Legal Prejudice 2 - Weather The Storms

Chapter 55

First thing Monday Max had booked a meeting with Chris, ostensibly to check how he was settling in. He appeared at nine and Max motioned for him to take a seat and said, "So how are finding it so far?" Chris nodded confidently, "All good, all pretty straightforward so far to be honest." Max nodded as if satisfied and replied, "That's good because I need Allie to move onto the Aquatech deal. They've got a kick off meeting in New York in a couple of weeks. So from now on I can deal with any handover you might need, although from what you say you don't need any handholding. Obviously if we do need any information from Allie just let me know and I'll get that from her." Chris realised Max was manoeuvring so he would have no reason to approach Allie, and he wondered if she'd complained about him.

Max read him carefully and leaned forward to say, "We're like a family here Chris. We trust one another, but that trust doesn't come overnight, it's earned." Chris nodded slowly wondering where this was going. Max paused and then resumed, "Allie doesn't have family and Dan might as well not have any. My wife and I are their family and they are very important to me. You're a smart guy and I'm sure you'll have done your research and watched the programme about them, I get that. But whatever impression you have from whatever you've read or seen, you can park it right at the door. Allie is off limits Chris." Chris went a little red and spluttered out, "I've just been friendly." Max's expression didn't change, "She hasn't said a word about you Chris, but you know, I once made the mistake of ignoring the fact a guy who worked here was making Allie feel uncomfortable, and as a consequence she nearly lost her life. I vowed I'd never make that mistake again and here we are. Whatever that programme said, they've been through trauma you can't begin to understand, and I'm going to do everything in my power to keep them safe.

Chris looked crestfallen and Max softened a little, "My advice would be to back the hell off and get to know Dan and Allie. They're seriously good lawyers and even better human beings." Chris nodded and Max looked on his laptop, "Right, let's go down this list Allie's done of all the cases you're taking on and check you're comfortable with everything that needs doing."

Later in the morning Max had put a slot in the diaries with Dan and Allie to talk tactics for the meeting in New York. Allie had spent the rest of the morning working diligently through the trailing activity on her small, medium enterprise cases. She'd messaged Daniel to meet her in the kitchen so they could grab coffee before they went to Max's office. When she got there he noticed how much happier she looked. Conscious they were on view he smiled and gave her hand a squeeze as he reached up to grab the mugs for her. Chris appeared and hesitated, almost turning around before realising that would look weird. Allie looked up and said pleasantly, "Hi Chris, we're just about done so we'll get out of your way. Everything okay?" He nodded, "Yeah thanks, just working through the Lincoln Tech contract dispute." Allie smiled, "Glad it's going well. Sorry, we'll let you get to the coffee machine." Daniel gave him a smile and they left.

Chris got his coffee and crossed to Amanda. "Hey, do you have some time to run through what work you could take from this case I've got?" Amanda nodded, "Sure. I'm doing some stuff for Allie to close off on some of her cases today, so I'm a bit busy, will thirty minutes do it? He nodded "Yeah, half an hour should work fine. Want to grab a drink and bring it to my office?" Amanda smiled and lifted the almost full cup on her desk to show him and then followed him across the floor. When they sat down Chris grabbed his laptop and Amanda asked, "How are you settling in?" Chris shrugged, "Okay I think. How long have you been here?" Amanda chewed her pen, "I think it's about seven months now. I really love it, everyone is so cool. I've worked most with Allie and she's super lovely. And she and Daniel are adorable." Chris smiled and she continued, "Actually thinking about it, Allie wasn't here when I first started. She'd been really sick in hospital and Carly said Max and Daniel had been real worried." Chris looked surprised and blurted out, "I didn't realise she'd been that sick since the shooting thing." He looked panicked and quickly added "Shit, sorry, I don't mean to bring that stuff up." He looked dejected and said, "I don't think I've made a very good impression on them Amanda. I guess I thought I kinda knew Allie from what I'd heard about her, but she's not the person I thought she was, and now I've messed up." Amanda looked confused but said, "I've got zero clue what you're talking about, but you should talk to Allie. She's so kind she'll understand." Chris sighed and said "Yeah, thanks. We should look at this Lincoln Tech work and see what you could help me with if that's okay."