The Genius in the Room (An Aaron Shore Story)

Prologue

Elizabeth 'Ella' Kirkman was a genius with a photographic memory. She had graduated top of her class in both George Washington University where she studied Politics and Ecomonics and Harvard Law School.

Her parents, Alex and Tom Kirkman, were incredibly proud of their oldest daughter for all her achievements.

Ella could still remember the days she graduated law school. Her parents were the proudest she had ever seen them, for an entire week afterwards they did nothing but talk about it.

Ella's mom, Alex, was an immigration lawyer at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and had been for the last 20 years.

Tom, on the other hand, was currently serving in the cabinet of President Robert Richmond as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

While he was not her father on paper, Tom Kirkman was the only father Ella had ever known. He came into her life when she was 5 years old and she doesn't remember a day without him there. Hence the reason she took his last name after her mom and him got married.

Now, after 2 years working at a Washington based law firm, Ella was offered a job working with at Attorney General's office.

After finishing her first day, the brown haired girl was offered to come with some girls at the office for drinks and in the interest of making friends, she accepted.

The 3 girls who Ella went out with were slightly older than her mostly in their late 20s and one was just recently turned 30.

Chloe, was a tall blonde woman. She was recently married and also the girl who had just turned 30 a few weeks ago. Her job was secretary to the attorney general.

Lisa was strawberry blonde, average height and very naturally pretty. To the point where she looked like she was wearing make up but she wasn't. She was the media correspondent in the office and handled any queries or questions from the press. 

Lastly there was Rachel, she had dark hair and dark features too. She was advisory counsel in the office.

While only having worked there for a day, Ella could tell these girls were very close and they would all become great friends. They immediately welcomed her into their circle, something she was thankful for.

"So you're a genius huh?" Lisa asked as the girls sipped their fruity cocktails to start the night.

"Lisa." Chloe exclaimed, hitting the girl in the arm.

"What? Everyone is talking about her. She graduated law school the day she turned 22. That's young. I only graduated last year and I'm 28." Lisa explained looking back to Ella for an answer.

Ella went on to explain to the girls about when her parents realised she was a gifted academic at just the age of 9 and shortly after that doctors discovered her photographic memory.

"Wow. No wonder you're the assistant to the attorney general." Rachel spoke up first after hearing about how she graduated high school on her 16th birthday and everything that happened after that.

Everyone laughed at Rachel's silent breaking comment and the dark hair girl did too.

The night went on til late with the girls drinking and telling stories both personal and work related.

"My round." Ella called out as she stood up from the table.

"Get some shots girl." Chloe called after her, clearly having had a few too many.

"Yeh, yeh." Ella waved her hand back towards the girls as she laughed to herself on her way to the bar.

What the Kirkman girl didn't realise was that a pair of eyes were following her from she left her seat until she walked up to the bar.

The tall, dark haired man left his seat, surprising his friends by his sudden actions, and made his way to the bar too.

As Ella waited for the server to retrieve her drinks, she quickly became aware of a presence next to her as a pair of male hands rested an empty scotch glass onto the marble counter.

"Hello?" Ella spoke first as she felt the eyes staring at her, something she hadn't notice all night as the man next to her had spent majority of the night looking at her.

"Hi. I know this is very forward but I thought you should know that you are very beautiful." The man next to her spoke up.

"I think you've had too many of those." Ella replied, using her pointer finger to gesture to the glass in his hand.

It was only then that Ella finally looked at the man next to her. He was tall, definitely around 6 foot or maybe more, had dark hair and dark brown eyes too. He was definitely very attractive.

"I'm fine, trust me." He assured her.

"What's your name, mr "I'm fine"?" Ella wondered with a smile on her face.

"Aaron Shore. And yours?" Aaron asked in reply.

"Ella. Ella Kirkman." The brown haired girl replied just as the barman returned with her drinks.

"I'll get these." Aaron said as he reached into his suit pocket for his wallet.

"Not a chance." Ella told him as she handed over her credit card to the bar tender before Aaron could.

"Hey. I wanted to pay." Aaron assured her.

"It was my round." Ella explained as she nodded her head across the bar to her waiting friends sat in a booth. "But you could always buy me a drink another night."

"Really?" Aaron asked in surprise. He really thought someone as beautiful as Ella would not be interested in some guy she met at a bar.

"Ella, what is taking so long?" Chloe wondered as she appeared next to her new friend. It was only then that she noticed the tall, dark and handsome some next to Ella. "Oh, he's hot."

"Thank you for that Chloe. Here ya go. Bye, bye." Ella replied quickly as she picked up two of the drinks and handed them to Chloe before pushing her back towards their table.

"She seems-." Aaron started to speak before Ella cut him off.

"Drunk. She is very much drunk." Ella finished for her causing the man to laugh.

"I'll take your word for it." Aaron replied. "I'll let you get back to your friends."

The pair exchanged numbers before returning to their respective tables with their friends for the remainder of the night.

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Prologue is done! I can't tell you all how excited I am about this book.

Please let me know what you guys think and what kinda role you think Ella will play after the bombing.

Thanks x