Alessandra Torre - Blindfolded Innocence

His desk was the cleanest place in the office. He had three legal folders on its surface, one open to the file he was discussing on the phone. He had a large digital clock, no doubt to help him keep track of billable hours. He had two framed photos next to his phone. I couldn’t see them from this angle, but assumed they were of his wife and kids. Those photos were probably the most he ever saw of them. My snooping was cut short by the sound of his phone handset being returned to its rightful place. I looked up and into his blue eyes.

“I didn’t know how you liked your coffee, so I brought it black,” I said, gesturing to the accompaniments in the ceramic holder. I stood up and slid the coffee cup toward him until it was in easy reach.

“Just light cream and Equal,” he said, standing up, grabbing the creamer box and flipping through it.

What defines “light”? And how much Equal? I watched him closely, noting how much he added of each to the cup. He looked at the color of the coffee a moment longer than what I would define as normal, and then, dismissing whatever thought was in his head, brought the cup to his mouth.

Gag would be too strong a word for what happened next. An involuntary wince perhaps? His blink was a bit forced, his mouth curled into an unpleasant grimace and there was a slight shudder that he tried hard to cover. An involuntary giggle popped out of me and I slapped a hand over my mouth. He looked at me in confusion, trying to figure out if I was trying to play a joke on him. His expression looked somewhere between mad and amused.

“I’m sorry,” I gasped, fighting the ridiculous hiccuping laugh that was fighting tooth and nail to come out. “I don’t drink coffee. I’ve never made it. I was stumbling through trying to figure it out when someone downstairs was kind enough to show me how....” My voice trailed off as my giggle urge left and I felt despair creeping in. “Is it...horrible?” I whispered.

“A little,” Broward admitted, a wry smile coming to his lips. “But, no worries. I’ll have Sheila walk you through it tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I need a file couriered over from Rothsfield and Merchant. Could you stop by Starbucks on the way back?”

I nodded rapidly, some relief flowing into my body. He didn’t seem mad. Yes, I had looked inept, but it seemed to be okay.

“If you prefer,” I ventured, “I think Mr. De Luca had some breakfast delivered. I could grab some coffee from their conference room?”

His face darkened. Okay...maybe not something he’d prefer. Did I say something wrong?

“No,” he said sharply. “Brad orders that for his secretaries, intern and his clients. We don’t mess with, or borrow, from his staff, and I expect the same from him.” His glowering tone softened slightly at my pale face. “Sorry,” he muttered. “Maybe now is when I should go through the office background.” He stood, shut the file on his desk and pressed the call button on his phone.

A delicate, professional voice sounded through the speakerphone. “Yes, Mr. Broward?” It sounded like Sheila, his secretary. Why wasn’t Sheila getting his coffee? That seemed a secretarial duty.

“I will be indisposed for the next...ten minutes. Please hold my calls.”

“Yes sir, Mr. Broward.”

“Can you please shut the door?” Broward asked as he sat down. I quickly walked to the door and shut it softly, then returned to my place in front of his desk. Broward leaned back in his chair and tapped his finger to his chin, mulling something over while looking at me. I fought the urge to fidget.

“Okay, to begin, let’s attack the elephant in the room.” He leaned forward and met my gaze firmly, his almost-stern expression reminding me of when my father used to lecture me on the importance of high school English. What elephant in the room? Is this about the coffee?

“Brad De Luca,” he began. “Brad is, without a doubt, the best divorce attorney in the south. His waiting list is over ten months long, and many unhappy wives prolong a marriage for the sole reason of waiting to have Brad represent them.” His voice was matter-of-fact and slightly wry. “Brad is a shark in the courtroom and has no problem splattering the walls with blood. He also takes very, very good care of his clients.”

His tone and expression led me to believe that “taking care” of his clients might mean a little more than one would think. I nodded to indicate that I got the point.

“You will no doubt notice the daily breakfast platters, be invited on the Bahamas work weekends and hear the drone of excessive and unnecessary celebrations going on in that wing of this floor.” His stern gaze moved up in intensity to level six. “Julia, I don’t want you to have any part of that. Brad runs his part of the office that way—I run mine in a more...professional and efficient manner. There is a reason that you were not assigned to Brad. Stay away from him.” The approachable, friendly Broward was gone. In his chair sat a dictator speaking to me in the manner one might use on a bad puppy.

I was contrite and didn’t even know why. “Yes, sir,” I said, firmly but quietly.

“Great,” he said briskly. “Now, moving on to the other partner, Hugo Clarke. Clarke focuses on criminal law. His clients are mostly white-collar, though if a case has enough publicity, he will take on the bloodier ones. He is a great source of knowledge, and is always happy to help our interns. He has a young grandson who often spends time here at the office. If you see a two-year-old wandering around, that would be Clarke’s.”

I waited for another death glare and a warning that Clarke sold black market organs, but Broward seemed to be off his soapbox and was now almost jovial. Good lord, it was like dealing with a menopausal woman.

“I focus almost entirely on corporate law—all civil matters. Our work has a lot less emotion involved, but is exciting all the same.” Right. Every law student can’t wait to dive into corporate reform.

Broward skimmed over the other attorneys and reviewed the billing procedures and his general expectations. They all seemed reasonable, though I suspected his general reference to my expected sixty-hour weeks would probably be more of a seventy-or eighty-hour commitment. He signaled the end of our conversation by pressing Sheila’s extension on his phone and indicating that I should open the door.

Her melodious voice came through the speakerphone. “Yes, sir?”

“Please give Julia a tour of the office. Apparently Jane didn’t do a proper job in orientation. Also, she will be running over to Rothsfield to get the Danko file, so please explain the mileage system and petty cash.”

“Certainly.”

Sheila appeared in Broward’s doorway within seconds. She matched her polished voice—an older woman, in her sixties, with a blue sweater set, gray wool dress pants, perfectly coiffed silver hair and a string of pearls. She smiled kindly at me and ushered me out of Broward’s office, closing his door softly behind her.

Sheila’s tour of the wing was in-depth and informative. I met over twelve secretaries, six paralegals, and Attorney Liz Renfield. I nodded at the other interns as we passed through their areas, but didn’t have any conversations. I figured out early why Sheila didn’t bring Broward’s coffee. Handing me the petty cash key, she had an extreme shake to her hands. She was a talker, and I learned as much about her as the firm. She had been there twenty-two years, since it was just Clarke Law Firm and they had to occasionally miss a paycheck if it had been a slow month. By the end of the tour I had learned that Liz Renfield and Robert Handler had once shared more than a case, and that recently Chris Hemming, a civil attorney, had been caught embezzling funds and had been fired.