Liam Baker pressed the "Stop" option on his phone and stopped the alarm from blaring any more. He never changed the alarm according to days. Every morning he made sure to wake up at 6:30am, whether he had a busy day ahead or was out partying all of last night, it didn't matter. The alarm was fixed.
He groaned quietly as he pushed away the duvet and rose from the comfortable and still warm king sized bed, and tip toed to the bathroom where he began his morning routine. It consisted of only two parts. The first involved brushing his teeth, shaving, and showering. The second part he found himself getting dressed, enjoy a brief breakfast that consisted of a fruit and coffee while checking in on the morning news. He was out the door by 7:30am and drove to his office in under half an hour, if there were no adverse circumstances on the roads, like an accident or emergency road work.
Liam was one of the few people who truly liked and appreciated their job. Being a lawyer was something, but being a recognised and talked-about lawyer was a must add-on. Liam was part of Shepherd & Co, a leading law firm with over 1,000 offices globally. The upcoming generation of lawyers are fighting each other to death over a place and the firm is constantly mentioned on the news regarding some type of case Shepherd & Co handled. By now everyone knew, Shepherd & Co was the law firm with hands in every major case that attracted global media lights.
Over there, Liam was a junior partner, a rising protégé and nicknamed the king of litigation. He was suave, charismatic, persuasive and fucking demanding. He focused on his goal and made sure that no one disturbed his path to what's rightfully his. Despite his kind heart and honest intentions, people were afraid of his horrific. The prosecution feared him and people pitied his opponents. If eyed up close, the dark aura that he carried could be spotted beneath his handsome smile. Those exact manners and characteristics of Liam were reflected by his ink. He had a lot of ink. A half sleeve covered his left shoulder and upper arm, while a full on sleeve traced along his upper right body. His back was fully covered in the ink outlining the art he chose; A Japanese influenced representation for the art of war. Liam worked and lived in class, but some aspects of his life, like his tats, showed the influence of his past. Some of which showed a hungry Liam growing up in the cold streets between gangsters, thieves and cold blooded killers.
Liam Baker entered the underground parking space of his firm and swiftly parked his Mercedes-Benz in the spot with his name, branded in white letters contrasting against the black sign. As he stood next to his car, he tucked his expensive white shirt neatly again, going around his waist. This movement displayed his muscles perfectly as they contracted and relaxed. He was in terrific shape.
That was one of his many important angles in life he treasured; his health. He was a fitness addict. If he wasn't busy with work or meetings, he was in the gym. It took a healthy proportion of his day, and Liam always made sure to work out for a minimum of two hours per day, resting on the weekends. His workouts altered from week to week. He didn't like to keep a schedule for what days to work out which muscle, and instead preferred a freestyle approach. Sometimes he decided on weightlifting, sometimes a jog or playing a sport like basketball, but also occasionally visited the swimming track, which allowed for his broad shoulders to exist.
Liam checked his phone while he waited for the elevator, skimming his e-mails and replying to the ones that required his attention. When he heard the sound of the elevator, he looked up from his phone screen and stepped inside the concise space. He pressed the 20th floor, the doors glided shut and he began riding against gravity to the floor of his department: litigation.
The doors opened and the familiar reception, with one vase of flowers which he supposed was to show some sort of warm welcoming in this monotone place, came into view. The receptionist, a cute blonde with thick black frames resting on her nose bridge, flickered her eyes up to him and quickly back down, only to flick them back up at Liam, but this time accompanied with a smile, after realising who it was that entered the office. She bit her lip for a moment, eyeing him up and down, before catching herself.
'Good morning Mr. Baker.'
Liam gave her his charismatic smile, which revealed a row of white teeth. 'Morning Rebecca.' He said in a husky tone, clearly flirting with her.
But that's all it was, a flirt, office banter. Liam always made sure never to cross the line between ethical office standing and personal matters. Hence he never pursued any women in the office, despite witnessing some of the finest ladies he had laid eyes. And when he meant finest, he truly meant women that oozed beautiful as much as sexiness.
He walked down the corridor until the very end to a corner office with his name plastered on the glass door. He entered it and breathed in the smell of paper and wood, the final opening to the day of work ahead.
The office was not something exemplar. Liam found that the less stuff there was i.e. the simpler the design, the more elegant it was. But his profession did not allow for a simpler design with his desk always covered in stacks of papers, folders and various legal books. Sometimes he barely had space for the keyboard of the computer, and after a few months of serious struggle, he put in a request for a bigger table, which was granted almost immediately, much to his pleasure. Yet a bigger desk did not solve the issue as his workload increased. So he made sure that around his office there was not much stuff, especially not personal belongings. He did not want his colleagues poking around in his life or past, especially not the rich buggers that never experienced a cold winter before.
He checked his inbox and in the span from checking his e-mails from his phone to arriving at the office, he had received over hundreds of new e-mails. When was first awarded his current position of power, he was overwhelmed and used to sigh at the process of influx that took place in his inbox. Now he was used to it and didn't blink twice while already skimming the titles. He replied to some, ignored others and forwarded the rest.
After an hour of doing exactly that, nothing, he began attending to the pile of cases that had his name as the acting lawyer. Many lawyers didn't enjoy all the cases they were assigned to and either preferred the complex cases, like million-dollar frauds, or the ones that attracted a hell of a lot of attention. Liam was certain that the former caused the latter. For him however, it was different. He enjoyed every single on of his cases. They were his, and he made sure that none will disrupt the perfect unbeaten record under his belt. He was the best and worked his ass off to stay the best. The top litigator was a spot many craved and fought dirty for, but he had successfully defended it for the past years, and was planning on keeping it that way. For an ambitious and workaholic like Liam, that was natural.
He was heavily infested in the work, answering the calls his secretary Emilia filtered through, and considering he instructed her to only let few important people's calls to get through, he had to answer all of them. More e-mails and many outgoing calls to courts, the prosecution, opposing counsel or clients. Before he knew it, the clock hit 1pm and everyone changed their status on the computer system to 'Lunch'. Everyone besides Liam, who remained behind the closed glass doors of his office, his head barely visible behind the stacks of nonsense.
