It was noon. A girl walked into Perry Mason's office. She went over to Della Street's desk.
"Hi, may I help you?" asked Della.
"Are you Della Street?"
"Sure am."
"Hi! I'm Lily Johnson. I wrote you a letter and you wrote back to me, remember?"
Della smiled. "Oh, yes! It's nice meeting you!"
"Likewise! I was thinking, maybe we could have lunch together—that is, if your boss doesn't mind."
"I'm sure he won't. Here, let me introduce you to him."
Della got up, putting her shoes on first. Seeing this, Lily said, "I like to take my shoes off at my desk, as well!"
Della smiled. "Perry had this carpet put in, a few weeks ago. It feels SO nice against my feet!"
Lily slipped her shoes off. "You're right, it does!"
The girls giggled, and Lily put her shoes back on. Della led her to Perry's inner office.
"Chief, are you busy?"
"Not anymore than usual!"
"I'd like you to meet someone. She sent me a very sweet letter. Lily Johnson, this is Perry Mason."
He stood up and shook her hand. "Pleased to meet you."
"Likewise. I work as a secretary for one of the district attorneys—Rodney Davidson."
He nodded. "Good man."
"We would like to go to lunch together—that is, if you don't mind," said Della.
"Have a nice lunch. In fact, you can take an hour."
"Thanks, Chief."
"Yes, thank you, sir!" added Lily.
They left together.
They went to a place named Louie's. They were given a quiet booth away from the others. From the menu they ordered whiskey sours. Lily ordered spaghetti and Della ordered meatloaf. After the waiter left, Della had a good look at her.
"You're very pretty!"
Lily smiled. "Thanks, so are you!"
"So, tell me about your boss. Is he a good man to work for?"
"Generally, yet."
"Generally?"
"Well, he sometimes gets on my nerves. Like sometimes, he'll have me work overtime when I least expect it. For example, he had me come in last Saturday, for a few hours."
"Perry does that, too!"
"Yeah! I guess because they're both busy lawyers, they need their secretaries to work with them outside of normal office hours."
"That's true!"
"But he can be very sweet. He bought me this necklace." She showed it to Della; it was a large lead crystal.
"Beautiful! Perry gives me gifts, sometimes." She showed her a ring; it had a red garnet on it.
"Nice! I noticed you call him 'Chief;' why is that?"
"I'm not quite sure. I started calling him that years ago, and I guess it stuck."
"I see!"
"Lily, I have a question: If you refused to do something for Rodney, how would he react?"
"You mean like if I refused to work overtime for him?"
"Right."
"I think he'd be ok with that. Actually, I have refused, a couple times, and he didn't mind."
"Very good. How long have you worked for him?"
"Seven years? And you?"
"Ten years."
"Wow!"
Their food came. They ordered second glasses of the whiskey sours.
They continued talking while eating, and soon they were best friends. Della told her about the time Perry had her work "undercover" for him.
"He had me go to a shoe store and talk with the salesman. You see, he was involved with a case he was working on. I was able to convince him to testify. He testimony exonerated his client."
"Wonderful!"
"Plus, I got a free pair of new shoes!"
She giggled. "Even better! Mr. Davidson has never had me do something like that, yet. It'd be neat, if he did!"
"I'm sure it would! And another time, Perry had me drink with a suspect involved with one of his cases. I ended up getting drunk, but I did get some valuable information on the case."
"Wow! Are you two…lovers?"
"Yes."
"I thought so. I could kinda tell."
"It shows?"
"Yes, it does."
"It's not easy, since he works such long hours. But we try to go away on weekends, once a month."
"Mr. Davidson is married. I'm not sure how I'd react, if he got fresh with me!"
"Has he ever?"
"No. Well, he kissed me once. But that was more of a friendly kiss."
"He's a gentleman."
"Yes, he is."
They finished their meals and had coffee.
"Let's keep in touch, Lily."
"Yes, let's!"
They exchanged phone numbers. Della paid the bill, and they went back to her office.
"Thanks for coming; you made my day!" said Della.
Lily smile. "You made MY day!"
Perry came out. "Hi, girls! How was your lunch?"
"Wonderful!" this said together.
Della and Lily hugged. Lily also hugged Perry. Then she left.
"I'd say you've made a new friend!" said Perry.
Della smile. "I think you're right, Chief!"