He watches me carefully. “Were you told anything about the position?”
I shake my head.
“And you didn’t think to ask for those details yourself?”
Another shake.
“No,” I say, lowering my eyes to avoid his gaze, breathless from his scrutiny and the knowledge that I deserve it.
I dare a look at him, lost in the moment between regret and the intense need to prove I can make this work.
Feeling my nerves building, I finally speak up. “To be frank with you, Attorney Sterling—“
“James,” he says. “Please call me James.”
I can’t fight the small smile stretching across my lips.
“Well, James,” I say, my voice more confident now. “To be frank, those details were unimportant to me at the time.”
His eyebrows shoot towards his hairline, and I get the feeling that I’ve just said something wrong. I hold my breath.
The tone he takes with me cements that feeling when he asks, “And why is that, Miss Anders?”
Miss Anders.Not Attorney Anders. Something about James calling me “Miss” instead of, at the very least, the title I’ve worked so hard for, makes me feel like a kid that’s being called to the principal’s office. Like I’m out of my depth.
The spiraling thoughts threaten to take me down with them, but I somehow manage to mentally shake myself free.
Cracking a sweet smile in an attempt not to sour our working relationship on the very first day, I say, “Please, call me Avery.”
That little quip earns me an amused chuckle, warm and low, as the corner of his mouth pulls up. I don’t wait for him to say anything before answering his question.
“I had an immediate need to be in an environment that was less distracting, where I could just focus on my work. My career.”
It’s the only explanation I can give him without airing my dirty laundry and making this first impression worse.
The glimmer of curiosity in his eyes tells me he wants to ask me what could have possibly been so distracting at my previous job, but he must understand the pleading in my eyes for him not to question any further.
Instead, he says, “In that case, I’ll give you the rapid-fire version before you meet your team. Just stop me if you have any questions. Otherwise, I’ll assume you understand.”
I nod and say, “Got it.”
He tells me that Bishop, Hollis, & Sterling occupies four levels of this building. The twelfth floor houses the employee lounge, the thirteenth is where you’ll find the criminal defense department, the fourteenth is our civil litigation department, and the executives are situated on the fifteenth floor.
In our civil department, there are five attorneys, including James and myself.
Each attorney is paired with two paralegals, except for James, who no longer handles his own cases as he is the managing attorney for our department. His role is fully supervisory, and he’s the person I should seek if I need help with anything.
“I’ll do my best not to need you too much,” I say, trying to reassure him that even though I’m new to the practice of law, I’m willing to put in the work to figure things out on my own.
“Needing me is inevitable.” His words bring a blush to my cheeks. “You’re new. Just know that my door is always open. Figuratively, anyway. I keep my door closed most of the time during normal business hours.”
Giving him a puzzled look, I ask, “Do you find yourself here outside of normal business hours often?”
“Sometimes,” he replies.
I can’t help the image that floods my brain of this beautiful man in his office after hours with the lights low, suit jacket off, tie loosened, the sleeves of his button-down shirt rolled up to reveal more of his inked skin, hair no longer perfectly in placebecause he’s been running his hands through it as he works into the night.
“Is that by choice or because the work is so demanding?”
