Legally Addicted

by Lena Dowling

  ‘Does the requirement for new clothes have anything to do with a certain Brad Spencer?’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Georgia said, trying to appear genuinely surprised but failing miserably, sounding instead like she had just delivered the line from a bad school play.

  ‘Come on, Georgia, everyone is talking about the fact that you left the cocktail party with Brad last night.’

  ‘Well they can stop gossiping, because nothing happened. We had dinner, that’s all.’

  ‘Uh, huh. Well, I hope you didn’t give him your usual love ‘em and leave ‘em treatment, because Bradley Spencer is a catch with a capital C.’

  ‘There was no loving, and no leaving. Just dinner, okay?’

  ‘I’ll believe you, but thousands wouldn’t,’ Miriam said in a singsong voice as she left the office to return to her own workstation.

  Georgia switched on her laptop with a pang of guilt. She wouldn’t normally have felt bad lying to her secretary about a personal matter, but over the last few months Miriam had wheedled her way around her defences. Now Georgia almost counted the woman as a friend.

  But right now, Georgia had a full day ahead, and she needed to get her head around a difficult new file; a matrimonial involving several businesses and multiple assets that would mean studying complicated balance sheets and financial statements.

  ‘Is he as good in bed as they say?’

  Miriam’s head had reappeared back around her office door.

  Without thinking Georgia answered. ‘Yes. What? No. How would I know?’

  ‘Ha! Gotcha. You said yes first.’

  Damn it. Now she had blown it. Next, Miriam would be suggesting coffee and wanting the sordid details.

  ‘Haven’t you got work to be getting on with?’ An edge had crept into Georgia’s voice as she started to lose patience with her secretary’s prying, however good natured the intention.

  ‘Okay, okay, I get it. You don’t want to talk about it. But have you looked at the new stationery?’

  Georgia’s attention snapped to the box in her in-tray that she had so far failed to open. Pulling it out on to the middle of her desk, she ripped open the package. A ream of letter grade bond paper gleamed under the brown paper wrapper, and a few seconds later her eyes zeroed in on what Miriam was referring to. The firm’s name on the letterhead had changed: Dayton Llewellyn Murray.

  ‘Excellent, very nice, thanks.’

  She tried to sound pleased but not overexcited.

  Inside, however, was a different matter. Inside, she was leaping over office furniture and punching the air.

  Since she had recently turned twenty-nine, success had been a close run thing, but she could now strike ‘make partner by the age of thirty’ off her bucket list. Okay, so she wasn’t a full equity partner, yet, but that was only a matter of time.

  Miriam was always telling her she was too driven, sacrificing too much to her work. Well, there was nothing wrong with having goals, and now Georgia had the absolute proof.

  Her single-mindedness had already allowed her to strike out ‘get a scholarship to law school’ and ‘find employment with a respected firm’. With her recent achievement, she only had one ambition left on her list to fulfil: convincing the board at the Dockton Women’s Shelter to back her proposal to establish an addiction centre. Based on the lukewarm reaction from philanthropic socialite and Dockton Women’s Shelter board chairwoman, Caro Marsden, that could be overreaching things. Still, Georgia now had irrefutable evidence that with determination and focus, anything was possible.

  Later that morning, when Georgia took her place at the conference table for her first partners’ meeting with Roger Llewellyn and John Dayton, anyone looking at her would have thought she was completely unaffected by the enormity of the occasion. She had long ago perfected the art of the blank stare; masking her true feelings. In reality she was awash with excitement. Even though there had been plenty of time to come to terms with the idea of being brought into the partnership, it was still a thrill to finally be attending a partners’ meeting and to be involved in decisions that determined the direction and running of the firm.

  She scanned the agenda. It covered mostly routine administrative matters, a few new legal precedents and legislative changes. She was about to put the agenda down, when an italicised entry part way down the page caught her eye.

  B Spencer to join the meeting.

  ‘Who is joining the meeting?’

  She tried hard not to sound overly interested, but despite her rational brain pointing out that there could be any number of B Spencers in Sydney, her heart cycled up in speed.

  An anxious look passed between Dayton and Llewellyn.

  ‘Perhaps we should deal with the merger first?’ Llewellyn queried his colleague.

  Merger? Georgia felt as if she had been hit with an illegal windpipe-high tackle, and now lay struggling for breath on the ground. What was going on?

  ‘What merger?’

  Georgia looked from one of her colleagues to the other, both squirming in their seats, neither in any hurry to answer.

  In the end, John Dayton cleared his throat.

  ‘Some months ago, Roger and I approached Bradley Spencer with a merger proposal. At the time we received no response and assumed the offer had been rejected. Recently, however, Spencer made contact to resume negotiations, and yesterday, to our great surprise and delight, he accepted our offer.’

  ‘Well, if he accepted yesterday, it can’t be valid. That offer was made by Dayton Llewellyn — a partnership that no longer exists, having been superseded by the new one which came into being when I joined as partner,’ Georgia said, relieved to have spotted a legal argument to make against the arrangement.

  ‘Georgia, this is business, and Spencer will bring in a lot more of it. The more profit the firm generates, the better it is for all of us; but for you especially, surely you can see that?’ Roger Llewellyn said.

  Georgia didn’t need Llewellyn to remind her that her equity stake was minuscule, with the balance to be paid off over a period that would be determined by how profitable the firm was. It was, therefore, in her interests to agree to the merger. With the other partner’s significant equity shares, even if she didn’t agree it wouldn’t get her very far. Dayton and Llewellyn effectively controlled the partnership, and so called the shots.

  Georgia was still trying to process what she had learned when the meeting room door opened. Dayton and Llewellyn’s attention jerked upwards, and the men half rose from their chairs.

  ‘Welcome, Bradley, we were just bringing Georgia up to speed with the joining of our respective firms.’

  Brad took a seat opposite her, placing his briefcase on the conference table. Snapping open the clasps, he pulled out a copy of an agenda identical to hers. Georgia forced a neutral expression, nodding in his direction, hoping to project professionalism and self-possession, but however determined she might have been to maintain her composure, once she met the same intoxicating charcoal grey eyes she had stared into the night before, her body refused to play ball. Brad’s arrival had somehow coincided with a failure of the building’s aircon system, the temperature rising in the room by several degrees. All too vivid memories sent sweat leaching out of her body until her clothing clung limp around her, including her thighs, which in turn had the effect of reminding her that she was still commando under her skirt.

  And exactly why that was the case.

  This couldn’t be happening. The last time she was with Brad, they had been buck naked, and now they were going to be working together? Somehow, the wind had changed making Murphy’s Law the only legal code operating in her jurisdiction.

  But this thing was happening, and she needed to get a grip.

  Georgia took a deep breath and swallowed hard, but squashing her emotions downward only allowed space for professional concerns to rush in to the void.

  She was the divorce specialist in this firm. There was no way she was going to start taking instructions fr
om anyone, let alone Brad Spencer.

  ‘Obviously you will maintain your autonomy and your own client list, although I would hope to be able to assist you in growing your client base,’ Brad said, anticipating her objection.

  Georgia stared at him for a few seconds before answering, trying to gauge just how far she could go in voicing her disapproval of the new arrangement without alienating the other partners. Dayton and Llewellyn were clearly delighted by the coup they had pulled off in joining their firm with the practice of the highest profile lawyer in the city.

  ‘I have managed perfectly well in establishing my own client base to date, thank you,’ she said, as curtly as she dared.

  Brad smiled at her, a patient, indulgent smile that made her even testier.

  ‘I didn’t mean to suggest otherwise, Georgia, but I have more clients than I can comfortably handle, and having been assured by John and Roger of your considerable skill, I would feel comfortable passing over any client that you were interested in taking on.’

  She momentarily relaxed with the compliment, registering a rising fuzziness inside, but taking stock of the feeling only succeeded in annoying the hell out of her. Brad’s attentiveness was one of the things that led her into bed with him in the first place; right about the time he was choosing disingenuousness over honesty in failing to mention that he was joining the firm. That piece of news was something he obviously knew last night, yet had chosen to keep it to himself.

  His good opinion of her could, therefore, be of no consequence. His staggering lie by omission was something she intended to take up with him privately, and as soon as she got the chance.

  Georgia gave in to the urge to scowl at him.

  ‘I’ll have to look at my case list and get back to you. I’m not sure I need any more clients.’

  Llewellyn gave a cough, his face turning a pinkish colour.

  ‘I, we, I mean John and I, couldn’t help but notice, how well — that last night — well, you and Georgia seem to know each other, outside the office as it were. That won’t be a problem, will it, Bradley?’

  Brad leaned back in his chair, thoughtfully pressing his fingertips together. Then he looked up in Georgia’s direction.

  ‘I can’t speak for Georgia, but it won’t be a problem from my side — Georgia, what about you?’

  She averted her eyes.

  ‘Er, no. It won’t be a problem from my side either,’ she lied.

  It was a problem, though.

  A big one.

  Chapter Three

  Georgia sat at her desk with her head in her hands. Before she left the partners’ meeting, and once she got over the shock of learning that their two firms would be merging, she had managed to pull herself together enough to say something lame like, ‘Congratulations, Brad, welcome aboard’. She shook hands with him, and then escaped back to her office.

  Then it hit her. As a full equity partner, Brad Spencer would have an influence over the partnership equal to that of Dayton and Llewellyn, effectively making him senior to her. So, extrapolating on that, last night she may as well have gone and shagged her boss.

  Well, as good as.

  ‘I assume from that pose of utter jubilation you’ve heard that we’ll be moving?’

  The voice was Miriam’s. Georgia sat up and folded her arms. Her secretary held a clipboard with some sort of checklist pinned to it.

  Georgia realised she should have seen this coming. There were only three corner offices in the triangular shaped building rented by the firm, and the Brad Spencer could hardly be asked to work in a cubicle and meet with his glittering client list in the shared conference room.

  ‘I don’t suppose we can expect the famous Brad Spencer to slum it out in the open-plan, now can we?’

  ‘No, not really. Sorry, Georgia.’ Miriam’s face had screwed up in an apologetic expression that was part sympathy, part trepidation, as if she was expecting Georgia to explode. But there was no point taking her frustrations out on Miriam. It was a backwards step for her too. Not that she had an office, but she would no doubt have preferred to keep her current spot right outside Georgia’s door than be pushed back out into the middle of the open-plan.

  ‘But if you look on the bright side, Georgia, having Brad Spencer around will give us girls something decent to look at. He’s going to raise the attractiveness profile of the men around here by quite a bit.’

  Until now, there hadn’t been a man in the office capable of distracting Georgia. Dayton and Llewellyn would be hitting retirement in a few years, and the only other men consisted of a group of middle-aged lawyers who had all but given up on making partner and were working on enlarging their middle-aged spread instead. Aside from them, there were just two spotty part-time clerks who were both still at uni.

  Georgia stood up and looked around the spacious office, wondering how much longer she had left to enjoy her workspace. Compared to the cubbyholes out in the open-plan, the office she had only recently moved into was positively palatial.

  ‘How soon is the shift?’

  ‘Pretty much straight away — the movers are coming in to do the job overnight.’

  Georgia sighed.

  ‘Oh well, I had better enjoy the view while I can, I guess.’

  Miriam didn’t reply; she was already striding away like a guided missile locked on to her next task.

  Georgia turned towards the wall-to-ceiling window and braced herself against it with the heels of her hands, as if she hoped to affect a tranquillity transfer from the cool glass.

  At least the view out across Sydney city never failed to inspire her. It was a metropolis equal to any in the world, and yet Sydney had been erected out of nothing, in little over two hundred years, on the backs of convict and poor immigrant labour. It was uplifting, and in many ways it mirrored Georgia’s own spectacular rise. She sucked in a breath. Sydney was still a city where anything was possible.

  ‘Are you okay?’

  She hadn’t noticed Brad slip into her office, and now he was standing at her side looking out at her incredible view.

  Scratch that.

  He had slipped into his office, and was looking out at his incredible view.

  She turned to face him, his annoyingly high cheek-boned features and brooding black eyes sending her mood plunging back to the new low it had found after Dayton and Llewellyn’s bombshell announcement.

  ‘Since you asked, I’m not okay, actually. I’ve just found out that this office, which I worked for — no, make that slogged for — is going to be yours, and I’m back out there in the office mosh pit.’

  She stabbed a finger in the direction of the open-plan area in the middle of the floor rented by Dayton Llewellyn, where phones rang constantly, and even hushed conversations between colleagues were a constant distraction.

  Georgia had coveted her ascension to this particular piece of office real estate ever since she joined the firm. Having made partner she felt like she had reached the summit, and now, all thanks to Brad, she was slipping back down as if she had grasped a greasy pole instead.

  ‘Not that you’d have any appreciation of what it is to have to slog for anything, Mr Silver Spoon.’

  Brad’s head jerked back as if she had given him a quick poke in the eye. Then his eyes narrowed.

  ‘Actually, I think I do. My parents might have paid my way through law school, so I didn’t have to take out a loan like most students, and granted it was easier for me, not having to worry about money, but they don’t give coursework credits for upfront payment. I studied my arse off, same as you. And my parents never gave up trying to entice me into the family firm.’

  ‘Poor little rich boy encountered resistance from mummy and daddy. My heart bleeds.’

  Brad shook his head, but otherwise didn’t rise to the jibe.

  ‘Believe me, I had no idea Roger and John planned to give me your office. You stay where you are. I’ll take one of the others — problem solved.’

  He said it like he was Mr Reasonable an
d she was a toddler, kicking her legs in the air, having a tantrum. All that magnanimity in the face of her best efforts at provocation, fully justified provocation in her opinion, did nothing to improve Georgia’s humour. He could be Mr Reasonable all he liked; it wasn’t going to help.

  ‘There are no other offices. Well, nothing bigger than a stationery cupboard that is, and if I don’t give this office up to you, Dayton and Llewellyn will accuse me of being unco-operative.’

  ‘I am sorry about that, Georgia, but I’d be happy to take up the issue of renting more space at the next partner’s meeting, so it should only be temporary.’

  Brad yanked at his tie, pulling it loose, and Georgia took some satisfaction in noting that playing the cool and composed better man was taking its toll. The friction at his neck, however, had the effect of releasing a whiff of his woody aftershave that sent her mind rattling backwards in time.

  Woody.

  Crass, Georgia, real crass.

  But for goodness sake, why did this man have to send her mind to places it had no business going in a professional setting, which reminded her…

  ‘Why the hell didn’t you mention this merger last night?’

  ‘I didn’t want to steal your thunder. That party was for you. You earned it. Dayton, Llewellyn and I all agreed we should hold off announcing the merger until after the party. If news of it had gotten out, well, you know how it is.’

  Georgia knew only too well how it was. A small boutique firm like Dayton Llewellyn merging practices with a celebrity divorce lawyer, and a Spencer to boot, would have completely usurped her own partnership celebration, but she wasn’t letting him off with that. That was only half the story, and he knew it.

  ‘You didn’t have to tell the whole world, but you sure as hell could have told me.’

  Brad’s mouth curled at the corners, spreading out into a grin.

  ‘And where would we have ended up then?’

  She glared at him, speechless. He knew precisely where it would have ended up, and there wouldn’t have been a super-king size bed involved.