I climbed the stairs and glanced toward Alvaro’s office as I passed. The door was shut, but a tall shadow moved behind the frosted glass window, and I hurried down to the conference room that I was supposed to wait in.
The meeting room had a long wooden table with a phone in the middle, leather chairs with high backs, and a wall of windows that looked out over the docks and ships below. The windows were high enough that even Alvaro wouldn’t have to bend down to look out of them, and they let in enough natural sunlight that I didn’t even need to turn the fluorescent lights on. The walls were the same concrete gray as the rest of the building, and the floor was covered with the thin black and gray squares of carpet that had adorned Alvaro’s office. The only decoration in the plain room was a tall, thin palm tree that leaned toward the windows in a quest for sunlight.
I looked down the hall before I walked in, but Alvaro’s office door was still shut. With a sigh, I stepped inside the meeting room to wait and convince myself that I really was doing the right thing.
I left the door open for the two men I was supposed to meet with and took a seat that faced the hall. I’d just finished adjusting the height of the chair when the two men walked in, and I jumped up to walk around the table and offer my hand to the man who had to be the boss.
The president of Fuentes Shipping was shorter than me by a few inches, and he had a deep scar that started under his right eye, curved toward his nose and then back out to his ear. He was a beast of a man with thick muscles hidden beneath a decent level of fat, and despite the well-tailored suit, I was pretty sure the man could snap me in half without effort. He had a scowl on his face that made the giant vice president behind him seem like he was a ray of sunshine, and he somehow took up the entire room with his presence the moment he stepped inside.
“Mr. Torres,” my new boss said with a flash of a smile that revealed three of his teeth on the right were gold. “My name is Osvaldo Fuentes. I’m the president of Fuentes Shipping.”
He reached out to take my offered hand and gave it one solid shake before he dropped it. Even that one quick shake had been painful, and I flexed my fingers to try and get the circulation back.
“It’s good to finally meet you,” he continued. “I’ve heard good things.”
As soon as he stopped talking his scowl covered his face again, and my heart raced as I wondered how terrifying he would be if he was actually angry.
“It’s nice to meet you, too, Mr. Fuentes,” I said with more confidence than I felt in the moment.
“Shall we?” the Cuban man asked with a gesture for me to sit.
“Yes, sir,” I responded as I took my chair. “I appreciate you taking the time to meet with me personally.”
“I wanted to assess you for myself,” the businessman said as he took his chair at the head of the table and folded his hands across the top of the smooth surface. “I like to make sure my employees are worth my time.”
Alvaro took his place in the corner of the room, and he blended in with the shadows so well that I could almost forget he was there despite his height and looming figure.
“Of course,” I said with a nod of my head as I forced my attention back to the president of the shipping company.
My mouth had gone dry, and I tried to swallow inconspicuously but the sound was so loud that the scarred man lifted an eyebrow at me as he flashed a gold-toothed smile.
“I’m sure my second told you we need you to do some jobs for us?” the beefy man asked with a glance toward the tall shadow in the corner of the room.
“Yes, sir,” I replied.
I couldn’t decide if I should look him in the eye or not. Would I be challenging his dominance if I did? In the end, my mother’s training won out, and I looked the beefy man directly in the eyes as we talked.
“Good,” Osvaldo gave me a once over.
His scowl still pulled on the corners of his lips, and I tried not to look at the deep scar that marred his right cheek, though I couldn’t help but wonder who had been brave enough to strike the muscular man.
“We need a corporate attorney,” he continued. “Someone who can help with all of our business affairs and when any of our boys find themselves tangled in legal matters.”
“I would represent your employees as well?” I asked.
“Of course,” the muscular company president said. “Any good company looks after its employees. And I’d expect you to represent them as if it were me.”
He pinned me with a look that made my stomach flip, and my mind drifted back to that scene in some movie where the guy was tied up and thrown off the docks. Not that Fuentes had said anything untoward, but it wasn’t hard to imagine him calmly giving such a command.
“Yes, sir,” I said as I realized I’d probably see many more trials like Diego’s in the future.
“Good,” Fuentes replied. “You’ve reviewed our proposal, correct?”
