By the time he walked into the menagerie of 10AM at the office, he was calm about everything. He knew he'd get out of this. He'd gotten himself into worse situations before. Plus now that he thought about it, his wife catching him 

cheating

wasn't the biggest of his worries.

Even before he got to his office his partner stormed out of his 

corner office

and said, "Max! Where the hell have you been? Pinkerton's on the line right now..." the man then toned his voice to a whisper once he noticed everybody's attention gravitating towards him. Dempsey simply provided his partner a nod and then proceeded to the corner office rather than his.

Before arriving at the corner office though to tend to this probably irate client of theirs' Pinkerton Dempsey's assistant appeared, apologetically. "I think it'd be good for you to call your wife." She didn't say anymore. Dempsey gave a nod, then he turned to enter the corner office with a deep sigh. In there was one other person. He was smoking a 

cigarette

. "Smoke?" he asked while bending over offering Max one. He took one. And then the seated old man gave a cigarette to Max's partner.

The old man took a deep sigh. The partner took a drag off his already lit cigarette. Dempsey finished lighting his. "Let's get this over with then." The old man pressed a button and the sound of a voice far away rung out. "We got Dempsey for you."

"Good. So he finally shows up."

"Hi Gary. Sorry to show up late. Well I don't even need to tell you why, I'm just sorry that's all I need to say." As Dempsey said this the two smoking men stared at him. Were they waiting for him to pull a magic trick or something?

For a moment Dempsey's mind was elsewhere. He thought about what his assistant had said. He should call his wife soon. This thought weighed on him for about two seconds. And then it flew out the window and he was back to talking with Gary Pinkerton. One of their largest

clients

.

"Gary, let's cut the bullcrap and get to what you really care about--"

From the corner of his eye, Dempsey could see his partner begin to smile.