His Holiday Crush - Cari Z. Page 0,1
start dealing with players at this level, they care more about paying enough than paying too little.”
“It’s five percent above what they were paying before,” I said, shutting the bathroom door and coming over to the desk. “And there’s a clause for renegotiation after the first year on page fifteen.”
Marcus shrugged and made a meh sound then glanced up at me. “Hey—looking pretty good, Max. Is that one of the suits Clara helped you find?” Clara Staller was Marcus’s wife, a woman with a deep understanding of fashion and an uncanny ability to pick clothes that would make almost anyone look good. She’d cornered me at my first company holiday party and gently let me know that black—straight-up solid black, like the suit I’d been wearing at that very moment—was only for funerals and federal agents, not lawyers with big corporate clients. She’d given me some good tips and the occasional nudge in the right direction, and now I could swim with the sharks without looking like a tasty guppy.
Usually. A lock of my golden-brown hair fell across my face, still unruly after multiple applications of gel. I sighed and pushed it back into place. “Yeah, a few months ago.”
“It’s a good one. Unlike this clause.”
No, no, nope. I wasn’t even going to think about that clause right now or about reworking it. I had too many other things swirling around in my head. Like a trip to Edgewood I was most definitely going to find a way out of.
“The clause is fine,” I said firmly. “It’s standard for an initial presentation, and it’s too late to take it out of the paperwork anyway.”
Marcus stared solemnly at me for a long moment before his square, ruddy face broke into a broad smile. He clapped me on the shoulder. “Way to stick to your guns, son. That’s what I’ve been looking for from you. That’s the attitude you need to win in this business. Be firm, but flexible, and don’t let the client or your co-counsel bully you into making rash decisions.”
“I learned from the best.”
He chuckled. “I’m happy to be sitting in on this meeting, but I don’t honestly think you’re going to need me. You’ve worked really hard on this, and it shows, Max. Trust me when I tell you that the other partners are paying attention to your dedication to this firm. Ever since Peterson left, you’re at the top of their list.”
That was a funny choice in words. Peterson hadn’t left. The twenty-seven-year-old guy had been carried out of here on a stretcher after suffering a heart attack in his office two months ago. His office that was the one next door to mine. He’d almost died while I’d been right next door, too focused on work to even notice.
I mentally shook myself out of it. Now wasn’t the time for that kind of recollection. Or for worrying about unintended promises—no way I was going back home. Now was the time to get my game face on and land my first big client.
“Even so,” Marcus said. “It never hurts to revise your paperwork.”
I chuckled and grabbed the second folder with my copy of the paperwork from Marcus’s desk and checked it one last time. I wasn’t the sort to swagger—at least I didn’t think I was—but I couldn’t help feeling confident.
I finished looking over the paperwork then closed it up in the folder and squared my shoulders. With a nod at Marcus, I led the way, marching down to the conference room.
I was going to close this deal and rake in the accolades from the firm’s partners while I hammered out the details of what this client wanted from us. Maybe I’d even go to a bar tonight and find a warm, willing someone to have a private celebration with—someone who didn’t mind lying back and letting me take the lead. There was no one special, but there didn’t need to be—I had been focused like a laser on my career for the past three years, and that focus was finally paying off. Finding a boyfriend could happen later. Getting the promotion that could catapult me to partner level?
That was going to happen right now.
…
One lunch meeting, two hours, and three signatures later, Marcus was grinning proudly and pounding me on the back as soon as the conference room door closed. “You nailed it,” he said, voice quiet so it didn’t carry to the clients, who were being seen out by Jessie, but still effusive. “I couldn’t