Office Hours |h.s|

fifty

Harry

"I want to show you something."

Maude has been quiet since last night, not really wanting to really go into what's been on her mind. She doesn't want to talk about it, so I haven't been pushing her, but I do want to get her mind off of whatever's bothering her at least for our trip. I want her to have a nice birthday, to leave all of our problems in Harvard for a little while.

Reaching over, I gently take her hand while I drive. We took our time getting ready to leave this morning, but still managed to hit the road at a reasonable time. I just have one more thing to do before we can really get on our way to Maine.

She looks over at me, furrowing her brows in confusion as I turn into a parking lot. "Where are we?" She asks, holding my hand tight in her lap. I just wink over at her as I pull into a parking spot. When she finally takes note of the sign in front of us that announces my ownership of the spot, it clicks for her.

"Reserved for Harry Styles. Something tells me you became a partner in a firm just for the parking spot perks." She teases as we get out of the car together.

"Obviously. Why else do people become partners in firms? Because they're good at law?" I joke back, smiling since I'm successful at making her laugh.

Mitch and I always give our employees extra time off for Thanksgiving to allow them to go home and prep if they need to. Especially now during a case this big, I think it's important that everyone gets time to relax and not think about it 24/7. Granted, I'm sure I'll be getting plenty of texts with new angles and filings since the Sterlings are no doubt using this time to put their brains together and find a way to spin this to fit their story. It's always hard to not think about a case, and the fact that those two kids are spending their first holiday away from not only their mother, but their father too is heavy on my mind this year.

It's part of the reason I wanted to get away with Maude. My family is all overseas and we never celebrated Thanksgiving to begin with. Mitch and Sarah usually invite me over to celebrate with them, or Niall and Shea, but I always feel like the stray dog everyone pities and gives scraps too. I couldn't sit there this year and pretend everything is okay and happy, because it's not.

Maude was quick to say yes to going away for the long weekend, since it gave her a reason to blow off her family. I don't even think she cared about this being a birthday trip so I could celebrate her, she just wanted to be anywhere but home. I'm glad I could be that refuge for her this year, and hope that we can make these birthday trips a tradition for her.

Even though I promised her no talking about the case on this trip —a request she made since apparently her brother is trying to get her to spy on me and she doesn't want to know about the case anymore— I just have to send one email today to a witness we're subpoenaing. I also figured it would be nice to show Maude around the firm since it's empty. It's something I've always wanted to do since the firm is so important to me, but with the interns all over the place it's just too risky. Now is my only chance.

I get out my key to the building, walking with her to the door with a smile. "Welcome to Styles and Rowland. Probably not as impressive as Sterling and Sterling, but we've built this baby from the ground up." I explain, smiling over my shoulder at her as I open the door. I let her go in first and follow behind her, locking the door behind me.

She looks around the entrance with a smile before her eyes meet mine. "It's amazing, H. You've done a great job." She holds her hand out for me to take, which of course I do. "Show me around."

The smile on my face never fades as I give Maude a tour of the firm. She asks me millions of questions about the work we do here and how Mitch and I run the place, completely letting her hunger for knowledge win. That's the one thing about Maude, no matter how much she tries to play it off, it is clear that she is passionate about being a lawyer. This is her calling for sure, and she is going to thrive once she's out practicing in the real world.