Love Story: In The Web of Life Read Online Free PDF Page A

stiff tone of voice.
    We finished our lunch, without much
conversation, loaded the car a drove to LA. She slept most of the
way.
     
     
     
     
    ****
     
     
     
    Chapter
Two
    BEING A
LAWYER
     
    Monday traffic was normal on Santa Monica
Boulevard, typical of LA, everyone hectically driving above the
speed limit of 45 with only a few car lengths between them, while
conducting important business on cell phones. I wanted silence this
morning.
    I turned into the driveway of the Century City
building, drove down two floors to my parking spot, took the
elevator to the lobby, and joined the rush into the elevators to
the upper floors. At my floor, I exited the elevator and walked
down the hall to our office door. The spacious lobby had a modern
feel, with large black leather and chrome chairs, large tan ceramic
planters with well-tended plants, and a large mahogany faced
counter, behind which sat Carolyn, a blond who wore makeup like a
professional model, and today, a navy blue business suit and a
crimson scarf tied loosely around her neck.
    "Good morning Mr. Willard!" said Carolyn
cheerfully as she covertly buzzed my secretary's phone to warn of
my arrival and gave me her "your the most interesting person...and
I'm available" smile.
    "Good morning!" I replied as I walked past her
down the hall to my office. The mahogany–walled suite had two
offices, in front of which the secretary, Zaza, sat at a chrome and
ebony desk. Her desk, as usual, was clear except for a wireless
keyboard and mouse, and display, and the single pile of papers she
was typing from. She wore an almost invisible telephone
headset.
    Zaza Green, whose real name was Zahavia, is in
her late forties, plump in a post-menopausal way, with grey hair in
a perm style that she was probably married in. Her skin is sallow
and wrinkled as it would be for a formerly pack-a-day smoker who
had almost quit. Her blouse exposed some of her abundant cleavage
of the type I really don't want to see. Her manner ran from
businesslike to covertly hostile, and I usually got the latter. She
wouldn't have been my choice as a secretary, but she came with the
office. Someone had informed me she had earned a special "in" with
one of the partners a long time ago.
    "Good morning," she said in two descending
tones. "How was your weekend in the desert? Did Flopsy go with
you?"
    "Tina Quail," I corrected.
    "Flopsy, Popsy or Cotton Tail, I can't keep
your desert rabbits straight," replied Zaza. "Are flowers in
order?"
    I thought for a second and replied, "Yes that
would be a good idea. Send her a bouquet of daisies or something
cheerful like that. On the card say, 'for a delightful
picnic.'"
    Zaza replied with slight scorn, "Popsy usually
got roses. I have Tina's address."
    I went into my office, and started going
through my email. After a while, Zaza buzzed my phone, and said,
"George Downey has arrived and is in the conference
room."
    "OK," I replied.
    I was grateful that scheduled visitors were
charmed by Carolyn and then shown to the conference room. I didn't
like Zaza representing me.
    George is one of the technical experts we often
use in our patent trials. He has two PhDs that I know of and is an
expert on electromagnetic devices. Today he was, as usual, dressed
as a scientist would be expected to, with a tweed sport coat that
he wore in all seasons, and did not quite match his slacks, with
leather patches sewn on the elbows, and a plastic pocket protector
with several pens in the inside pocket. He was tan with balding
grey hair and intense blue eyes, and today, as usual, he looked
very serious.
    We discussed some of the technical issues in
the patent case I was working on, and talked about how we could
present the information in lay terms in a trial. As he was getting
ready to leave, we were chatting about cell phones and where they
worked and where they didn't, when I thought I felt some sort of
vibration from him.
    I started to think about Tina and how I seemed
to sense her vibrations. I