Legal Prejudice 2 - Weather The Storms

Chapter 57

Robyn had come back to work and was helping share the load on all the M&A work. Baby Jack had settled at daycare, and Jeremy brought him over to visit the office when he had a day or a half day off in the week. Allie was enjoying having her friend back in the office and back to her old self. She also loved that Jeremy came over more often since they didn't see him much on the weekends he was working. The New York trip came around quickly and after dropping the girls at Holly's, Daniel and Allie drove to Max's house and left the car there, while a cab collected them all to go to the airport.

Once they'd checked in for the flight to New York, Daniel went to grab them some drinks from the bar in the business lounge and Allie sank down on a sofa next to Max. He threw and arm around her affectionately and said, "This takes me back to the trip you and I did to London to close the Phillips deal." Allie said softly, "Yeah, it does" As soon as the words were out of his mouth Max could have kicked himself realising she was thinking about Michael, but seeing a look pass across his features and reading his mind, she kissed his cheek lovingly and said, "It's okay, I don't mind remembering. Things were just so different then, that's all I was thinking." Daniel returned with three glasses and she sat up to take hers. Max raised his glass and said, "Here's to a successful trip."

Once they were settled on the flight they were talking tactics around the materials Allie had pulled together and Max said, "Listen Allie, Nigel Wallace, don't let him knock you off your stride. Dan and I will be right there. He'll be angling to get the work sent his way, he'll probably imply they're more expert and they'll play down the efficiency of having you deal with it from the US. Don't take the bait, let me deal with it, he won't dare push too hard with me." Allie nodded and Max continued, "There's a good chance he'll want to join us for dinner because he'll have landed a couple of hours before us, but I'll get rid of him. Nothing to be gained from talking to him before tomorrow, and on a personal level I can't stand the guy." Allie couldn't help but laugh as Daniel said, "You won't get any argument from me, the guy's an asshole."

When they checked in at the hotel, Nigel had as Max predicted left a message that they should meet for dinner. Max asked the receptionist to call through to his room and when she passed him the phone he said pleasantly, "Hi Nigel, Max Russell here. We're just checking in." There was a pause and Max winked at Allie, "Yeah, sorry Nigel, we have plans with another east coast client tonight, so we can't make it. Look forward to catching up with you in the morning though." The rooms were on the same floor a few doors apart and they agreed to meet at the elevator in fifteen minutes for dinner. Daniel and Allie found their room and she giggled as he lifted her onto the bed, "No time for that Dan, I need to freshen up before dinner." He kissed her neck and groaned, "Couldn't he have given us an hour." Allie laughed and rolled from under him, heading for the bathroom, "Time difference, it's later here."

They met Max, jumped into a cab outside of the hotel and headed for his favourite restaurant in Manhattan, a short drive away. The food was good, but mindful of the busy schedule the next day none of them had much to drink. Margie had messaged to say the girls were fine and ready for bed. Max was enjoying spending time with them out of the office, but smiling inwardly at the chemistry between them he settled the bill and they headed back. Daniel asked him if he wanted a drink in the hotel bar but Max said, "No, I'm going to call Margie and turn in. As they left the elevator he said, "Right, breakfast at seven okay? Meet you here." He kissed Allie and clapped Daniel on the shoulder.

The next morning they met for breakfast and then took fifteen minutes to run through the presentation key points before Max went to reception and asked them to call through to Nigel Wallace so he could go to the client's offices in the same cab. When he appeared and shook hands cordially Allie relaxed a little. The meeting got underway and Allie carried the bulk of the presenting, shrewdly assessing what their key motivations and concerns would be to highlight options HRM could set up to address them. Nigel was keen to interject near the end that the London team could facilitate any of the options Allie had laid out. Max was quick to flatter him as a useful expert resource, but pointed out having someone within the US team had the benefit of a common time zone and linkage with them on the ground.