A Zoom Love Story

one

James McConnell is a powerful, well known attorney in the Greater Boston area who doesn't have time for nonsense. Well, he doesn't have time for anything, for that matter.

He constantly takes on new cases and meets with new clients all the time. To him, time is money so wasted time is lost money. He's known for staying late at work, since his number one priority is making money.

The pandemic certainly made a mess of things for James. When the world shutdown in March, James was most worried about how it could affect his career and future. But very quickly, he learned that loneliness was a bigger problem than that.

Although, he could never consider himself to be a lonely person. With so many clients and well respected colleagues, how could one be lonely? And besides, his assistant Emily is always there for him.

Emily is a young intern from Cornell with aspirations of becoming the best attorney in Boston. While James thinks it's a nice goal to have, he finds it unrealistic and quite naive. She also considers herself a free spirit, which is one thing that James never understood.

James is a firm believer in routine and sticking to the plan, while Emily likes to "go with the flow" and play things by ear. While James has never understood Emily, he has almost come to appreciate her free, open nature.

Much like every other day, James is at his penthouse and is working from home. Although he misses working with his clients and colleagues daily, he has enjoyed being able to get away with wearing sweatpants to work.

Every day, Emily sends him a schedule consisting of calls and meetings to attend, whatever needs to be completed, et cetera. In these weird times, it is so easy for the days to blend together. To be honest, James is glad to have Emily. Having her as an assistant while the whole world is turned upside down makes him feel more balanced.

Today was like any other day. He had gone through most of his itinerary and was nearly done for the day. His final meeting was a bit later in the evening, with another firm he doesn't necessarily care for.

Thinking nothing of it, he clicked the link a minute before, as he always does. He doesn't like to be the first or last person on a call (much like most people). But when he joined the call, he was surprised to see that the firm was not there. But someone else was.