Christie was on the 30-th floor of a modern high-rise office tower, only a floor below the plush and universally famous restaurant that the building was known for. Although she had never been there, The Mile High, with its pseudo aircraft type seating and servers dressing like airhostesses or stewards was the hottest restaurant in town. The Maitre D, it was said, wore a pilot's uniform, complete with wings on his chest, peaked hat, and four gold stripes on his cuffs. She halfheartedly wondered if the food tasted like airline food.
Clutching her purse and folder with her resume, diploma, letters of commendation and references, she walked from the elevator to Suite 3013 glancing at her watch, Thursday 2:55 PM, thankfully she was a good five minutes early. She stood before the Glass doors of Jacob Klein Inc. Attorneys at Law. The Glass doors were not imposing neither was the reception area, however the woman who sat behind the desk talking on the telephone was. The only way to describe the blond, blue-green eyed woman, who sat behind the desk looking at Christie, was to say she could be Uma Thurman's identical twin sister.
The woman, Christie judged was in her mid twenties or early thirties, Christie, who was, tall for a woman at 5'11", could easily see the top of the seated woman's head, the blond hair was natural all right, all the way down to the roots, and was just below shoulder in length, slightly wavy, it was brushed and held back with tortoiseshell combs, and fell to just below her shoulders. She waived her in, while speaking on the phone.
After holding her hand over the receiver, "Hi," she said, her voice low and husky, almost breathless, as if she smoked a hundred cigarettes a day, "you must be Christie, and I'll be with you in a second, take a seat in my office." She pointed to a closed door with a discreet brass nameplate, Julia Warren, on it.
Christie, nodded and went inside the office, she sat and looked about her, the walls were, as with most law offices, lined with law books, Julia's well used unmatched leather-bound books lined the lengths of two opposing walls, behind the desk were her diplomas and a picture of Julia and an holding hands, with a woman Christie took to be her mother and a large window that gave an uninterrupted vista of the city. Her desk was the neatest Christie had ever seen in a law office, it was devoid of scattered files, dirty coffee cups and overflowing ashtrays. Behind her, centrally on the wall next to the door was a large oil painting of the woman Christie thought was her mother in the photograph with Julia, dressed in burgundy gown, whose untied top almost displayed large unfettered breasts.
Julia walked into her office; Christie was surprised to see she was much taller than she was. Her shapely legs were well displayed due to a short, above mid-thigh bottle-green skirt, and low comfortable heeled open toed shoes. As Julia slid onto the high-backed executive chair behind the desk, Christie noticed her eyes, they were the color of the sea, as seen from space, liquid blue-green, with long lashes, her brows matched her long blonde hair. Pink blush matched her eyeliner and her wide lips were coated in soft coral lip-gloss. Julia wore white starched blouse, with pearl buttons; the top three were undone. She had beautifully sculpted shoulders but almost no breasts, and, while the blouse accentuated the exquisite planes and bones of her shoulders, it also advertised the flatness of her chest; Christie doubted Julia ever needed to wear a bra. The short skirt had ridden up as she sat, fleetingly Christie wondered if she wore panties.
"I'm Julia Warren, now I've read your resume, and frankly, I'm very impressed." She said, smiling.
Christie smiled too, "Thank you, I've brought my diploma, references, and personal commendations from my previous firm." She said, handing over the documents.
Julia looked through the diploma, references and hand written commendations, re-reading one or two. "Although you have a law degree, you have not practiced, why?" she asked. "I wanted to be a lawyer, I scraped by with an average pass, I took the bar exam, and looked for a job, but I discovered I could earn more being the assistant to an attorney than practicing myself. An junior associate at S&M earns $60,000.00 per year, I can earn the same working for a senior associate or junior partner without all the pressure they are under." She answered.
"Why did you leave Sinclair & McMillan?" she asked bluntly.
The sudden question caught her almost off guard. Should she tell the truth, or stick to the official version, she hesitated, then continued with the lie, "I worked for an associate who got fired, I did not think my staying there would do any good, I felt that his getting fired tainted me professionally. I was assigned to a job with far less responsibility after he left, and did not think that I had much of a career left at S&M even though the office manager, Michelle Collins, that's her recommendation there," she pointed to one of the papers in front of Julia", assured me that I was in no way accountable, for his actions." The pang of betrayal and later the hurt that set in remained a bitter reminder, and she blinked at the memory before looking into Julia's probing eyes.
"I see," she said, "you have the experience and qualifications I need, and you are asking for a salary I can match, you have excellent references, I'd be a fool not to hire you, but I feel there's something you're not telling me. I have two more applicants to interview, lets meet my partner Jake, if he's available and we'll take it from there.
She pressed a button on her phone, "Uncle Jake, do you have a second?" she asked. "For you Julie I have all day", came the response. Seconds later Jacob Klein walked into the office, flapping his arms, "Sit, sit! " He said simetically to both women as they started to rise. Jacob Klein was one of the most famous lawyers in the country; he had won many headline cases for his clients against sometimes impossible odds. His practice was small; each of his associates had a specialty. The firm won far more cases than they lost.
"Jacob Klein," Julia introduced, "meet Christie Sanders, an applicant for my PA position".
