LOVING THE HEAD MAN (7 page)

      
“Doing better.”
  Much better, he thought, seeing her again.  “I was thinking about what we discussed yesterday. 
About those Mississippi boys.”

       Bree was mortified.  “I didn’t mean it the way it sounded.”

       “No, you were right.  It is unfair. 
Patently so.
  But when you get down to it, what’s the alternative?”

       Bree thought about this.  “Better lawyers for everybody?”

       Robert frowned on this, as if he had given it considerable thought.  “Oh, I don’t think a lack of skill is the problem. 
A lack of morality, surely, of compassion perhaps?
  Giving it your all despite the limits of your reward?”

       Bree nodded.  “More attorneys committed to the cause of justice as its own reward, despite the financial circumstance of their clients.  Yes, sir, that would do it.”

       “Yes,” Robert said, placing his hands in his pant pockets, looking down at her chest and then back into her eyes.  “I was thinking about that.”  

       Bree could barely regulate her breathing when he looked back into her eyes.   And the way they bore into her, with that almost lustful look he had displayed yesterday, made her seriously wonder if he meant he was thinking about her, rather than what they had discussed.  She felt as uncertain as she felt exhilarated. 

       “Well,” he finally said as if he was still unsure about something, “you take care of yourself.”

       “And you don’t work too hard, sir.”

       Robert smiled, pleased with her concern. “I won’t,” he said and then walked away, around one table and then another, until he was out of the room.

       Bree stared at him until he was clean out of sight, her heart thumping with a nervous, unsure delight.  When she turned back toward the group, however, everybody, especially Deidra Dentry and Prudence Cameron, was staring at her, and staring in a kind of frozen disbelief.

       And just like that, just because Robert Colgate had singled her out, Bree went from being the least-feared among the mighty finalists, to the one to beat.

***

She saw him again two days later, and their get together, especially that night, would eventually change her life. 

       Her job that day was to shadow Bret Drysdale, one of the senior associates, as he attended court hearings, depositions, and settlement meetings.  Instead of going to any hearings, or any meetings, he had her running errands all day, from one floor to the next, taking this document here and that document there as if any of these errand runs would help her in her quest to become a high-powered attorney for Colgate.  She was bored to tears.  Until, by early afternoon, she was asked by Drysdale’s secretary to take a case file to the tower. 

      
“To the what?”
Bree asked, frowning, as she stood at the secretary’s desk.

      
“The tower.
 
The top floor.
 
Mr. Colgate’s office.”

       As soon as the secretary mentioned Robert Colgate’s name, Bree accepted the file gladly and hurried for the elevator.  She was still reeling from the way he singled her out in the executive dining hall.  It was as if every one of her colleagues looked at her with renewed respect after that. 
Robert Colgate talking to
her
?
  To
Miss Mississippi
as they snidely called her.  They couldn’t fathom it.

       In a lot of ways, Bree thought, as she stepped off of the elevator onto the top floor, neither could she.  Not that she doubted her abilities, she knew in her heart of hearts that she was more than capable of holding her own at a place like Colgate.  But it was just that she’d never thought the head of the company himself would bother to so much as give her the time of day.  She wasn’t an Ivy Leaguer.  Her family didn’t have money or position or power, they were, every one of them, dirt poor.  And she certainly didn’t see herself as some beauty queen who stood out in a crowd -even Alan DeFrame’s horny behind made clear that she wasn’t all that.  But Robert still had spoken with her - at length, and had singled her out the next time they’d met. 
And, if Alan was to be believed, had selected her above more worthy finalists.
  It was as mystifying to Bree as if was to her colleagues.

       “Hey, Bree, girl,” Lois Peterson said with a smile.  Until now, Bree had only known her as the busty red head she often saw in the cafeteria.  She now realized that she was, in fact, the executive receptionist.

       Bree walked up to her desk inside the suite of offices that encompassed one full half of the top floor, a suite that made up the many layers of what was loosely termed Robert Colgate’s “office.”  Bree immediately saw, at the end of the wide corridor, that Robert’s actual office door was open, and he was seated behind his desk.

       “What brings you to the tower?” Lois asked her.

       “
A case file
from Mr. Drysdale,” Bree said, handing the file over, although her eyes were on the office at the end of the hall.

       Lois shook her head.  “Bret Drysdale is the most insecure senior associate in the entire firm.  He always wants Mr. Colgate’s personal paralegal to peruse his work before he submits it for final approval, as if that woman has time to check behind him.”

       “And he’s supposedly this mighty attorney,” Bree said, not at all caring one way or the other.  “What can a paralegal tell him?”

       “I’m sayin’,” Lois agreed.

       Bree glanced toward the end of the hall once more.  She wanted desperately to talk to Robert again, mainly to see if he would give her pointers on securing the position.  She knew it was risky - he could view her as too ambitious even for him, but her father had always encouraged her to take advantage of an opportunity as soon as it presents itself.  And seeing Robert certainly presented her with an opportunity.  “I see Mr. Colgate’s in,” she said to Lois.

      
“For a change, yeah.
  He’s headed to LA this weekend.  He’s defending Jay-Pat on a murder charge.  I never heard of this Jay person before, but my kids did and they’re all excited.”

       Bree leaned closer, lowering her voice.  “You think I can talk to him for a few minutes?”

       Lois looked at her with suspicion and amazement.  “Talk to Mr. Colgate?” she said far louder than Bree thought necessary.  “You can’t just talk to Mr. Colgate.  Even I can’t just walk up on him like that.  He’ll look at me like I’m crazy.  What on earth do you need to talk to him about?”

       “I had some questions,
that’s
all.”

       “Well, girl, you better take those questions back where you got’em from.  Alan DeFrame will have your hide if he knew you were up here bothering Mr. Colgate.”

       Bree began to panic.  Lois was taking it all wrong.  “I’m not trying to
bother
him.   I just had a question–”

       “Alan will dress you down without mercy if he even thought you were trying to worm your way–”

       “I’m not trying to worm my way anywhere.  I was just . . . But you know what, Lois?  Forget it.  I’ll talk to you later.”

       Bree moved away from Lois’ desk quickly, angry that she was trying to floor-show on her that way and angry at herself for ever thinking that a loud-mouth female like Lois Peterson could be reasonable. 

       Bree stood at the elevator and punched the button repeatedly, anxious to get down from the tower as quickly as she could. 

       “Bree, hey,” a male’s voice could be heard behind her and Bree turned to the sound.  It was Monty Ross, Robert’s personal assistant and the man who had taken the finalists on a tour of the building.  He was a small, handsome man with a low-cut Afro, oak-brown skin, and a wardrobe straight off the pages of GQ.  He walked up to Bree in his double-breasted, periwinkle blue suit.

       “Hi, Monty,” Bree said, attempting to smile and shield her embarrassment. 
“How you doing?”

       “Good, good, it’s all good.  How’s Alan treating you?”

       Bree raised her eyebrows, refusing to lie. 

       Monty laughed.  “Say no more,” he said.  “We all know Alan.  The man is brilliant but man is he a pain.”

       Bree smiled genuinely at this.  She wished at that moment that Robert would have put Monty in charge of his recruitment program.  He, after all, used to be a law professor, a teacher of the law, and she knew she’d have a fighting chance if he was in charge.

       “But listen,” Monty said, his voice lowered, “Mr. Colgate would like to see you.”

       Bree was stunned by this.  “Me?” she said, pointing at herself, and then disappointed with herself for behaving so hick-like.  She should have simply said okay, as if it was no big deal to her.

       “If you could spare a moment, yes,” Monty said with all sincerity, looking as though Bree would consider turning down Robert Colgate.

       “All right,” she said in her best non-chalant voice, and then followed him toward Robert’s office.  She glanced at Lois.  Lois was staring at her.

       Robert was on the phone when they entered his massive office.  His eyes were closed as he pinched the bridge of his nose and listened to the person on the other end.  Even though he didn’t acknowledge their present, that still didn’t stop Monty from depositing her inside the office, and then closing the door as he left.

       Bree immediately felt uneasy.  She wondered if Robert even realized she was there.  But Monty, she decided, would not have asked her to come to see Robert if he had not ordered it.  So she got a grip and looked around. 

       The office was huge, with floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the dreary Chicago skyline, and a sitting area alone that seemed larger than her entire hotel room.  She looked at Robert.  He seemed tense, as if the person on the other end of the telephone line was telling him something he didn’t want to hear, and it was a shaky conversation.  When he concluded the conversation by saying,
okay, Jake, see if you can keep a lid on it until I get there
, solidifying the fact that the person on the other end had given him either bad news or more work requiring his attention, Bree’s suspicion was confirmed.

       “Hello, Brianna,” Robert said as he hung up the phone. 
Seeing her again seemed to ease his troubled mind.

       “Hi.”

       “I’m not interrupting anything vital, I hope,” he said, and then added as he stood to his feet, “come and sit over here with me for a few minutes,” motioning toward the sitting area.  Then he asked again as they walked, “I wasn’t interrupting anything, was I?”

       “No,” Bree said, following him toward the sofa, “I was just running some errands.”

       “Working hard, hun?” Robert asked, looking back at her.