Mr Garcia

He walks to the front of the room and addresses the crowd. “Hello,” he says with a huge smile on his face. “Firstly, I would like to thank you for all of your hard work. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed, and I really appreciate it.”

Everybody smiles proudly. It really is nice to be acknowledged.

“I guess you’re all wondering why I’ve called this meeting this morning. Well…” He sits on the corner of the desk at the front of the room. “As a few of you know, my wife is unwell. She…” He pauses, as if the next sentence is hard. “She will make a full recovery, but I am stretched. Because of that, I have decided to do something that has been in the back of my mind for a long time now. I’m taking on a partner.”

The room falls deadly silent.

He stands and puts his hands into his suit pockets and begins to pace back and forth. “So, the next question is… who? Who will be the right fit for our firm? Who will take our company into the twentieth century with the same passion that we are all accustomed to? I have been looking a long time for the right person.”

He’s such a kind man. Whenever I hear him speak, I come away motivated.

“Bart McIntyre.”

The room releases a collective gasp.

What the fuck?

Philip holds his hands up in a comforting gesture, his smile widening. “Now, I know that Bart’s reputation precedes him, and I know that he doesn’t represent the kind of clients we are accustomed to.”

“Damn right about that,” someone mutters.

Bart McIntyre is a legal rock star. He represents high-end clients, models, celebrities, those kinds of people. He’s won every case he’s ever had and is legendary.

“Our normal workload will carry on, of course. However, we will now have an arm of our organization that will look after Bart’s high-end clients.”

Holy shit.

Excitement runs through me. This is going to be amazing.

Philip holds his hands out toward us in a welcoming gesture. “So, there you have it, and we’re wasting no time. Bart starts here in this office on Monday.”

The room breaks out into excited chatter.

“There will be a memo going out to you all this afternoon with all the details, but…” He smiles as he looks around the room. “This is exciting news for our business.” He claps his hands. “You can go back to ruling the world now.”

Everyone chatters as they stand and make their way back to their offices.

“April!” Philip calls. “Can I see you for a moment, please?”

Oh, shit, am I in trouble? “Sure.”

“Down to my office.” He gestures to the corridor, and I follow him down. “Please, take a seat,” he says once we step inside his room.

I sit down and nervously clutch my clipboard, oh no, what’s this about?

Philip sits down and leans back in his chair. “I wanted to offer you a new position.” His eyes hold mine. “How would you like to be Bart’s junior.”

I frown. “What?”

“He wants an offsider. Someone he can train up.”

“But… what… I mean… what…” My eyes widen. “Me?”

He chuckles. “He wants someone relatively green so he can mold them how he likes to work. He asked for me to assign someone who is eager and intelligent.”

I bite my bottom lip to hide my goofy smile…. He thinks I’m intelligent.

“Okay,” I say, trying to act cool.

“You will be working with Bart on some things, and then on other days you will return to your own cases.”

I grin. “The best of both worlds.”

“Yes.” He smiles. “How does that sound?”

“Amazing.”

“Great. I’ll let Bart know.”

I stand and shake his hand. “Thank you so much for the opportunity. I’m really excited.”

“You earned this, April. Your work ethic hasn’t gone unnoticed.”

I smile proudly.” Thank you.”

He turns his computer on. “Go out and celebrate tonight. This is an amazing start to your career.”

“I will.” I hunch my shoulders together and feel like jumping in the air. “I’ll see you later.”

“Okay.”

I close his door behind me and practically dance back to my desk.

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

Duke pays for the cab while I climb out of the back seat.

It’s Saturday night, and we are at the London Arts Museum. There’s a sporting memorabilia auction in aid of the Children’s Hospital Oncology Ward. Duke and a few other sport stars are signing autographs, but I’m here for my reward dinner afterwards. Chadwick’s: the most heavenly restaurant of all time.

We walk in through the foyer, and I catch sight of myself in the mirror.

I love this coffee-colored dress with spaghetti straps. It fits in all the right places.

We walk into the elevator, hand in hand, and we turn to face the doors.

“What are you going to eat?” I ask as the door closes and we begin to make our way to level four, where the auction is being held.