Page 87 of Broken Grump

Clyde’s jolly face falls a little, and his piercing blue eyes meet mine.

“Very nice to meet you, Ariana.”

At first, I opened my mouth to correct him, but after I remembered that he called Steven “Steve,” I figured he might be one of those people who just doesn’t do names.

“Um, yes. You too, Attorney Waldheim.”

He chuckles a little. “Please, call me Clyde.”

I chuckle awkwardly. “Right. Clyde.”

“Let’s go into my office, shall we?”

“Yes,” Steven answers, and then gestures for me to follow before him.

When we walk into his ginormous office, and I’m almost too stunned to speak. There is a dark, wooden desk with a large, cushiony chair behind it, and then floor-to-ceiling bookshelves all around.

It’s like freaking ‘Beauty and the Beast’ in here!

“Please, have a seat.”

Steven pulls out a chair for me, and I sit on it.

“So, as I’m sure Steven has told you, I’ve had the opportunity to go over some of these filings . . .”

He’s rifling through a manila folder marked “Flores v. Flores.”

I may not be the biggest fan of my mother, but I also think it’s a damn shame that things have come to this.

“Now, I’m not sure if you’re aware of this or not, but on top of the rights to Flores Holdings, your mother’s attorney has also asked for remedies relating to her wrongful termination.”

“What?” My eyes widen, and I look over at Steven. “How is that possible? She was never ‘employed’ in the first place. Or at least I didn’t think so.”

This is another area in which I secretly feel inadequate to run an entire company, for my brain processes information mainly in technical dimensions, and not in business talk like this or legalese.

“We can talk all about that later. But the most important thing is for you to sign this.” He slides over a “client-attorney agreement.”

“And this will do what, exactly?”

“Represent to me and the court that I am your legal attorney.”

I look over and Steven and nonverbally communicate with my eyes, “You’re sure he’s the best?”

As if he could hear me, he grabs my hand and nods.

“And it will also bind me to the rules and ethics that go into being your attorney. This means that I have to keep in communication with you at all times and zealously represent you in this action.”

“Oh, okay.” All of that makes sense.

“But please feel free to answer any questions you might have before that. I’m an open book.”

I don’t want to seem like an idiot and just sign it, so I try my best to come up with some half-brained inquiries.

After that, I affix my name.

Clyde does the same and then says that we’re now in business. “Now, don’t you worry about a thing. We’ll get this thing nipped in the bud.”

His confidence is slowly rubbing off on me, and I’m feeling much better about everything as I walk out into the scorching heat.

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