I
"Happy New Year." I smile through gritted teeth at my senior partner, Mr Alexander Tavistok. He hardly looks at me and I realise how disappointed he is. He has come to bail me out of the Scrubs where I have been detained in the visitors' room for concealing a dangerous weapon! I was supposed to be visiting a client who wants to launch an appeal against a conviction for shoplifting. He hasn't a hope, an hour of CCTV showing him with a bag full of tasteless shirts and he was bang to rights. But back to my current predicament. Alex is talking to the guard and they are conspiring, heads bent low and I am sure a bottle of Scotch changes hands. Knowing Alex it's just a late Christmas present. He is an incredibly generous man. The guard appears in front of the door, unlocks it and gestures that I am free to go. At the front desk I am given back my banana and warned to be more careful in future.

"Your card is marked now, young lady!" grunts Toby, the rather portly receptionist. I am surprised the banana has survived intact; had it been a doughnut I would never have seen it again. The embarrassing thing is I am a regular visitor to Scrubs - but this is the first time I have been an inmate.

"Well?" says Alexander, eyebrow arched as we leave the prison behind. I am grateful for the lift - normally I have to rely on the Tube - but I hate the feeling of disappointment and reprimand that hangs heavily in the air. I am a fully-grown adult, not a naughty schoolgirl. But I always feel inadequate in his presence. Not only is he my boss and mentor in Chambers, but also he and his wife have taken a special interest' in me. When I had landlord trouble it was Alex and Miranda who ensured I got my deposit back even after I had emptied a tin of the brightest pink paint I could find onto the cream carpet! When my first boyfriend broke up with me because I managed to get a place in a better set of Chambers than him, it was them who stopped me hitting the bottle. All I seemed to do was screw up and cause them embarrassment and I knew I was skating on thin ice.

"It was a joke," I falter unconvincingly.
"Obviously not a funny one, Caroline, you have the reputation of Crick's to think about. The story will be around the prison before you can say banana'" he chides and, despite himself, giggles a little. "Only you could get yourself arrested for brandishing a dangerous banana"
We both giggle this time but I know the reprimand is a serious one and that I have to explain myself

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