Allen walked away from Mitchell as he began to explain himself. "No Mitchell, I don't want to hear anything you have to say. This is what we are going to do. We are going to walk into the conference room, give this attorney your statement, answer any questions that she has for you and then we are going to get the fuck up out of the meeting and I will see to it that you are back in New York this evening. You will return when you are needed for the trial, if it goes that far. You better hope and pray that it doesn't go to trial."
Allen gathered his notes from the file cabinet and gave Mitchell last
minute instructions.
"Don't forget what I told you. Speak when spoken to, don't adlib,
don't bullshit and please don't make excuses for what you did. Just
except it and let's move on."
"I understand," Mitchell responded with a sunken head.
Allen and Mitchell entered the conference room to find a well-dressed
young woman sitting in one of the many leather chairs that encircled the
large conference table. She sat looking over the legal briefs of the case as
she sipped the cup of coffee that Mary supplied for her.
"Hello," Allen spoke suspiciously as he looked at her,
"I'm Allen
Anthony and this is Mitchell.
"Allen Anthony," she spoke softly, "Allen Anthony, that name sounds
very familiar. Do I know you?"
"You do look familiar. What did you say your name was?"
"I didn't, but it's Gwen, Gwen Matthews."
Allen's eyes widened, and his heart pumped as he thought about his
initial meeting with Gwen.
"I think I do, or should I say I have met you before."
"Really, where would that have been?"
As Allen prepared to answer Gwen's question, the door opened and
Mary announced Mr. Cochran.
"Hey people, sorry I'm late."
"Mr. Cochran, I was under the impression that you were not coming
today," Allen asked in a confused state.
"Well the other business that I had to take care of was postponed so I
thought I would come over here and take care of this issue myself."
"Well we were just about to begin."
"Good. Ms. Matthews you can return to the office and handle your
prior engagements. I appreciate you covering this for me, but I can take
it from here."
"Are you sure," Gwen asked as she looked at Allen.
"Positive, you can head back to the office."
Gwen gathered her papers from the table and placed them in her
briefcase. She stood and turned to Mr. Cochran to tell him that she
didn't really have much to do today and she could stay. Again Mr.
Cochran told her that he could handle it. Allen looked as Gwen walked
slowly through the door.