Vampires Bite

Vampires Are Sexy

     The rest of my day went uneventfully after me fangirling and asking tons of what seemed like stupid questions Antonio left. We agreed to meet on Wednesday in his office. He left behind the folder and I slipped it in my briefcase to read later. First, I needed more time to process.

I told Mr. Schooler that I scored Auxillio as a client but didn’t elaborate on the details, no matter how persistent he was. He was very pleased and offered to take me to celebrate.

At work, he was Mr. Schooler outside; he was Robert and just another guy I went to law school with. Despite his big ego and bad manners, he was a good guy.

“So Mr. Morros himself came in to see you?” He asked for like the fifth time as we sipped our drinks.

“Yes, Robert, he saw my commercial,” I said between sips.

“Oh, if he came himself he really saw your commercial, if you know what I mean,” he laughed.

“That playboy, please. Not my type. Besides, I think he just wanted to present it himself,” I shrugged.

Though I had never really paid attention to all the gossip about him, I knew he was a playboy. Had I looked at all the many articles shown to me by love-struck friends or my sister, I might have recognized him earlier.

For whatever reason, he dropped the subject, and I was thankful.

Robert got up drinking the final swig of his Grey Goose and cranberry and headed back towards the bar. My drink was still half full. I’m reminded of my habit carried over from college of drinking Jager bombs, though I graduated to drinking them on the rocks. I wasn’t a Martini kind of girl, which never went over well in stuffy groups.

Robert took his time coming back, stopping to talk to a petite blonde-haired girl. I had nothing against blondes, my mom was a blonde. I didn’t take after her completely. My hair was closer to my father’s strawberry blonde with a little more strawberry than blonde, but I got my mother’s gray eyes. My fathers are hazel. Both my parents are tall for their respective genders, though I was barely five foot three. I got that from Grandma Warner.

“I got a date for Friday,” Robert sat back down, a new drink in hand bringing me out of my thoughts.

“That’s great!” It was nice to hang out with Robert. He’s one of the few people from Law School I like.

I often saw others from school, but I never imagined I'd be working with Robert and his father one day. His father wanted to expand their practice and I'm the lucky one who landed the job.

We had a few more drinks before catching an Uber home and Robert walked me towards my door.

“Cassie, just be careful. You were never the booty call kind,” he said before walking off. I guess he thought I would succumb to the town playboy. The thought made me laugh.

“Well, at least I’m not premature balding,” I hollered back eliciting a loud laugh from Robert as he got back into the car.

Opening the door, I grabbed Merlin in my hands before he could make a quick run for the door. He sometimes loved to live the life of an alley cat, and I’d let him roam free until he tired out. That was usually a few hours later. Tonight, however, I am tired.

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It was nearly noon, and I was ready for lunch. I ordered out so I could sit at my desk and go over Antonio’s file some more. We set the big meeting for tomorrow and I wanted to be more familiar with his company and what types of issues he foresaw.

What interested me more though was vampires. Was it even safe to be around him? What were vampires like? I mean we had a range of reading on them from Dracula to the glowing glittery ones, to the sexy ones in the books I have guiltily read.

I did a little search on the internet while I waited for my food. I typed in the history of vampires into the search engine and clicked on the first one since it was the most popular.

The pictures on the page were gruesome, and so were the tales that followed. People would chop off the heads of their loved ones before burial to stop them from becoming a vampire. That sounds more like a superstition, though.

The next paragraph talked about redheads. I am aware of the stigma of redheads in some countries but never heard that some deemed them, vampires, or witches. I again chalked that up to some kind of superstition, though the pale skin has always stuck in vampire legends and redheads had pale skin. Perhaps that was where that superstition came from. Antonio’s skin was pale, but his hair was black.

Next was the famous tale of Dracula. I skimmed through most of it since I was already familiar with it. What caught my eyes though was the list of aversions vampires suffer and their abilities. I’d already seen he had the teeth and could float. I’d have to ask if he could fly. I wasn’t so sure about hypnotizing. I had to admit he had a calming way about him. Antonio was charming for sure.

Before I could read more, I heard a tapping sound on the door, so I opened another web page and typed in Auxillio before answering it.

“Your lunch is here Miss. Warner,” Jenny, one of our paralegals sat my takeout food on my desk before glancing at my computer. “I heard you landed a contract with him.” her eyes raised quizzically, and she smiled.

“Well, I haven’t accepted, I meet with him tomorrow,” I said.

“Mr. Grant has asked me to assist you tomorrow,” she took a seat in front of the desk, crossing her legs, which was no easy feat in the tight pencil skirt she was wearing.

Jenny was tall, well taller than me, and though I couldn’t quite pull off the pencil skirt look, she did and did it well. She was average, with shoulder-length brown hair and tanned skin. What she lacked on top, her long legs made up for. She was nice, and I liked her overall, but I wasn’t sure she should assist me in this.

“That won’t be necessary, tomorrow is just a meeting and you could be of better use here.” I opened up my container, breathing in the succulent smell of general tsos. I was hoping she got the drift and left me to my lunch.

She sat a few moments longer before standing, “I will let Mr. Grant know. If you change your mind, though...”

“I will let you know,” I said.

“One more thing. When you take the case, can you please keep me in mind? I wouldn’t want to lose a big case like this out to Steven. Besides, Steven prefers the drama of criminal courts, and wouldn’t appreciate Mr. Morros as I would,” She said before closing the door without an answer from me.

I guess that was one more thing I would have to discuss with him tomorrow. I couldn’t possibly keep making excuses for why I would not be using a paralegal for an entire month, not on a contract such as this one. The boys, as I liked to call them, would be all over me.

I saved the page I was on earlier so I could print it from home. It would be fun to ask Antonio some of this stuff on here. There wasn’t much time left before I scheduled my next appointment to come in, a seventy-five-year-old lady who wished to change her will, so I used the rest of my time to enjoy my lunch.

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My voicemail light kept blinking, signaling I had a new voicemail. I tried to remember to check it, but it wasn’t easy. If it wasn’t for my job, I wouldn’t even have a business line at home. I prefer to use my cell phone, but giving your cell phone number for after-hours or business calls wasn’t a good idea., it had only been two days since I had checked it last, and I didn’t get yelled at by the boys, so I was fine.

The first message was from Jenny asking me to remember to bring in the Frederick files Monday. I wasn’t one to forget, and I had brought the files in as needed, so I hit delete.

Message two was Steven. It upset him I never considered him to assist me with my recent case. News flash Steven I never even asked Jenny to assist. I made a mental note to let him know that to avoid inner-office conflict.

The third and final message is from my sister Julia. She had heard that a certain hot eligible man was seen entering my building with me and wanted the deets ASAP. I laughed and hit delete on that one too.

She knew better to think I could tell her about cases, but it didn’t stop her from occasionally asking. Julia ran our parent’s insurance company, a job I was thankful to avoid, and one she took seriously.

She was a year younger than me and though one would think our parents would be proud of a daughter who graduated Law School; she was always the favorite. Julia was following in their steps, they would say.

. My father has warmed up to my career choices, though my mother still tries to make me the house lawyer. I told her it was a conflict of interest and she let it go. Until family reunions, that is.

The sound of my door buzzer startled me, and I knocked the answering machine over. I quickly grabbed it before it ended up in pieces on the ground and put it back on the end table.

I wasn’t expecting anyone, and most of my friends knew to call ahead in case I’m pulling overtime at the firm. s**t, hopefully, it wasn’t Steven or Jenn coming to give me their last-minute pitches. They once did that to Robert. They came with PowerPoint and all to his home to compete for a case. The paralegals got bonuses sometimes and getting your name out there for assisting big cases was a tremendous deal to them.

Looking through the peephole, I saw none other than Antonio. He was looking like he just stepped out of a magazine and won the Adonis. Why did he have to be some damn sexy?