Pablo

"Mr. Lancaster?" the secretary asked over the phone.

"Yes?" Douglas responded, looking at a Victoria's Secret catalogue, for a different purpose than in the past.

"Pablo Cortez is here," the secretary said. Douglas sighed.

"Send him in," Douglas said reluctantly.

***

Pablo was older. with a stooped gait. He was slender, balding with gray hair. He was clean shaven. He was a difficult client. Nothing Douglas ever did was enough, and he called at all hours of the night. Douglas wouldn't have taken him on at all, but for the fact that Pablo's son Julio was the yard boy for them, and Pablo's nephew did the yard. But he took on the case, and here they were.

Pablo was caustic and critical as always, but there was something more ... hawkish about his demeanor this night. It was almost like he was studying Douglas. Like he could tell that something was out of the ordinary. Like he was in the room with a burgeoning bitch. He sniffed, and Douglas prayed that Pablo couldn't sniff the hint of perfume Douglas had forgotten to wash off.