Falling for the Lawyer - By Anna Clifton Page 0,9
been busy …”
“Okay. Okay. I’ll stop.” But Sophie wasn’t half trying to conceal her look of concern as she regarded Alex. “Anyway, when do you think Jonathan McKenzie’s going to arrive? You could cut the air with a knife in here this morning.”
Alex looked around the litigation section of Griffen Murphy. There was a general buzz as people mooched around and chatted. No one could concentrate and few lawyers or PAs had started any work for the day.
Everyone in litigation had been on tenterhooks for weeks as news of the new partner had spread like wildfire through the office. Yet the day of his arrival was upon them. Just last Friday night they’d celebrated David Griffen’s retirement as litigation partner and with a slightly sore head Alex had come in the day after to spring-clean the office in readiness for his replacement—Jonathan McKenzie, aka ‘The Grim Reaper’.
“Who knows when he’ll be here,” Alex replied. “And we really shouldn’t be so negative about him. He might not be the ogre everyone says he is.”
“I’d love to share your optimism but where there’s smoke there’s fire. I told you my friend Megan has a cousin who worked for him when she was in London a few years ago. He won’t hesitate to get rid of staff. If lawyers don’t bill their hours they’re gone. If they don’t market the firm and bring work in they’re gone. And as for PAs …”
“Yes I know. No more than one PA per lawyer and that includes partners,” Alex recounted the gossip as it had been spread around litigation.
It made her sick with dread because Jonathan McKenzie’s arrival simply had to be the sounding of the death knell for her position at Griffen Murphy. Then when her job was gone Simon and her parents would swoop. Not that he and her parents didn’t want the best for her—they did. But they would look on a break in her employment as a great opportunity to navigate her towards marriage and family life. And without a rebellious bone in her body, Alex knew she would be the last person to rise up against a three year escalation of family hope and expectation. The fact that all she wanted was an opportunity to stop loving her job as much as she did before giving it up for her life with Simon was irrelevant.
“You never know, the new boss might make you the exception and keep you on,” Sophie offered soothingly. But given that Sophie was Acting Head of HR, if she’d had any information to suggest Alex was not about to be sacked she would have thrown her that life line of hope already.
Alex shook her head in a gesture of rebuttal. “With Vera Boyd as senior PA to David Griffen these last twenty years do you really think the new partner’s going to throw her over for some twenty-four year old junior PA? Face it Sophie, I’m toast.”
“Don’t be such a Gloom Hilda. No one knows for sure what his plans are. You’re a smart cookie—you might land on your feet. And with any luck he’ll soon see you can run rings around Vera.”
Alex didn’t share Sophie’s confidence about that. For a start Vera Boyd treated Alex like the village idiot in front of the partners at every opportunity. More importantly, Vera was an experienced and impressive PA. She’d been running David Griffen’s practice forever. If Jonathan McKenzie sacked her five minutes after David Griffen’s retirement there would be a stampede of clients from the firm. There was no way he would risk that.
Alex settled in at her desk and brought up the precedent files on her computer. She continued her ongoing work on the formatting but it was impossible to concentrate. Friends and colleagues were wandering past and wishing her luck for the day, yet their good wishes only served to make her more agitated.
Finally a ripple of excitement passed through the office. A rumour was circulating that the new partner was on his way down the corridor. The whole office became artificially quiet as everyone feigned industriousness.
“Good morning!” A male voice boomed across the office space. “Where are you all hiding?”
Alex’s heart reared up in her chest and took off at a wild gallop, for that husky mellifluous voice was breathtakingly similar to the one still ringing in her ears from earlier that morning. But she immediately dismissed the notion that her knight to the rescue was now walking into her office in the form of