Mr. Corporate Law

1.8: Welcome to My Office

As we approached Dominic's office, his secretary greeted us with a charming smile - and no, the secretary is not a woman at all, the secretary is actually a guy. Dominic doesn't approve of having a female secretary because they cause much of a distraction as any other secretary in the office - especially the many times he's caught one of his uncle's secretaries under the desk of an ex-senior associate. And with Jon, well, he's Mick's son and desperately needed a job, and because Dominic's got a soft spot for Mick, he agreed. Five years later, Jon's still sitting at the wooden desk a metre from his door.

"Hey Jon, is your boss inside?"

"Yes, he's actually waiting for you, Ms Lawler."

"Thank you, Jon."

Hamish let out a fake vomiting noise behind me, and I glared at him for it as well as nudged him with my hip, which nearly made him drop the stack in his hands. He glared back at me and whispered, "That's uncalled for."

"You started it."

We were so childish. Other than Erika, Hamish brought out my inner immaturity and we often had sibling-like rivalries whenever we had the chance. He treated me quite differently compared to the other women I saw him interact with, even the women he's dated weren't treated the way he treated me - and most of them complained to my face about it without me asking. It was weird, and he probably only acted as such because he actually did have feelings for me. Um, I guess Dominic used to be the same too, before he got serious about anything and everything, and we also used to have all these mini competitions when challenged and we'd reward ourselves one way or the other.

Sigh. I missed that goof.

And that goofy lover of mine turned to the man sitting behind his desk, on the phone and scribbling notes on the desk pad. The little deep lines on his face showed the very few wrinkles he had, and the deeper ones were in between his eyebrows. His hazel eyes so focused on the lines he made along the paper that he didn't notice me or Hamish walk in, even after knocking a few times. So we stayed quiet, standing by the shelves full of study books that were all familiar to me during my time in Harvard.

"Okay- Mhmm- Alright- Good- Okay, see you later this evening, Uncle Nate."

Nathaniel? Honestly? I only said goodbye to him not too long ago, and his name still popped up everywhere else. It began to creep me out a little. Maybe I'm overreacting. Just a little. Not that much... Right?

"Sorry for the disruption," I said once the phone lifted from his face. "I have no office, Dom, so if it's okay, am I able to temporarily leave these here?"

"That's not a problem, but what are you doing here?" Dominic gave Hamish a glare, to which the man beside me simply let out a grunt and casually dropped the paperwork on the coffee table in front of us, leaning to my ear as he whispered, "See you later."

"Okay," I mumbled back as Hamish fixed his tie and left with a final stare down with Dominic. As much as I didn't want them to be in this rivalry, they both were men and had high pride to listen to me at all.

"Pass me the case folder," Dominic spoke up, his finger bent twice to gesture me towards him.

"Okay," I replied with a nod and put every other pieces of paper next to the pile Hamish brought in, the only folder left in my hand was what he wanted. As I made my way to him, I noticed there were three folders laid out on his table with names of a business and clients he may have to deal with, and the scribble he made on his desk pad were filled with spirals and dots done with the expensive office black ink pen. Everything in his office were of a high value.

"You look busy-" I slightly yelped as he stretched his arm out to grab my hand and tug me to his lap, where my back was caught by his other arm. I could barely move from my position without unnecessarily grazing every part of his body. "This is rather inappropriate for work, Dom. Quite unlike you," I muttered shyly.