Page 6 of The Trouble With Spells
After a phone call from my father, telling me for the four hundredth and fifty-seventh time that I should havejoined his practice, where most cases were tried in a boardroom and not an overcrowded courtroom like civilized gentlemen, I packed my briefcase for the night, more than ready to put this hellish day behind me.
Even my administrative assistant gave me a sad, knowing smile, calling, “Tomorrow will be a better day, Michael. You can’t win them all.”
I knew I hadn’t made any mistakes on any of the cases today. Just to push any doubts from my mind, I planned to go back over everything when I got home tonight. Every single case. Every letter, every word, every document. Deep down, I knew those cases had been airtight. Those criminals shouldn’t have walked out of the courtrooms. They should all have been sitting behind bars, locked up tight.
Derek’s words haunted me as I left the office, not sitting well with me at all.Was I cocky?I liked to call it confidence. I was good at my job, and I knew it. That didn’t make me arrogant or cocky.Did it?
Today’s losses weren’t sitting well with me, though. My entire world felt upside down, and I wasn’t sure how to handle any of it. Had my life been so easy that I couldn’t even deal with one bad day? It seemed so.
I wasn’t sure what that said about me as a person, honestly.
Tomorrow had to be a better day.
Chapter Four
Michael
Hurrying to my office, I ignored the raised eyebrows and hushed whispers of my coworkers I passed in the hallway. I was late, and in desperate need of a decent cup of coffee. My admin, Maggie, stood from her desk as soon as she saw me through the glass walls, meeting me in the middle of the room.
Ignoring her worried face and practically wringing hands, I said, “I desperately need a cup of coffee. Preferably from that one place. The one Tyler always brings the office coffee from.”
She raised her eyebrows, lowering her voice to almost a whisper, “Michael–”
“I know, I’m late. Couldn’t be helped. It was a hellish night, but I’ll get changedas fast as I can. Thank God I keep extra suits here. I’ll tell you about it when I’m back. I’m already late for my first case.”
“Michael–”
Frowning at the youngish guy I could see through the glass walls of my office, who was seated at my desk, staring at my computer screen, I frowned. “What’s the IT nerd doing?”
He didn’t even look up from my screen, just said, “Virus.”
Rotating my neck from side to side, I let out a relieved sigh as it gave an impressive crack. Dropping my briefcase into one of the vacant chairs in front of my desk, along with my laptop bag, I opened the closet door. Grabbing one of my extra suits I kept at the office, I asked, “Seriously? Fuck. How does that happen? Is my laptop affected?”
Maggie was standing in the doorway that separated our spaces, her eyes wide, face pale. “Michael!” she hissed between clenched teeth.
“What?” Shaking out my suit, I shot her an annoyed look, at the same time the IT guy–I didn’t know his name–said, “I can take a look at it when I’m done here.”
Maggie pursed her lips into a thin line, then motioned for me to follow her back to her desk.
“I need to change,” I told her impatiently, “it’s been a crazy twenty-four hours, but you know Judge Townsend hates people being late to her court.”
“They want you on the top floor,” she whispered, her eyes darting back to the guy working on my computer.
“What?” All the air left my body with that one word.
Maggie took a deep breath, smoothing her graying auburn hair with one hand. “They want you on the top floor. Harry has called three times asking if you were here yet. I made an excuse. Where have you been? And why are you dressed like that?”
Glancing down at my gray sweats and black hoodie, I shook my head. “My condo building caught on fire last night. This morning? It was late, or early. Whichever way you want to look at it.”
She gasped, her hand flying to her mouth in horror, “Oh my God, are you alright? I mean, you look okay. But what happened? What about your neighbors? Did the Lees get out?”
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I took a steadying breath, because my world was still reeling from her telling me I was being summoned to the top floor. Where not only my boss worked, but also his boss.
No one ever got summoned to the top floor for good news.
“I’m fine,” I assured her, “the Lees are fine. I helped them navigate the stairs.” The Lees and I shared the penthouse floor, as it only contained two units. They were a lovely, elderly Chinese couple, who treated me like a second son. “There’s a lot of smoke damage, but the firestarted in a vacant unit on the first floor. It was contained to the first three floors, and no one was seriously hurt. Some minor smoke inhalation. I spent the rest of the night in a hotel room. I managed to grab my laptop, keys, and wallet before I vacated. Mrs. Lee gave me hell for grabbing them already, so please don’t start with me. Why am I being summoned above?”
Maggie was one of the longest working admins in the district attorney’s office, and she had the tea on everyone and everything. She kept my office life running incredibly smoothly and was one of few people that was ever a step ahead of me when it came to getting things done.
