Chapter
One
A wave of nausea sloshed through Sarah’s stomach the minute her six inch
heels touched the stained LA sidewalk. The sting of regret pierced her thoughts
as she stood in front of the run down law office of Joseph A. Goldman. Leaving her cushy gig at UC Berkeley was a
noble although ill conceived idea. All she had to do was finish her degree and
she would have been living the good life on a six figure trust fund.
Her uncle lived like a rock star in
his three story bachelor pad in the Hidden Hills. So when he offered her a
receptionist job she assumed she’d be surrounded by glamorous high end
clientele. She never would have dreamed she’d be working in a place like this. She
envisioned herself fetching coffee for hoity-toity women caring lapdogs dressed
in Prada. She’d be her uncle’s girl Friday, filing documents for distinguished
gray haired men with wives half their ages by day and rocking the theater
circuit by night. The job came with room and board, a small salary, and a car
to get to her auditions. It was a pretty sweet deal but her uncle’s law firm
was far from glamorous. It was stationed in the heart of East LA right between
a Taqueria and a mattress store. The constant blare of sirens was distressing
and the entire place looked as if it could use a good scrubbing or maybe a can
of gasoline and a match. She wondered what kind of clients retained a lawyer
from a place like this.
Sarah shook her head and swallowed down nervous bile. She’d never even
had a real job. She moved out of her parent’s house and into the dorms at UCB. She
shook her head. ‘What the hell was I
thinking?’ She took a deep breath resolve and determined to make this thing
work even if it meant working on the corner of crack and gang. She pushed
through the glass door and scanned the shabby desolate office. The carpet was warned
and the stucco ceiling was stained yellow.
“I’m sorry doll Jo no longer
represents working girls.” Sarah spun around to locate the source of the low
husky voice. There before her stood the tallest thinnest woman she’d ever seen.
At a loss for words for the first time in her life Sarah looked down at her
tight black dress and shook her head.
