SHHHHHHHKKKKKTTTTTT
Flick.
"This right here is my guilty pleasure, don't tell anyone though," grinned Smith as he lit a cigar.
He quickly opened the window to ensure the smoke didn't give him away.
"Life is hard. My philosophy on getting through it is using helpers to help you through. An afternoon cigar, full fat milk in your morning coffee, some pepperoni on your cheese plate," he smiled gleefully rubbing his gut in a clockwise motion.
"Now where were we?" he turned to an motionless Apple staring squarely at him.
Apple was dressed primly, conservatively. There was no element in her outfit that did not fit business professional- almost like she was trying her best to blend into the group.
"The compliance reports," she said in a matter-of-fact sort of way, "I'm trying to find our standard operating procedure document on what to do if there was insider trading or anything of the sorts going on."
The room was calm and soothing. There was a perfect amount of orderliness and pizzazze. The walls were an earthly brown tone and there was a bamboo privacy screen in one corner- behind it, a futon with several throw pillows. There was a little electric Japanese rock waterfall on the shelf among the various books. "Arbey Smith, Attorney at Law" was inscribed on the nameplate on Smith's desk. He had fidget toys scattered on his desk next to the stacks of files that he had clearly been ignoring.
"The SOP, right," Smith furried his eyebrow, "you know I think HR would know about that wouldn't they?"
"HR?.....You mean Angelo? He's our only HR guy after Jaxley fired the team," responded Apple. There was a twinge of frustration in her voice.
"So… it looks like Lucifer is Jaxley," Helomoto made a mental note.
"Right," sighed Smith sheepishly, "you know we've been really swamped since we took on the Brown case.
"I need that SOP so I can add it to our archive, it's crucial we add it," exclaimed Apple. It was almost as though she was chastising Smith.
"Hey now…listen, I agree with you, but we're just spread really thin, besides insider trading and misappropriation….these are some of the last things we need to worry about. We're like a family! Why is it so important we have this done now?" Smith questioned.
Apple sighed, "We just have audits coming up, I wanted to make sure all our SOPs are in the archive."
"This is why I hired ya, Sam," smiled Smith as he yawned, "so on top of things. I'll be sure to get to it when I can…
..but for now, I'll be taking my afternoon nap."
He stretched and threw himself lazily on the futon, not bothering to pull the privacy screen. He was snoring within seconds. Apple looked at him hesitantly, opened the right hand drawer of his desk, pulled out a folder, collected the files on his desk along with Helomoto and left the room.