Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
I wake up the next morning feeling more hungover than I would’ve preferred.
I’m not much of a drinker. One beer at a work event and I’m ready to head home.
And if it weren’t for the corporate culture, I’d skip the event altogether.
It’s not like I enjoy them. They’re perfunctory, like most things in my life.
As much as I tried to escape the life my parents planned for me, somehow I ended up in a similar situation. Same archipelago, different island.
Except last night. Last night was arguably a work event, but I’d been in no rush to leave.
Why didn’t the law firm host trivia nights?
I tried to imagine my department in a dive bar guessing answers to inane questions.
Matt would be competitive, but his knowledge would be limited to sports, cars, and world wars.
Zach would complain that another team cheated and grovel for points.
Abby would get drunk and overshare about her sex life, or lack thereof.
Joel would take the game too seriously and suck all the fun out of the room. And they’d all be sore losers.
The memory of Cricket’s laughter rings in my head. It was a wicked, bawdy laugh that ought to belong to a gangster’s moll and not the bespectacled woman in the Tree of Mordor or Gondor or one of the ’dors T-shirt who was seated beside me all evening.
With great effort, I swing my legs out of bed. That’s when I see two missed calls and a message from Jeannie.
Meeting at 10. Get here.
My heart drops to the floor. What meeting? I pick up the phone and call my assistant.
“I’m sorry. It’s a last-minute change to the schedule.” She’s speaking in a hushed tone. “I think this is Matt’s doing.”
The bastard is trying to sabotage me. “What’s the meeting about?”
“Call me from the road and I’ll fill you in, but you should get moving or you’ll miss it, which I’m sure is his plan. Did you pack a suit? If not, I’ve got the one I took to the dry cleaners for you.”
“I’ve got one, but thanks, Jeannie. You’re the best.”
“From your lips to payroll’s ears.”
I check the time. I’ll have to skip the shower, or I won’t make it. I’ll be pushing the clock as it is. I’d have to skip breakfast, too, and miss out on Bernie’s gluten-free chocolate chip pancakes. Bummer. I would’ve inhaled the hell out of those.
After wearing casual clothes all week, my suit feels stiff and uncomfortable.
I spend the next hour with my foot on the gas, listening to Jeannie’s rundown of events.
The firm’s annual meeting with LandStar got bumped up to this week.
The only reason Jeannie knows about it is because she’s good friends with Joel’s assistant.
I don’t know how he managed it, but this schedule change has Matt’s fingerprints all over it.
It doesn’t surprise me that he would try to find another way to take out the competition.
He’s worried I’ll secure the LandStar deal, so he has to undermine me another way.
Joke’s on him because I currently don’t see a way of making my client happy.
All his shady tactics will have been for nothing.
Jeannie glances up from her computer screen with a bright smile when I arrive. “Good morning, Charlie. Glad to hear it.”
I give her a quizzical look. “Glad to hear what?”
“That you’re happy.”
“Am I?”
She points to my face. “They say you can tell when a lawyer’s lying when his lips are moving, but they don’t say anything about his forehead.”
Now I’m thoroughly confused. “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”
“In that case, you might want to take a look in a mirror. Your meeting starts in five minutes, by the way. I don’t recommend walking in like that.”
I hurry to my office and shut the door, whipping out my phone for the camera. Across my forehead in bright purple marker is a single word.
Happy.
It takes a second for the memory of last night to snap into focus. A purple Sharpie. A mischievous gleam in Cricket’s eye. I’d been too drunk to remember it by the time I reached the cabin. The ink was apparently strong enough to withstand good old-fashioned soap and water.
Shit.
I rub the ink, which I know is a futile gesture, but I have to try. No way can I walk into the meeting looking like I slept in a frat house.
Jeannie appears at my door holding a bottle of nail polish remover and a cotton ball.
“You’re a lifesaver.”
“Whatever you did last night, you should do it more often.”
“Really? My body feels like I walked through a cheese grater.”
“Well, your spirit says you’re walking on air.”
“Thanks, Jeannie. I needed the pep talk.” Especially before entering the lion’s den.
“It wasn’t a pep talk,” she calls after me, but I am already gone.
The meeting is dull but necessary. The saving grace is the selection of bagels and pastries that save me from hunger pains. I smear cream cheese on a bagel and down two cups of coffee to keep myself awake, both from the hangover and the meeting itself.
Riggieri nods in my direction, and I can tell he’s desperate to jump me for an update the second the meeting is adjourned.
Matt knows I have nothing to offer the client, which is why he somehow managed to orchestrate this early reunion.
Lyman shouldn’t even be in attendance, let alone allowed to influence a change in the schedule.
If I had a purple Sharpie, I’d write ‘pissed’ across my forehead this time.
Relief floods my system when the meeting comes to its merciful conclusion. As expected, Riggieri and Joel intercept me before I can exit the conference room.
“Hey, Thorpe. How’s geek week?” Joel asks. “Mr. Riggieri mentioned before the meeting that he hopes you brought a signed contract with you today.”
“I’m working on it, sir.”
Riggieri doesn’t bother to disguise his disappointment. “Well, what have you found so far? There’s got to be something damning.”
“Everything appears in order so far, but there’s a filing cabinet I haven’t been through.” It isn’t a lie. Cricket’s office only appears to hold one filing cabinet and I haven’t combed through it.
“Then what are you waiting for? Get back up there and find my leverage, kid.”
Joel snorts his derision. “Who are all these adults with enough time on their hands to attend summer camp, am I right?”
But Riggieri is no longer interested in our conversation. He exits the conference room without another word.
I answer Joel anyway. “They’re a broad mix of people. Teachers, retirees, a dog groomer, a caretaker. Some of them save up all their vacation days so they can splurge them on these two weeks at camp. These people are committed.”
Joel eyes me carefully. “Watch it, Thorpe. You sound like you’re drinking the Kool-Aid.”
“They actually serve Kool-Aid in the cafeteria. This week’s flavor is cherry.”
Joel shakes his head. “As long as you lock down that deal, you can drink Tang for all I care.”
“I love Tang. My parents used to give it to us when we were kids. They were hoping one of us would become an astronaut.”
He claps me on the back. “Instead, they got a future partner at Melvin, O’Reilly, and Gaines, quite possibly the youngest in our history.”
“Shoot for the moon and you’ll still end up among the stars,” I say, trying to match his level of enthusiasm.
“You up for a round of golf on Saturday? I’ve got a tee time with Brandon and Lawrence at nine. Could use a fourth.”
“I’d love to, but camp doesn’t end until Sunday. It wouldn’t look good to the client if I skipped a full day of sleuthing to go golfing.”
Joel aims a finger gun at me. “And that level of commitment is why you’re going to be our next partner.” He grabs a bagel on his way out.
A long shadow passes over me as I reach my office.
“Hey, Matt.”
“Didn’t think you’d make it, Chucky.”
“I know.” I bite into my bagel and chew. “Good thing my assistant likes me.”
“You look like hell, and you smell even worse.”
“It’s called fun, Matt. You should try it sometime.” I bump his arm aside and enter my office. I figure while I’m here, I may as well catch up on emails and other messages. I spend the next hour working until I’m sure there’s nothing else that requires my immediate attention.
The landline buzzes and Jeannie’s voice cuts through the quiet. “Your mother’s on the line. Should I take a message?”
I pick up the phone. “Hi, Mom.”
“There you are. I’ve called you a couple times, but you haven’t answered.”
“I’m working offsite for a client. Cell service isn’t great.”
“I hope this client is the one that makes you partner. Your brother won an award. Did he tell you?”
“No. I haven’t spoken to him recently.”
“You should ask him about it,” she says. “Very prestigious.” And then she proceeds to tell me every detail known to man about the award. I put her on speaker and manage to change out of my suit and back into camp clothes before she finishes.
“I’m glad for him.” I mean it. Michael is smart and ambitious. My parents may pit us against each other, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be happy for his achievements.
“When can we expect to announce the happy news about your partnership? The anniversary party?”
“It’s out of my hands, Mom. You know that.”
“Well, it would be nice to make some sort of announcement. It won’t be fair to you if we’re extolling your brother and sister’s virtues and leaving you out. What will people think?”
I already know all of this has more to do with impressing their peers than my well-being, but she could at least try to hide it better.
“I’ll be at the party, that’s as much as I can promise you. Listen, Mom, it was nice catching up, but I need to go.”
Jeannie is in the doorway when I hang up. “Does that woman ever tell you she loves you?”
“In her own way.”
Jeannie’s expression conveys that she knows I’m full of shit but is too polite to say so. She has a maternal quality that I appreciate. She doesn’t try to act as a stand-in for my mother though. More like a no-nonsense aunt who would throat-punch a pack of hyenas to protect me.