Part 11 – Thursday (Jan. 22)
"Mister Jennings, what did you do to that door?" Allison asked. I hadn't taken her winter coat from her as I normally would for a guest. She'd be needing it.
"Oh that? That is the result of some really wild sex with Jaycee," I said, straight-faced.
Allison looked at me wide-eyed.
"Allison, I'm kidding."
"Oh, ok." I'm not sure she believed me.
"Here, let's go down to my home office and I'll get you set up," and I directed her down the hallway.
I entered the room and made my way towards my desk. I'd already been up for hours and had made all sorts of preparations for the day. Allison stopped and stared at the broken door.
"Oh, that, right," I said. "Maintenance should be up sometime today to fix both doors."
"Uh-huh," Allison replied. Now I'm quite sure she really didn't believe me. Ah well. Her imagination must be giving her some white hot fantasies about now.
"No, really," I insisted. "One of your first responsibilities is going to be to hold down the fort here while I'm away. I'm going to be with Steven Beck and his group for a good portion of the day, and I've got a meeting with Glenda at two. So I'd appreciate it if maintenance does come in that you would look after them?"
"Ok. Are there any other things that you and Jaycee need fixing?" she asked, once again eyeing the door.
"Yes, the shower stall door, the master bathroom sink, the coat closet shelf rack, and one of the bed posts on my bed," I joked again.
"Maybe I should write this down," Allison said.
"Allison, I'm kidding again."
"Oh, right, sorry," Allison looked embarrassed.
"Will, who are you talking to?" came Jaycee's voice from the hallway.
"Jaycee!" Allison jumped up and ran to give Jaycee a hug. I didn't blame her. Jaycee is immanently huggable.
"Allison?" Jaycee asked. "It's great to see you again, but what are you doing here?"
"Mister Jennings hired me, just like you said!" I could practically see Allison's smile beaming through the back of her head.
"He did, did he?" Jaycee looked over Allison's shoulder at me. She looked awfully smug.
"Ok, enough of that," I called out. "You two will have plenty of opportunities for hugging each other later."
"Right," said Jaycee. "Go impress your new boss." And as Allison turned around to return to my desk, Jaycee gave Allison a big smack on her behind. Allison gave a squeak, but hurried over to me while clutching her bottom. Her smile was still fixed to her face, though.
After Allison settled in and calmed down I got down to business. I only had a few minutes before Jaycee and I had to leave to meet Aaron.
"First off, how much were you making at the firm?" I asked. Allison looked as if she was too nervous to tell me. "Don't worry, no matter what you say I'll think it's too low."
"What if that's what I'm worried about?" asked Allison.
"How about this? I'll make you an offer of ..."
"Eighteen dollars an hour," Allison answered. "That's how much I made. Well, technically, seventeen ninety-five."
"That's right, paralegals are hourly," I reminded myself. "I don't know if that will work for me, at least in the beginning."
"I'll work for less," Allison blurted.
"No, Allison, that's not my concern," I told her. "I'm not sure exactly where I'm going to end up, either working for a company in-house, working with a firm, or on my own. Regardless, I need help now, and a lot of it." I thought quickly.
"I wish there were a way around paying you hourly, but coming up with some excuse to make you salaried wouldn't be fair to you. How about I pay you ... twenty dollars an hour to start, and it's highly likely that I will ask you to work extra hours. So overtime rules apply — I'll give you time and a half for any time over forty hours a week."
"You will?" Allison asked.
"Yes, and I can pretty much guarantee that you're going to work a lot of overtime at first. I hope that's ok?"
"Yes, sir. I'll work as much as you need me to," Allison replied.
"Now when I do make a final decision regarding where I end up, then we'll have to revisit this. I'll do everything in my power to bring you with me," I promised. "And if I go it alone, then I'll find an office so you don't have to keep working out of my apartment. But regardless, we'll have to sit down at that point and have this conversation all over again."
"Whatever you say," Allison said. "Can you afford to pay me so much?"
"I wouldn't offer it if I couldn't, and that amount doesn't include any health insurance or other benefits yet, which is part of the reason why we'll have to re-visit this later. Do you have any health-related costs that you need help with in the meantime?" I asked.
"No, no, I'm fine," Allison said. "I was thinking of getting contacts, but I don't think the health insurance from the firm gave me any help with that, so I'm fine, really."
"Ok, then, I need to leave, so let me give you your two assignments for the day. First, on this flash drive is the master file for my contacts database. I want you to familiarize yourself with this as much as you are able."
"Why isn't Karen doing this?" Allison asked.
"Karen's rich, remember?" I replied. "She doesn't need to work for me anymore."
"Oh, well, sir, I don't think I can replace her," Allison complained. "A paralegal isn't the same as a legal secretary. We have very different skill sets."
Jaycee wandered back into the room holding my coat out for me. Yes, we needed to go.
"I know, Allison, just do your best for now," I said. "Second, I need as much information you can find about the legal liability facing banks for their actions related to the financial crisis, especially Atlantic Financial. Here's a preliminary outline I started this morning. Also, I need to know what's being debated regarding upcoming financial reform legislation, both in the U.S. Congress and in the state legislature. There are some banking-industry–specific publications I'd start off with for both matters. I've made a list here. Finally, I need a list of every current lawsuit in which Atlantic Financial is a party, with pertinent details about the largest as measured in dollar amounts. Got it?"
"Got it."
She immediately added two more publications that I should have included on my list. Good, she was demonstrating strong familiarity with the subject matter.
"There are some commercial databases that I had access to at the firm," she reminded me. "I don't suppose you have them on your own?"
"No, I don't," I answered. "Tell you what, I'm leaving you with one of my credit cards. Use it if you have no other way of finding the info. If you think a charge is high, then give me a call and we can decide together."
"That sounds good," she said. "Now, you two need to go." And she plugged the flash drive into my computer.
Jaycee looked concerned as I directed her towards the front door. "Will she be ok here all by herself?" she asked.
"I'll be fine!" Allison called out from the other room. Ok, I must always remember that Allison has excellent hearing.
On our way down the elevator, Jaycee turned to me and asked, "So, what made you hire Allison?" And she had a smirk on her face, too.
"I think she's motivated to help me, she'll be loyal, and I know she's capable," I responded.
"Uh-huh," Jaycee said knowingly. "And when do you think you'll be ready to hire a receptionist?"
I raised my hand in a mime of wanting to spank her. Jaycee turned away from me and stuck her ass out at me a bit. I gave her one swat just because she was begging for it.
Once we got into my car, I decided to kick off the special, private enjoyment I had planned for me and Jaycee today.
"Jaycee, this is your Master talking," I said.
Jaycee let out a little giggle. "Oh goodie," she said. "I mean, yes sir."
"It's going to take less than five minutes to get to the hotel. By the time we pull up in front I want your panties in my pocket and your pants back in place."
"Back in place?" she smiled. "What does that mean? Because I think their proper place is crumpled up on your bedroom floor."
It ended up taking us eight minutes to get to the hotel, mostly because I kept getting stuck at traffic lights staring at Jaycee instead of paying attention to the signal changing. Jaycee made sure her task took seven minutes and fifty nine seconds, and for some reason there was a lot of stretching and twisting involved. Jaycee was acting like yesterday never even happened, and she was back to her care-free, happy sex-slave existence. I'd have to ponder on that.
After barely avoiding rear ending a cab in front of me, I saw Aaron waiting just inside the hotel lobby. I pulled around into an open parking space and Jaycee and I went inside to meet him. I used the car to hide my adjusting the erection in my pants first.
"Hey Aaron, how're you doing?" asked Jaycee.
"If you're referring to this morning, I'm already jacked up on caffeine. I stayed up really late preparing for today."
"What else would she be referring to?" I asked.
Aaron and Jaycee glanced at each other, seeing if the other was going to answer my question first.
"Susan broke up with me," Aaron said.
"Sorry man," I said unsurprised. "Though weren't you thinking about breaking up with her?"
"I don't know if I'd go that far," he said. "I was just wanting to think some things through. I really didn't care that much about her being a virgin."
I cocked an eyebrow at him.
"No, really," he said. "I was just trying to figure out if she was the one I wanted to try to commit to, you know?"
Jaycee turned to me. "You were right, Will. He is one of the nice guys."
"Are things going to be weird between us today?" Aaron asked Jaycee.
"Not on my end. Are you going to hold a grudge against me for setting you up with Susan in the first place?"
"Are you kidding? I'll take another set-up tomorrow if you've got one," Aaron answered. "Well, maybe not tomorrow. Give me a couple weeks to mend my bruised heart and broken ego first."
"Isn't that supposed to be the other way around?" Jaycee asked.
"Aaron loves to intentionally mess up clichés," I told her.
We made our way upstairs and greeted Steven Beck and the rest of his group, already up and ready to start the day. Once again they had a little buffet of breakfast foods for us. Jaycee and I grabbed some coffee while Aaron set up his laptop and a projector aimed at a blank, white wall.
