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grin.
              “I stopped by the café on my way in and thought you might like something. Skinny vanilla latte, right?”
              “Yes! You remembered. Thanks, Liz. By the way, nice dress.”
              “Thanks, Isabelle.”
              Relieved and happy that I was making progress in our relationship, I headed into my own office and took a seat at my desk. I didn’t assume that Isabelle and I would ever become close friends, but it never hurt to have the office ice queen on your side. I knew from experience at the coffee shop that if you were able to get the snarkiest girl on your side, you could go far in a company. And while I certainly didn’t imagine that my time at Smith and Smith would land me a higher-paying position, staying on Isabelle’s good side would certainly help me stay on both of the Mr. Smiths’ good sides, as well.
              I realized, as I settled in to my desk and began arranging papers, that I still hadn’t formally met Alex’s father. The elder Mr. Smith had nodded at me in passing but I’d never actually introduced myself or had a conversation with him. He was always very abrupt and in a hurry, and aside from glazing by me to get to Alex’s office, he hadn’t had much reason to get to know me or to speak to me.
              I logged into my email to check for any important messages I may have received overnight. Alex occasionally sent me notes or memos about his schedule, asked me to pull a file before he arrived, or just had a random question for me about a client. My inbox was empty, though, and I pulled up the schedule for the day.
              “Hmm,” I murmured as I looked through everything. The morning would be very busy with three separate clients, but the afternoon was almost completely free. I wondered why there was nothing scheduled there. The times were blacked out like they were unavailable, but there were no notes as to why. Did Alex have a special function or event that he hadn’t told me about?
              Just then, Alex walked into the room and nodded to me before unlocking his door and making his way into his office.
              “Hey, Mr. Smith,” I said, hurrying after him and very nearly bumping into him as he stopped to turn back to me. “Oops, sorry.”
              “What is it?” He asked sharply.
              “I um, I just noticed that your schedule for this afternoon is blacked out but there isn’t a note about any special events. Is there something going on that I should know about?”
              “No. There is nothing going on this afternoon that concerns you. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
              Alex turned abruptly and seated himself at his desk. He didn’t even bother taking his overcoat off, which was unusual, but not as unusual as his grumpy mood. While Alex wasn’t exactly a charming boss, he certainly wasn’t usually this rude and arrogant.
              With a sigh, I returned to my desk and settled back down. I hoped the morning would go by quickly so I could hurry and make it to my lunch break. If Alex was on the warpath, the last thing I needed to do was irritate him with dumb questions clients asked me. Although I felt like I was a quick learner, I hadn’t had any professional training as a paralegal or as a legal office assistant, so there was still quite a bit I didn’t know about legal procedures. Everyone, including myself, was annoyed when I didn’t know the answer to a question, so I’d taken it upon myself to borrow some of Alex’s law books and study when I wasn’t busy with homework or Tim.
              Tim. It had been a few weeks since I’d started my new job and I’d barely seen Tim. He had been working almost every weekend and I was barely home anymore between