Chapter 15
Clay
On my way to my office, I passed the secretary only one of two women in the entire office team. A boy’s club, I guessed. Stopping outside her office, she glanced up, rose from her desk and met me halfway.
“What can I do for you, Mr. Clayton.” Somehow, I felt that my job had been secure when the secretary a pleasant looking woman in her late thirties or early forties greeted me with a smile.
Women that age never saw me as a threat, and that was a good thing.
They were more interested in finding the son they never took time to have, and I guessed I’d gotten lucky this time.
“I wanted to know if you knew when Mr. Mason would return. He was the one who hired me and I wanted to check in with him before Mr. Halifax sent me into the research room.” I wanted to say for good or until I got the message and resigned, but I thought better of it.
She turned and strolled over to her computer. I followed her as I got a better look at how she decorated her office with pictures of her dogs, and since it was the holidays she brought out pictures of them in warm Christmas sweaters and one wearing reindeer antlers.
The secretary had old photos of people who appeared to be her parents.
There was one where she appeared to be holding hands with a woman close to her age, and I didn’t know if the woman was a sister, girlfriend, or lover.
I would be the last person to ask her business. And I didn’t know her that well.
For some reason I picked up the photo of the dog wearing reindeer antlers.
“Oh, that’s Winnie, she was such a cute puppy when I bought her.
She always wanted to please and she took to me and ran and jumped into my arms. She was the only one of my dogs who would let me take her picture wearing those antlers.
The others would growl if I showed them.
However, Winnie wanted to please me because she needed someone to love her after the owners took her from her mother too soon. ”
I was like Winnie, and I wished someone would love me who wasn’t a parent or friend. I wished for love, and it finally came.
The secretary tapped on her office computer after sitting down at her desk in front of her screen.
I stood because I didn’t want to get too familiar and have someone report to Halifax.
She glanced up at me. “I shouldn’t do this, but I don’t see any harm in it.
Mr. Mason is in California and then he’s off to Europe for another two weeks. You won’t see him for a month.”
My heart sank and beat quickly, and I didn’t know what to think. Mason and I had parted with the understanding that he would return within a week. We didn’t have time to exchange numbers, and I couldn’t ask anyone for his personal number, especially the secretary.
“Thank you for your help.”
“I’m happy to help you. If you need anything just stop by. I don’t get to talk to many people. Mr. Halifax has me chained to this desk and computer so to speak.
Smiling, I backed out of her office before she asked me questions I didn’t want to answer. However, I needed to leave our communications open and her generosity available when I needed it.
I had enough information for now where I had to never be on Halifax’s radar. I guessed that saying out of sight out of mind would do in this case with Halifax, but it would work against me with Mason. I didn’t know about him, but I couldn’t get that man out of my mind.
Stumbling back to my office, I fired up my computer and as soon as I sat and had a chance to close my eyes and breathe a sigh of relief, an email came in, and I stopped wondering what Halifax had in store for me. I had a few seconds and I would find out.
You have to report to the basement of this building for your next assignment.
I can’t get a break, I thought. Yeah, but I did get a break, and I managed to fuck it up by being too eager and too needy when it came to Mason.
But if I remember I was trying to run away from him, and he was the one who chased me down and offered me what I couldn’t turn down—a chance to be with the man of my dreams.
I wasn’t going to beat myself up over this because few gay men would turn down this type of offer at this age—the age of innocence and the age of stupidity.
I knew what that meant to have an office in the basement of any large corporation.
It was worse than being a first-year lawyer in a prestigious firm.
Halifax would bury me so deep that no one would find me, not even Mason.
I’d heard in law firms’ research would be the death of a career, and I wouldn’t be able to add to my income with billable hours or accompany lawyers to court to learn from the more advanced and professional seasoned attorneys.
With Halifax and Mason’s clientele, I could have made thousands above my meager salary in New York, but now all I could look forward to was how much taxes and student loans would take from my salary, not to mention the insurance premiums and least I forget, rent.
I knew, but I didn’t want to face it, and perhaps I would have to get two cats for the rundown apartment I now couldn’t afford living in Manhattan. Living with my parents and commuting was out of the question. I could have saved some money, but what could I lose?
After finding out my fate, I packed up my things and followed the directions of the office manager and headed for the windowless basement.
This felt like a death sentence I had been given and there was no reprieve coming at least for a month if I was lucky.
I was lucky when I met Mason and got this job within six months.
Now my luck had run out and I had to make my luck.
I stepped into a place that had no windows, and I shuddered because it felt cold and lonely.
Glancing around, it was the storage room for coffee makers, old computers where they stored all kinds of junk, and boxes on boxes of case files.
The place reminded me of a library where I used to work as a teenager, where old books were stored because someone didn’t want to discard them because they thought they might need those dusty old moldy useless loveable books no one was using anymore, and if the place caught on fire, well, say goodbye to me.
Finally, I found my desk and cleared a path to it and opened up my computer.
I got my first assignment. A lawyer needed a brief by 8 p.m. “Oh fuck. Don’t they have someone who knows the case and can do this?
Is this a test?” I murmured. Are they still trying to fire me?
I thought. Then I remembered that AI was my friend, and all I had to do was give it information and it would spit out everything it knew about the lawyers on this case, and the way they conducted their business.
I pulled up the AI I had been using and fed it all the information I could from the bio of the lawyer who needed the brief.
Then I asked the question, and it spat out brief after brief of the case and the probability of winning and losing the case.
In fifteen minutes I had everything I needed, and it would take only an hour to go through it to make any corrections if needed, but I trusted what the A I had written, but as they say trust, but verify, and I did.
When I strode out of the office everyone had gone home, and I stopped and dropped two copies on the desk of the office manager and the attorney and sent him a copy to his email address and phone.
Exhaustion took hold of me, and I needed a drink. I didn’t drink, but I needed one and when I stepped off the elevator and looked to my right, there was a fancy upscale bar.
I didn’t recognize anyone, therefore I sat on the bar stool. The couches were occupied with young men and women my age. Usually in their twenties and by their expensive suits and dresses they appeared to have a salary to match.
The moment I sat, one of the bartenders came up to me. “What do you have, handsome?” I kept my head down and asked for a vodka and tonic. ”Did you have a hard day?”
“Who’s asking?” I said, raising my head and locking eyes with a stunning looking man dressed in a dark blue suit and light blue shirt no tie. A bartender dressed in black slacks and a black shirt handed the drink over to the goodlooking dude
“My name is Cole and I own this bar.” He set the drink in front of me. “And you are?”
“Sorry, my name is Clayton.” I took a big gulp and that was all I could handle.
“Would you like another? It’s on me.”
I turned around in my chair to head out, and Cole said, “I’m here five nights a week, but I have weekends off.
I’m not married and never have been and if you give me a chance, you won’t be sorry.
” I was sorry already because I didn’t give myself a chance.
I had rushed into a relationship with a man that would cost me a job I’d always wanted, and he was married and who knew where this was going to end up with Mason.
“I’m in a relationship and I don’t want to screw it up.” Cole stood looking down on me and he swiped his tongue along his lips.
Turning around and standing to meet his eyes, I said, “Are you telling me that a man as handsome and accomplished as you isn’t in a relationship?”
“Why is that so unbelievable?”
“That’s just what it is—unbelievable,” I said with a smirk.
“Maybe we could just be friends and you can have breakfast with me.” I raised an eyebrow. “Just friends. You know what I do now why are you in this building of lawyers this time of night?”
“Guess?” I said, checking my wallet for my bank card.
“An attorney?” he said.
“No. I’m a janitor.” And I swiped my card for my drink and tip and strolled to the exit passing a crowd of people. I didn’t look back, but was ready to walk outside when I heard someone call my name. I turned and Cole handed me a card.
“What is this for?”
“Call me if you want a friend, but I’d prefer a lover.”
“If I call you, it would be for a friend.”
“Tease,” Cole said in a sexy low voice. I smiled because no one had ever thought or said I was a tease. I climbed into the cab circling outside the building and before it took off, I watched Cole stare at me. Only when the cab drove into the traffic did he return inside the building.