ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟞𝟚 #2
He looked irritated. "I am trying to have a professional conversation. You don't have to make this personal."
I smiled. "Ted, you made it personal two years ago."
"I don't remember it that way." His face hardened.
"Too bad I do."
He stared at me.
"You told me I needed to build my way back up. You took the cases I had worked on and handed them to Georgia. You even said I was difficult!"
"You were."
I laughed. "See? You just proved my point."
"You don't understand," He frowned. "What I did was challenge you. Everyone needs a little nudge. But the problem was, Mrs. West, you thought you were better than everyone."
"Correction- I thought I was better than the people who couldn't do the work. And can you believe it, I was!"
His face reddened. I knew immediately that I had hit something, and I didn't feel guilty.
Ted sat back. "You've become arrogant."
I smiled.
"Confident, you mean."
He looked around too. "You think this proves something?"
"That I didn't need you? Yes. I didn't need your firm."
"I gave you your start, I gave you an opportunity, Mrs. West!" His voice started to rise.
"I earned every promotion I received."
"You wouldn't have had those opportunities without me."
"Maybe," I shrugged. "But I wouldn't have this without leaving you."
That silenced him.
Ted looked down, then back up. "You really don't want to come back?"
"No."
"Not even as a partner?"
"No."
His frustration was becoming obvious now. "Why?"
"Because I don't want to." I looked directly at him.
Ted looked down in defeat, and we both went silent for another minute. "There was another reason I wanted to see you."
He hesitated. Then said: "Your tweet."
Ah. I remembered that.
A year ago, I'd posted something online.
I didn't name Ted personally. I was just telling the truth about what had happened to me.
I had written about leaving a firm that underestimated me, being told to prove myself after years of successful work.
About what happened when I finally decided to build something of my own.
I hadn't expected much. I certainly hadn't expected it to explode, but it did.
Ten of thousands of comments, the news outlets picked it up, lawyers shared it.
Former employees shared their own experiences at Ted's firm.
People started looking at Ted's firm differently.
Eventually, the criticism became loud enough that it affected business.
Ted looked uncomfortable. "That tweet caused a lot of problems."
"It was only one tweet." I smiled innocently
"You know what it did. People started attacking the firm."
"I didn't tell anyone to attack you."
"You criticized us publicly." He said.
"I told the truth publicly."
He leaned forward. "You knew exactly what you were doing."
I considered that. "Yes, I did."
He rolled his eyes. "At least you're admitting it."
"Of course."
"You wanted to hurt us. And you did."
"I wanted people to know what happened. I knew there might be consequences, but I couldn't really care less.
He stared at me, and his expression darkened. It almost scared me, actually.
"You destroyed a lot of trust between my employees."
"Maybe they should have asked themselves why they were uncomfortable with what I wrote. They should have looked at how people were treated."
"You made the firm look terrible."
I shrugged. "I didn't make it look terrible, you did that."
He stood suddenly while I remained seated.
"You think you're untouchable now? What, because you've become successful? Because everyone loves you?"
"No, Ted. Because I'm not afraid of you anymore."
His jaw clenched.
"Dixie, you need to be careful. You can't just say whatever you want."
"I can say what I believe is true."
"You have a lot to lose."
I laughed softly. "So do you."
"Don't threaten me." His face reddened.
I stood. Now we were both on our feet.
"And let's be very clear about something, okay? I built West Law without you."
Silence.
"I built it after you told me I needed to prove myself," I took a step around my desk. "I built it after you made me feel replaceable."
Another step.
"I built it while I was grieving my daughter..and I built it while trying to put my marriage back together."
I stopped in front of him.
"So forgive me if I don't feel particularly interested in returning to the place that taught me I wasn't valued."
Ted looked away, then back at me. "I came here trying to offer you something."
"And I declined it. How simple is that?"
"You could have been more gracious."
I laughed loudly once. "Gracious? I'm being extremely gracious."
"You're humiliating me."
I shook my head. "You're doing that yourself."
His face went completely still. "You've become rude. I don't know this woman anymore."
I thought about it.
Maybe I had. A little.
But there was a difference between being mean and refusing to soften the truth for someone who had never softened it for you.
"I've become honest."
Ted shook his head. "I remember you differently."
"I'm sure you do."
He started toward the door, then stopped. "You know, I really thought you'd be different after all this."
"I am, I'm more patient now." I smiled.
He raised an eyebrow. "Patient? This conversation is proving otherwise."
I gestured toward the chair.
"I'm patient because two years ago, I would have told you to get out of my office before my assistant told me who you were."
Ted stared at me.
"Now, I let you finish."
He looked furious, but I didn't care.
He reached for the door. Before he could open it, I spoke.
"Oh, and Ted? You said something earlier."
"And what might that be?"
"You said I needed to be careful."
"Yes."
I nodded. "I will be, but you should probably be careful too."
His eyes narrowed. "Is that a threat?"
"Not really," I stepped back toward my desk. "It's professional advice."
He stared at me for several seconds, then he opened the door. He was halfway through when Gwen appeared in the hallway.
She looked at Ted, then at me.
"Mrs. West?"
"Yes?" I smiled sweetly at her.
"Your two o'clock is almost over."
I glanced at the clock. 2:31.
I smiled. "Thank you, Gwen."
"I'll leave you to it." She nodded, walking away.
Ted looked back at me. "You're really ending this after everything I just offered? Think about it."
"I already did."
"Dixie.."
I opened the door wider. "Listen Ted, I don't ever want to see you again."
"Are you serious?" His expression hardened.
"As a heartbeat."
Almost as serious as the time you sent your security guards to escort me out of your firm.
I smiled politely. "I'm sure there are plenty of other attorneys who would love the opportunity."
He scoffed.
"You think you're better than me."
"I am, actually. I also think I'm finally better off without you."
He stepped closer. "You're making a mistake."
"The mistake was staying as long as I did."
Ted's face was now as red as a tomato. "You're going to regret treating me like this, mark my words, Dixie."
My patience disappeared, and I looked him dead in the eye.
"Let me tell you something, Ted."
He stopped.
"You don't get to walk into my office two years after you tried to make me feel small and tell me how I should speak to you."
"And you certainly don't get to ask me to come back after I built something bigger than anything you thought I was capable of."
"You're being-"
I interrupted him. "Don't..don't finish that sentence."
He fell silent.
"You want to know what I regret? I regret believing you. I regret thinking that because you were my boss, you must know better than I did."
I shook my head. "You didn't."
"You were.."
"I said don't!" I interrupted again.
I could feel my heart beating faster now.
"I spent too much time trying to prove myself to people who had already decided what they thought of me."
I pointed toward the West Law logo visible through the glass wall. "Look around. This exists because I stopped trying to prove myself to you."
Ted said nothing.
I continued. "And I'm not going back."
He stared at me. "You really are different."
"Yes." That was the final blow.
He looked away. For a second, I almost felt sorry for him, then I remembered sitting in his office two years earlier.
Remembered being told to build my way back up.
Walking out feeling humiliated.
I hadn't lost, I had left.
Ted finally stepped into the hallway.
I followed him to the door. He turned one last time.
"You know, that tweet wasn't the worst thing you could have done."
I smiled. "No, it wasn't. And that's probably the nicest warning you're going to get from me."
His face hardened. "What does that mean?"
"It means don't come back."
"You can't threaten me." He said, glaring hard.
"I'm not threatening you." I smiled.
"I'm telling you that if you decide to make this unpleasant, I won't be as polite as I was today."
He stared at me, then turned and walked away. I watched him disappear down the hallway.
The elevator doors opened.
I stood there for another few seconds, then slowly exhaled. I really just did that. I was feeling proud.
I could be ambitious without feeling like I was sacrificing everything.
"Wow." Gwen's voice came from behind me.
I turned around. She was standing several feet away.
She looked at me, then toward the hallway where Ted had disappeared.
"Are you okay?"
I smiled. "I'm fine. Actually, I'm more than fine."
I walked back toward my desk and began gathering the documents I'd left scattered across it.
Gwen followed me into the office. "That guy really seemed like a handful."
"He was." I glanced over my shoulder.
"He was rude the second he walked through that door."
I stopped. "Oh, really?"
"Yes! You wouldn't believe the nerve.." Gwen nodded quickly. "He said something about how he had every right to be here because he basically 'trained Dixie West.'"
I stared at her, then slowly shook my head. "That sounds like Ted."
"I didn't like him." Gwen made a face.
I laughed quietly. "No one does."