“All right. Anything else?” I head toward the building now that Mrs. Hoffmeister has gone inside, waiting to see if Andrew has called my brother.

“Nope, that’s it.” I hear the smile in his voice. It’s nice to hear him happy. It’s obvious to me that he doesn’t know anything about who I had dinner with tonight.

“Okay, see you then. Looking forward to meeting Zahra.” I say her name in a singsong voice like a child.

“Don’t act like that when you meet her, okay?” He hangs up.

I smile as I slide my phone back into my bag. It’s about time my brother found someone he cares about. I hope one day I join him.

Chapter Five

Andrew

My fingers press on the bridge of my nose and I close my eyes. Darla, who shouldn’t be my legal assistant, must be taking the piss because no one can truly be this obtuse.

She’s already giving me that “please don’t yell at me” look, her hands growing shaky.

“What do you mean you told him to come back?” I barely manage to keep my voice even.

Her eyes widen and she shifts her weight from side to side. We’re about five seconds away from a meltdown. “You said you didn’t want to be interrupted.” Her voice is soft and shallow.

I let my hand drop from my face, inhaling deeply through my nose, trying not to be the monster she obviously portrays me as in her head. “You understand that it is your job to assist me, correct?”

She bites her bottom lip and nods. T minus three seconds now.

“In case it wasn’t clear, that means that when a messenger comes to drop off papers, you are to, at the very least, accept them. If you deem it necessary and important enough, interrupt me. If they aren’t time sensitive, you can wait until I no longer wish to be uninterrupted.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” The tears well in her eyes.

This is the exact reason she should not be my assistant. And she wouldn’t be if she wasn’t my boss Rick Simons’s fiancée’s cousin. Unfortunately for me though, Rick divorced his first wife to marry Bethaney, a woman twenty-five years his junior. Now Bethaney leads him around by his ballsac. Somehow, I got screwed in the deal and got stuck with Bethaney’s idiotic cousin Darla as my assistant.

“The messenger you turned away has papers that need to be filed with the court by day’s end. I suggest you track him down.”

“Yes, sir.” She rushes out of my office without a backward glance. At least she understood the urgency.