Anything You Want by Geoff Herbach

Author:Geoff Herbach
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc
Published: 2016-03-03T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

The phone bleated at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. I had been asleep, but I was worried enough about Maggie to zombie roll out of bed and answer. It wasn’t my lady friend. It was Mr. Nussbaum. “Would you like a ride to the office, amigo?” he asked.

“You bet your pants,” I said, although I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on because I was still half asleep.

“I’ll be at your pad in ten minutes,” he said.

“My pad,” I repeated.

I hung up the phone and crawled back into bed. Except instead of drifting back to dreamland, I sat up. This was real. This was not a dream. It was 7:00 a.m., and Mr. Nussbaum was just minutes away from the suite. I don’t remember getting dressed. I don’t remember brushing my teeth, but I’m sure I did. Fresh breath was a priority for this guy. The next thing I knew, I was riding in Mr. Nussbaum’s fine Caddie, and we were cruising to do some law.

“You ready for action?” Mr. Nussbaum asked.

“Going to put a dent in those files for sure,” I said, wishing I was still putting a dent in my pillow.

“Not today you’re not. Saturday’s my busiest day. We have a full docket of clients coming in. You’ll need to meet and greet them, run in some coffee periodically, and maybe run out for some rolls or a sandwich or two. Today you’ll be my face, my feet, and my hands.”

I looked at my hand and said, “You are Mr. Nussbaum’s hand.”

“Ha-ha!” Mr. Nussbaum shouted. He’s a peppy guy.

Mr. Nussbaum parked behind the building a half block off Main Street in front of a sign that read, “Da Hound Dog.” Underneath in smaller letters, it said in parentheses, “(Nussbaum’s Spot, Not Yours, Unless You Want to Get Your Butt Bit.)”

“You like my sign?” he asked. “Mallory got it for me last Christmas. She is a funny one.”

“Whacky,” I said.

Mr. Nussbaum slapped my thigh. “You’re getting to know all about the world of Nussbaum, aren’t you?”

The hall outside his office wasn’t nearly as scary in the daylight, although I took note of some major-league spiderwebs in the corners. Mr. Nussbaum opened the office door, and in we went. He headed directly for the majesty of the law file room, and I got a little scared because I hadn’t really done anything other than make piles. But he wasn’t mad at all. In fact, Nussbaum was the exact opposite of mad.

“Taco! Aren’t you an industrious fellow. Were you here all night?”

“Well, until past ten,” I said.

Mr. Nussbaum’s eyes got kind of moist. “Everybody told me you’re a great kid.” He began to nod. “Now I know it’s true. This…” He gestured to the majesty of my stacks of papers. “This would’ve taken Mallory a week or more.”

In my hour of labor the night before, I had unburdened the coffeemaker from also serving as a bookshelf for more paper. The thing was killer gross, pal. It was moldy and musty, but Mr.

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