Several weeks had passed since Julie's wedding. As bad as it had seemed, the rest of the day went beautifully and Julie, after cleaning herself immediately after the ceremony was able to hide what had occurred to her from her new husband. As the days and weeks began to pass, the memory of her ordeal began to fade. When she did think about it, she realized that she was lucky to still have her job. First, she had mishandled an extremely large claim on one of the firm's primary clients. This, she knew, could have, and in fact, should have, resulted in her dismissal. If that was not bad enough, she knew that she was still subject to problems with her job if this came to light. If the mistake came to light, she might also lose her license to practice law, something that would devastate her future. Second, however, she was lucky to still have her job because her work load and long hours allowed her the mental luxury of having her mind occupied by other matters and not dwelling on what she had been through constantly.
Still, she dreaded the day that she would hear from Hall. The truth be known, as the days passed she began to harbor that unrealistic hope that he was out of her life. That all ended one morning with her being paged at the office.
"Julie, Mr. Hall is on line 7 for you," the voice over the intercom said.
Julie was in one of the partner's offices talking about the negotiation process on another client's large acquisition. When she heard the page, the coffee cup that she was holding began to shake somewhat, and the file which had been balanced on her lap slipped to the floor.
"Julie, are you okay?" the partner inquired.
Julie's blue eyes widened and she shook her head as if to clear her mind. With that she muttered, "Mr. Jackson, I think I need to take that call. I'll be right back."
With no further explanation, Julie got up from her chair, nervously placed the coffee on the partner's desk and began to quickly go to her office. Robert Jackson, the partner, was a middle aged man. He looked at her quizzically as she nearly ran out of the office. As she rushed through the office trying to get back to her office, Jackson got up and closed his door, making sure that he latched the lock. Then he returned to his desk and opened the doors to his credenza. He quickly turned on the tape recorder to record. Then he waited until he saw line 7 engage and put the line on the speaker so that he could listen in on the conversation between Julie and Hall.
He was concerned that this young associate might be in over her head with this important client and his interest had been peeked by her strange response to the page. However, nothing that he knew about Julie would prepare him for what transpired next.
"Hello, this is Julie."
"Julie, Steve Hall. How is my favorite lawyer?"
"I'm fine," Julie responded trying to steer the conversation away from anything personal. "Did you need to talk about your file?"
"Well, I have to say that I do, but I'm sorry that you don't seem to remember who I am."
Julie laughed nervously. "Of course I do," she said in a cheerful voice. "I've been meaning to talk to you about your business venture that I've been working on."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, I need you to do something for me." Julie's heart sank.
"What do you need?" she asked with trepidation.
"I've got a friend in New York City who needs some help with her business," he said. "I'll need you to arrange it so that you go to Manhattan for a meeting at my office on Thursday and make plans to stay through Sunday afternoon." He said this with the air of a man who wouldn't permit questioning.
Julie didn't know what to say. "Will any other lawyers need to go with me from here?"
"No, I just need you to come."
"Can I bring my husband?"
"Sure you can," Hall said. Then he laughed. "I'm sure that you'd want him to share the experience of you being fucked. I'll even bring him the video of you and me fucking and tell him about how you fucked all the guys from BFD Radio just to bring him up to date on your activities."
There was stunned silence on the line.
Then Hall continued. "Should I tell him about how you fucked the room service kid, too?"
More silence. Then Julie replied. "No, no, please leave him out of this."
Hall answered sarcastically. "What a surprise. Just get your tight ass to Manhattan on Thursday. Expect to stay through Sunday." Then Hall gave Julie the phone number of the woman that he wanted her to call. "Tell her that you're the gift I told her about." He laughed again. "Got it?"
"Yes, I understand," Julie said as she hung up the phone.
Jackson hung up the phone and turned off the recorder. He had jotted down the phone number that Hall had given Julie. He went to the door of his office and unlocked it and then returned to his leather chair. He had been stunned by what he heard and he knew that his first duty was to inform his partners at the firm that something was terribly amiss with their beautiful associate. But Jackson wasn't that type of guy. His mind ran through a hundred scenarios but none of them explained what he had just heard. Of all people, he thought. Julie fucking clients! That prim and proper woman would have been the last person he would suspect of doing something like this.
Jackson picked up his phone and dialed the number Hall had left. A woman answered.
"Hello, may I help you?" It was a sultry, sexy voice.
Jackson didn't know exactly what to say. He cleared his throat. "Yes, I was given this number."
"Are you in Manhattan, honey?"