how her clients had been mistreated, but also that the rot in the organisation was filtered from the highest level down.
Would Sam take the case as seriously as she did? Or would he see it as a vehicle to showcase his prowess in the courtroom? And why did that matter if he helped them win?
‘Stop biting on your lip,’ he rasped, ‘and tell me why you’re frowning.’
Ruby released her newly tortured flesh, hoping she hadn’t eaten her lipstick off in the process. ‘I’m frowning,’ she said softly, ‘because I’m concerned about our meeting today. Some of these kids went through a traumatic experience working for the Star Burger chain and it’s been really hard gaining their trust. I don’t think going over things yet again is going to help.’
Sam sat down on one of the white leather sofas set in an L-shape looking out over the cloudless blue sky of a summer’s day. ‘They’ll have to repeat their stories if it goes to court.’
‘Which is why most of them pulled out.’