“What did he say?”
“He's gonna meet me in my office in half an hour.”
“Oh,” Carmen said in a manner that reflected her mood.
“You wanna hear what he has to say?”
“You know I do,” Carmen said, and the life returned to her smile. Marcus smiled back at Carmen, making a mental note of her apparent change in mood. He attributed it to her enthusiasm about the case. Carmen watched as he got off at the next exit and headed for his office, totally unaware that she had her eye on him.
2 NO U
Marcus opened the car door for Carmen and extended his hand to her. Carmen accepted his hand and got out of the car. His hands are so warm and soft. Carmen thought for a moment. She stood in front of Marcus and looked in his eyes.
“Thank you, Mr. Douglas,” she said finally releasing his hand.
“We're back to Mr. Douglas, huh?”
Carmen smiled. “No, I just like a gentleman, that's all.”
“My father raised me to be a gentleman,” Marcus said as they walked. “I had two older sisters and my father insisted that I treat women with respect.”
“A very wise man,” Carmen flirted.
They entered the office and the first person Marcus saw was Tiffanie Powers. “Marcus, can I talk to you for a minute, please.”
“Your office, five minutes,” Marcus barked as he walked passed her on his way to speak to Janise. “Is Garrett here yet?”
“Not yet.”
“Let me know when he gets here.”
Marcus led Carmen into his office and asked her to wait there for him while he went to talk to Tiffanie. He knocked casually on her door as he walked in. Tiffanie jumped to her feet. “Sit down Tiffanie. This won't take long.”
“Marcus I just wanna say—”
Marcus held up his hand to stop her. “Tiffanie, I'm not going to tell you what to do with your social life or try to tell you who you should be friends with.”
“Marcus I—”
“But, if I ever hear your name mentioned as the source of information about my personal life, I swear, Tiffanie, I will fire you. I don't care how good a trial lawyer you are.”
“Marcus, I'm sorry.”
“Save it, Tiffanie,” Marcus said as he turned to leave her office.
“Marcus, wait.” Marcus turned around. “I want you to know that I'm sorry about this and it won't happen again. Everything I am, I owe to you. You hired me right out of law school. You saw the lawyer in me that even I didn't know existed. I wasn't trying to get in your personal business but when you disappeared for months, some of us were, you know, concerned, that's all. But Marcus, Randa really does love you. All she wants to do is talk.”
“Thank you for being concerned, Tiffanie. By the way, watch your billing, before somebody complains.”
“I will; you can go to trial with that,” Tiffanie said with a smile as she watched Marcus walked out of her office to rejoined Carmen. Glad that she had seemingly dodged a bullet.
When she arrived at the office that morning she was greeted by Janise. Who, Tiffanie noticed seemed a bit more excited to see her when she walked through the door.
“Good morning, Janise,” Tiffanie said wearily.
Janise smiled and simply said, “You're fired. Your services are no longer required. Turn all of your work over to Simon.”
“What?” Tiffanie dropped her briefcase.