"Good morning," she said with a warm smile. "May I help you?"
"My name is Blair Michaels. I’m supposed to meet with John Mahoney."
"Oh yes," She stood and extended her hand. "I'm Willa Martin, the administrative assistant for Mahoney and Klein."
"It's nice to meet you,” I said.
When I shook her hand I felt as if her tiny hand might be crushed by mine. She had such a delicate frame.
"Can I get you some coffee or a water?" she offered.
"No thank you," I answered.
"Please have a seat," she said, gesturing to the waiting area. "Mr. Mahoney will be with you shortly."
After a moment, a tall imposing man stepped into the waiting room, extending his hand to me. I hopped up and gave his hand a kind shake.
He was well dressed with a firm look in his eye and an easy smile. I could see instantly how he had become so successful as a lawyer as he exuded charisma and confidence. He had a small feathering of gray just at his temples and his eyes crinkled when he smiled.
"Please step back to my office. I'll go ahead and show you where you will be working before the other candidate arrives," he said. "Can I get you anything? Any kind of refreshment while we wait?"
"No thank you," I said trying my best to keep my tone polite.
We stepped into his office, which contained a large desk on one side and an even larger conference table on the other side. His office looked more like a suite.
The window along the wall spanned from the floor to the ceiling and revealed a spectacular view of the Hollywood hills, rolling on into the distance. The majestic green landscape never ceased to take my breath away.
He motioned for me to sit in one of the large wing backs in front of his desk. I hadn’t been sure what to expect, but Mr. Mahoney's office exuded lots of old world charm. A floor to ceiling book case lined the other side of the room. If I had my way I could have spent hours perusing the spines, running my fingers over the old leather bound law books. For now I was resigned to wait for the Senior Partner's lead.
"I hope you’re comfortable,” he said. "Your partner and competitor will be here shortly."
I felt a leap in my stomach but kept my face calm.
I was right to arrive early as it gave me an instant advantage over the competition.
Score one Blair, competition zero.
Whoever you’re, you're already behind, I thought to myself. I didn’t often feel cocky, but today I felt justified.
And today I needed the confidence boost.
Willa's smooth voice came over the speaker of Mr. Mahoney's phone.
"The other partner has arrived, Mr. Mahoney,” she said.
"Thank you Willa," he said. "If you will excuse me for a moment."
He stepped out of the office, no doubt to greet the other partner in the waiting room just as he had greeted me. I resisted the urge to look over the shelves.
In due time.
They returned a few seconds later, and I got to give my competitor a once over.
I recognized him instantly.
Aiden?
Oh my god.
I wanted to remain in denial.
It couldn’t be.
I stood to shake his hand.
Right away I was charmed by his good looks. He had full blond hair that somehow managed to look both disheveled and professional at the same time. His arms and shoulder filled out his light brown suit jacket, which he wore over a white suit shirt. His intense blue eyes looked me over, and I found myself briefly speechless.
I extended my hand, thinking myself mistaken.
I hoped I was anyway.
Mr. Mahoney's voice sounded like it came from a long hallway as I heard him say my name in introduction. Once I heard the name I knew I could no longer deny what I already knew to be true.
"Blair Michaels, this is Aiden Player. The two of you will be working together in the coming months."
I took his hand in disbelief. I had thought he looked vaguely familiar at first, but it wasn’t until I heard his name that I realized that this man was none other than my childhood friend from so long ago. The same one I hadn’t seen in years, whom I had wondered about now and then over the years, now stood before me as the embodiment of my competition, standing between me and the thing that I wanted more than anything in my life.
I could barely believe my eyes, but I couldn’t deny that I recognized him.
"It's nice to meet you, Blair,” he said as he took my hand.
Chapter Two
I didn’t have much time to register as Mr. Mahoney introduced us, but I felt as if our eye contact contained an entire conversation in the few seconds that passed between us.
Is that really you?
Yes, it's me. Hi.
Well, shit.
Yep.
The socially acceptable time span for a hand shake had passed us by, but I realized that we both still had a firm grip on the other. I let go first and took a small step back wondering what the silence indicated. I could see in his eyes that he recognized me and also by the slight grin on his face betrayed that he didn’t want to say right away.
"It's nice to meet you, Blair,” he had said. I had heard the words, but they hadn’t quite registered.
So this is how we were going to play it.
I see, I said to myself. Alright, I'll go along and pretend that we don't know each other.
At least for know.
My plan today had been calm professionalism. Perhaps it would be to my advantage that the partners didn’t know of our history together. Aiden's presence here, while jarring, didn’t do anything to change my perspective. I was still out to win this, and win it I would.
"Nice to meet you too," I finally replied in a cool timber.
Wow.
He had really grown up since I had last seen him. I couldn’t help but notice the broad flow of his shoulders.
We took a seat at the conference table to hear what our first assignment would be, but I couldn’t help but glance over at him, marveling at how much he had changed.
The last time I had seen him had been at the last vacation of the summer after our senior year of high school. Our families had vacationed together at Lake Okoboji. They both had a timeshare cabin and planned their trips to coincide. I recalled nights on the beach, campfires and fireflies in the settling dusk. Sometimes when the sun went down we went back to the cabin and played Monopoly and ate chocolate cookies until the sun came up the next morning.
Nearly every spare moment of my childhood had been spent with him. We had gone to prom together, I think since no one had the audacity to ask either one of us, and honestly there had been no one else that held my interest, so we had gone as friends, fueling the frenzy of gossip that surrounded the ambiguous nature of our relationship.
My mother asked time and time again when I would give in and just go out with him. Aiden doesn't want to go out with me, I had explained.
We are just friends.
Good friends, yes, but nothing more than that.
I had felt certain that I had convinced her of it. If you say so, she would chide. That had been the story since elementary school, and I had no intentions of changing that story now, no matter how good looking he had become.
Aiden was one of twelve brothers, and he came over to my house many times just to escape, just as often as I had gone to his for a bit of familiar normalcy. His mother welcomed me every time, saying that once you get past four it doesn't make a difference how many kids there are.