All Chapters of When Love Strikes Hard: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

I'm nervous.  It's my first job interview since I finally became a certified advocate, and I feel like sitting here, in the waiting lounge of Southerford Inc., I'm this close to spilling the contents of my stomach all over the place.  This close. I'm practicing breathing in through the nose, breathing out through the mouth, closing my eyes to concentrate, basically doing anything to calm my frizzling nerves, but the saying 'it's easier said than done' never felt truer to me than at this moment. One at a time, people are being called in through the door right in front of my eyes, some going in as if getting this job means everything to them, others looking like they'd rather be pooping in a forest and wiping their butts clean with poison ivy than be here. I blow a loud breath through my mouth. "Come on...-" "-Gard, Priscilla?" I feel my pumping organ jerk at the woman officer in charge of us i

I can’t believe I actually got the job. Southerford Inc. is notoriously difficult to get into, even for experienced professionals, and I got the job?If this isn’t a pinch-me moment, I don’t know what is. I’m being led to the third floor of the main building through the atrium by one Mr. Smith. He tells me he’s one of the first members on the team of legal experts, and it takes no genius to guess he’s one of the senior members on the team-- work-wise as well as age-wise. “Now, Ms. Gard, I’d like you to not feel overwhelmed by work on your first day,” Mr. Smith says with a smile, but there’s just something so cunning about the air around him that I restrict myself to formal yet cordial smiles with him. “I’d suggest getting familiar with your surroundings and colleagues today, and then we can slowly get you used to your work targets.”The lift dings open

Ruben doesn’t play. As I wait at my desk, waiting for ‘something to be sent my way’, I think about what’s happened since morning. First, Gerrard Southerford himself witnesses my interview for the position of a law consultant in his company. Second, it becomes helluva lot apparent to me that he hates my guts the way he stared me down in the Interview Room. And somehow, I still end up with the job?And then, Argo Smith, one of the senior consultants on the team takes it upon himself to introduce me to his only son, who turns out to be the manager, and then Remo tells me that Smith ‘runs half the company’?I know for a fact that he’s no partner in this company; Gerrard’s not the kind of person to share even a fragment of his success with someone else who didn’t even contribute to it. Then how could Smith run half this company?My mind drifts back&nbs

It's been a rollercoaster at work today. I'm exhausted, to say the least- but most of all, I'm starving. The first thing I do as soon as I get back to my apartment is make myself some hot cocoa. While it's simmering away in the pot, I run down to the washroom and let loose. I'm sweaty, my work clothes are damp with my sweat, so I freshen up and change into my night-suit. By the time I walk back into the kitchen, my cocoa is about to burn. "Shit," I curse under my breath, heaving the pot off the stove with a dishcloth and pouring it into a mug. There's this slight note of smoky cocoa in the vapours that fly over the mug, but it's going to have to do. Sighing, I take my hot cocoa and head to the tiny living room. It's a one bedroom flat that I live in, and to be honest, it's kind of cramped, but then it's the closest one I could get to Southerford Inc., so I'm not complaining. I plop down on the couch and switch on the T.V. I almo

“On whose team, Gard?”I knew it that this man hated me, but I never knew he’d literally throw it in my face. I get that he doesn’t want me to work for his company. I get that. But if I’m really that unbearable, or— undeserving, then just kick me out, damn it. Don’t just insult me like that. I’m staring at his back, unable to believe the words that just came out of his mouth. Never has anyone ever spat out my last name at me. As if it’s an insult, for god’s sake. You know what, man? I don’t care about you and your shitty company if this is how you’re going to treat me.”On yours, Southerford,” I reply, defiantly staring at the back of his head. I can see his body tense when he hears me, and I brace myself for the worst. Which is me losing this job. But you know what