Chapter 88

AMELIA I’m smiling as I show Stu Parker into Drake’s office. He’s a new client, and this is his first time visiting us. I always make an effort with clients, but on their first visit, I show them the executive lounge and ply them with food and drink as part of the charm offensive. Not that the firm needs me to win or keep clients—the place is thriving—but I see it as part of my job. I am a representative of James and James, and as such, my behavior matters. Clients like Mr. Parker make it especially easy. He’s a self-made millionaire in his sixties, a man who still wears jeans to work and has never forgotten his roots. He’s so easy to talk to, I’d quite like him to adopt me. In the hour he’s been in the building, he’s learned all about my mom, I oohed and aahed over several dozen pictures of his granddaughters, and we discovered that he used to live three streets away from my mom’s house in Brooklyn when he first started his plumbing business. He’s absolutely adorable, the complete opp