Chapter 10: Shields Up!

Monday morning, 8:00. Kayla was waiting at Nio’s office door in her regular business courier outfit: black suit, white shirt, low heels, suitable for any law office. Nio greeted her, “Good morning, thank you for coming in. Ready to start?”

“Yes, Mr. Teixeira.” Her voice was flat, without inflection. He unlocked the door and followed her inside. “We should start with your employment paperwork, Kayla, tax forms, insurance, and so forth. All right?”

“Yes, but call me Ms. Wilson, Mr. Teixeira.” Softly spoken, but Nio flinched as if she had slapped him. “I apologize, Ms. Wilson, you are quite correct.” They moved on to complete the paperwork.

“Ms. Wilson, I do need to obtain a car lease for you. Too often I need to be in different jurisdictions and locations and I need another pair of hands (and wheels) available.” Kayla rolled her eyes. “That’s what couriers are for,” she thought.

“Do you have any preferences?”

“No, Mr. Teixeira, except an automatic shift and, of course, air conditioning.” This last with a small smile.

It was as if the clouds parted and a huge stone lifted from his heart. Nio smiled back. “Maybe a convertible?” he laughed.

“Let’s get started.”

The rest of the week Nio was rushing around like a crazy person. On top of his ordinary workload, he had a trial scheduled which was turning into a complete time-suck. Kayla — Ms. Wilson (!) — was picking up everything fast, but she was starting from zero, and his time to train her was limited. At times, she could tell his patience was thinning (“There’s so much I need to learn!”), but he always maintained his composure while politely teaching her the job.

They both made coffee as needed, and at lunch time he ate in his office while she lunched at her desk in the front of the suite.

Wednesday morning, Nio approached Kayla at her desk. “Ms. Wilson, may I invite you to lunch? We have some business to attend to.” She tensed up, visibly. “I need to be there? I’m fine eating here.”

“It would help if you could come.”

“All right.”

At 11:30 they closed the office and Kayla stepped back into Nio’s Audi. “Where are we going?” Nio answered, “Sorry, it’s so crazy this week, we really have to dine and dash. And we have a fast errand on the way back.”

After a quick and tasty lunch, Nio drove them over to a car dealership. “I thought you were kidding about the car, Nio!” A tall salesman came striding up to them.

“Nio, good to see you again! And who is this?” “Tom, this is my new assistant, Ms. Wilson. Tom Paul is the leasing manager here. Is our A3 ready?”

“Of course, it’s waiting right there next to the black SUV. We will finish the paperwork inside and I’ll give you the keys.”

Kayla: “It looks like your car, maybe a little smaller?” Nio replied, “That’s right, I get a good deal from these guys since I represented them two years ago.”

“I thought you represented victims?” Nio: “This Audi dealer was the victim. A formerly reputable wholesaler sold them a bunch of counterfeit brake parts as name brand at regular price. If it wasn’t for an exceptional tech who caught it, over there in that repair shop, they would have put dozens of people at terrible risk. Sometimes even car dealers can be victims.”

Paperwork completed, Tom handed over the keys. “Here you are, Ms. Wilson. We’ll see you for service at 6,000 miles. Thanks, Nio.”

Back in the lot, Kayla parked herself behind the wheel. “Back to work?” she asked. “Yes, Ms. Wilson. Drive safe. But I’m running to court. Probably back to the office around three.”

Driving, Kayla couldn’t help herself: she turned up the stereo, set the a/c to polar express, and rocked out all the way back to the office. Parking, she thought, “He didn’t have to do this for me. And there must be somebody somewhere who dislikes this guy. I might have to take down my walls a little.”

And then...