Court Out - By Elle Wynne Page 0,29
he laughs, “You have to convince me I can trust you with a hot meal before I order you anything else!”
“As if I’d waste a good pud on your ugly mug!” I giggle.
“Ah, good point. Are you this eloquent in court too?” He retorts.
“Right, this is war Reid!” I cry, flinging random pieces of Mediterranean vegetables in his direction.
By the time the waitress arrives to take our order, we are covered in various items from our leftover meals. Sebastian’s come out worse, but I suspect the mushy peas on my nose are what are causing her to stare.
“Anything off the sweet menu?” she enquires in a nasally voice, patting down the front of her uniform when she gets a better look at Sebastian. I smirk, even underneath a face mask of assorted condiments he can still pull. Sebastian has the good sense to order me the chocolate sponge and adds on a treacle tart for himself. The waitress sashays off to the kitchen and I lick my lips in anticipation of the sugary goodness to come. Something dawns on me.
“Can I try a bit of yours too?”
“No. If you wanted that one then you should have ordered it”
“But I only want a little bit. It’d have been a complete waste if I had a whole one”
“No.” He replies adamantly.
I poke him with my fork and adopt a whiney voice, “You wont eat it all anyway. Please?”
“No”
I try and think of any bargaining chip at my disposal. After I pause I realise, “If I can’t try yours then you can’t try mine. Plus I’ll tell your personal trainer about the fish and chips.” Got him. He looks at me with an expression of amusement and mock horror.
“What! Oh fine then.”
He removes the fork from my hand to prevent further attack and plants a kiss on my forehead.
And this Ladies and Gentlemen is why I’m a good barrister.
Chapter Seven
The summons to Roger’s office comes early Wednesday morning. I’m sat at my desk working through an enormous pile of advices when one of our junior clerks, Adam comes running in. He’s out of breath and pauses at the door, propping himself up on the doorframe panting slightly. I wonder with exasperation what the problem is this time. Adam gets ridiculously worked up about the most trivial of issues on an hourly basis, from stray briefs to stray barristers. Happily, the latter only happens when there’s a full moon and even then, it’s never for long. He catches his breath and I wait to see what crisis is causing him to miss his eleven AM cigarette.
“Miss, He needs to see you downstairs.”
“For the last time, it’s Lauren, but anyway, who wants to see me?”
He ignores this, and studiously looks at his feet.
“Roger, Miss, it’s all hit the fan, he needs to sort it out now.”
As Adam rushes back out, his long legs tripping slightly on a badly positioned cardboard box of papers next to the door, I start to panic. I have no idea what I’ve done to incur the wrath of Roger, a figure feared by all in Chambers. With the power to make or break a practice, he is not one to be messed with.
A short, scruffy looking man with a limp, he is perhaps an excellent example of when people should not be judged on their appearance alone. Many years ago a pupil decided that Roger’s air of vagrancy meant that he could demand better briefs and threaten to ‘report him to his father’ if said request was not carried out. I can still remember the collected audience (including our head of Chambers) who had the delight in watching the poor pupil being thrown headfirst out of the fire exit in the clerks room by Roger, shouting “Tell daddy about THIS!” Needless to say he’s no longer practicing on this circuit.
When the smoking ban came in, Roger decided to interpret this as guidance rather than law. The irony is that not one of our criminal team has had the bottle to tell him he can no longer light up in the clerks room for fear of repercussions.
I gather my wits and make the journey downstairs. I forego the lift for the stairs as I think I could do with an extra few minutes to gather my thoughts. The stairwell is empty and as I walk, I rack my brains to try and think why I’m in the firing line. For once, my mind comes up blank. I push the door to