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THE ELEVATOR OPENED DIRECTLY INTO HER PRIVATE OFFICE. The office was painted grey, and it had only one floor-to-ceiling window, which faced the main road. On the grey desk sat a desktop computer, a notebook lying open, and a stack of papers sitting under a turtle-shaped paperweight. In a corner, the air conditioner was blasting at medium, and there was a swivel chair in the middle of the office. A bookshelf, bursting with books was in a corner, with yet another stack of papers under a paperweight that was shaped to look like a tuft of grass. A few pens were lying on the papers, but some had fallen onto the top of the bookshelf.
The lawyer sat in her black dress, her helvetica glasses bouncing up and down on her knee as she tapped her foot. Her four inch heel jostled in the stilted office air, striking the wooden floor on every third bounce or so. By evening her short black hair would fall loose and wavy to the back of her neck, but currently it was tied loosely into a bun. The only movements on her head were the silver earrings and the slow blinking of lids over eyes the same hue as the chair she was perched on. She imagined herself to appear calm and collected, but that leg gave her away.
Emma sighed at the clock, slightly feeling cheated that only nine minutes had passed since she last checked it, when it felt like it should have been hours. Sipping at the now cold coffee she bought from the vending machine down the hall, she leaned back in her chair. Emma had been staring at the mountain of paper scattered around her desk for hours now, yet it didn’t seem like she was able to make a dent into it. It sat there, almost mocking her; she couldn't help scowl at it.
Her gaze drifted to the big desk left unoccupied behind the glass wall. Andy Barber, the plaque on the desk read, right next to the messy pen holder and another mountain of paperwork, almost identical to the one you had on your desk. 'Great' she thought, they could mock then both. Even the pile of paper had someone. She rubbed her eyes as even thoughts stopped making much sense.
The said man finally walked close enough that the light from the window beside her desk washed over his tired features. He was wearing his usual work attire, those suits she loved seeing him in. Emmas gaze shifted back to his face where surprise now gleamed in his eyes along with something else she couldn’t quite place.
“Emma?”
“What are you doing here so early?” He asked as he stopped right in front of her desk, hands casually in his pockets. He didn’t need an answer however as his gaze laid on the paperwork she had sitting in front of her.
“I see. Asshole Neal giving you extra work? You look like you need some rest.” He remarked with a darkened, displeased look in his eyes.
"Asshole Neal didn't give me anything..." She began, filing the sporadic pages on her desk into the folders. "I just wanted to get a head start on one of the cases."
His breathy chortle was a beautiful thing, she thought with a sloppy smile of her own. "Anything I can help with?" Andy spoke softly, and the words settled on her skin like a favourite dress. His hand upon hers.
