Barter Economy by Meyari McFarland

Author:Meyari McFarland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Meyari McFarland

2. New Assignment

Garret breathed slowly as he marched away from his tiny desk set in one corner of four desks in the middle of the noisiest part of the floor. Eyes followed him as he made his way, bowing as he passed coworkers and superiors, towards Hasagawa Noriko's office. Getting called to her office was generally not a good thing. She was the disciplinarian of Ouchi, Hasagawa and Associates and Garret had never been called to her office before.

Everyone had to be wondering what he'd done to get in trouble.

He would be calm. He would be controlled. He would be certain of himself but not overbearing. Four years at the law firm had taught him the value of confident bearing even when he felt like curling up into a ball.

The largest problem he had, always, was how very non-Japanese he looked. Brown hair verging towards blond, hazel eyes and pale skin would always mark him as an outsider even though he'd been born in Japan of Japanese parents. His mother was half British, though, and he took after his maternal grandparents rather than his father's side of the family. It really was only the shape of his eyes that showed his Japanese ancestry.

How many times a day did people praise his Japanese as if he was a fresh off the plane foreigner? Less lately, since he started working at Ouchi, Hasagawa and Associates, but it still happened at least two or three times a day at lunch and on the train. He'd never lived anywhere else and yet he was an outsider.

Forever.

Not the thoughts to harbor when dealing with Ms. Hasagawa.

Garret cleared his mind of his worries, breathed deeply and then tapped on her door before carefully opening it halfway and stepping inside while calling 'excuse me'.

Ms. Hasagawa ignored him.

That was normal. A power play. Something that she did even to the president of the firm. Frankly, she was even more of an outsider at the law firm than Garret was simply because of her gender. Very few lawyers in Japan were women, and very few women over the age of thirty worked. They were too busy bearing and raising children for that.

Hasagawa Noriko was fifty-three, with iron-black hair and the stark black skirt-suit of woman working in Japan. The skirts were nearly identical, straight and plain other than the occasional line of hand topstitching at the hem. Same for the jackets which might as well have been men's jackets. Her blouses varied between three shades: cream, pale blue and lavender, all so faint that they looked nearly white no matter what the lighting.

He'd never seen her with a hair out of place or a run in her stockings.

She intimidated the hell out of Garret, not only because she was kibishi, exceedingly strict, but also because he was completely certain that she could beat him to death and not break a sweat.

He'd started taking Kendo and Iaido, Japanese sword fighting, shortly after joining the firm. Most of the younger associates did in an effort to make a name for themselves outside of work hours.

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