Chapter 35 #2
Austin covers his scoff with a cough, but I hear it loud and clear, and rage bubbles in my veins.
“I’m sure she’s doing okay, but you deserve a whole team at your service.
Evangeline should have let me know that Cooper was busy.
” He eyes me with disappointment bordering on outright hostility, and I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep myself from telling him to fuck right off.
God, I hate him so much.
“That’s entirely unnecessary,” Milo says, his tone full of disdain. “Evan is a brilliant lawyer and has been wholly dedicated to my company and to this case since the second I first became a client of this law firm. Now, we were just going to go over the final litigation timeline.”
“Perfect,” Austin says, nodding. “I was just reviewing the draft motion for summary judgment.” He pulls out a chair like he’s going to take a damn seat but freezes when Milo holds up a hand.
“You misunderstand me,” Milo says cooly. “You don’t need to be here. I’m sure you have more important things to do than bill me sixteen hundred dollars an hour for sitting here doing absolutely nothing while Evan tells me what I need to know.”
Austin stares at Milo, his mouth opening and closing like he’s trying to figure out what to say.
I’m positive he has never been so neatly put in his place in his entire life, and my only regret right now is that I wasn’t the one to do it.
And that I don’t take a picture of his dumbfounded expression before he pulls himself up to his full height, nodding like being dismissed was his plan all along.
“That sounds fine,” he says crisply. “I’ve got center ice seats for the hockey game next week, and I would love for you and your beautiful wife to join me. ”
“I’ll let you know.” Milo’s tone is bored and Austin seems to finally get the hint, mumbling a goodbye and slinking out of the conference room, closing the door behind him just a little harder than is absolutely necessary.
Asshole.
“Not fucking likely,” Milo mutters.
“Not a hockey fan?” I ask blandly.
Milo rolls his eyes. “Not an Austin fan.”
“Yeah, well, get in line.”
Shit.
“Sorry, that was an inside thought. It’s probably pretty unprofessional to badmouth the partner who brought you to this firm.”
“Why do you think Austin brought me to this firm?”
I frown, thinking back. “He told us. It was right around the time I started here. Two years ago, maybe? He said he had enticed you to leave your representation at the time and come here because of the strength of our IP group.”
“Yeah, the strength of your IP group. The strength meaning you. It’s not a coincidence that I switched firms when you started here, Evan. I came here for you.”
I came here for you.
What the fuck?
“Hang on,” I say, my brain working overtime to try and figure this out. “I need more information.”
Milo smiles. “Your third year of law school, you wrote a law review article on new approaches to litigation in the pharmaceutical industry. You argued, very persuasively, that regular litigation tactics and procedures are ill-equipped to keep pace with the lightning-fast advancements in the field, and you laid out a roadmap for what the litigation of the future might look like, using an interdisciplinary approach that includes science and the law.”
“You read my law review article?”
Milo nods. “Read it, drove my wife and everyone I work with insane talking about it incessantly for months, and made it my entire personality. I followed your career—not in the creepy way, I swear.” He gives me a wry smile, and I laugh, a little incredulous.
“When you started here, the timing was right for me to change counsel anyway, so I made the move too. I’ve been biding my time ever since. ”
“Biding your time for what?”
“To offer you a job.”
“I have a job,” I say automatically.
“I know,” Milo says simply. “And I’d like to offer you a different one.”
I think about Austin bursting in here, ready to shove me aside.
Him asking Cooper to review my work, as if Cooper and I aren’t on the same level.
His just-on-the-edge-of-hostile attitude since he found out I was pregnant.
All the times I kept my mouth shut so he would see me as a team player or one of the guys.
Black coffee. Heels that hurt my feet and uncomfortable clothes and early mornings and late nights and working five times as hard as any man to get half the recognition.
I sit back in my chair, crossing one leg over the other. “Okay, I’ll bite. What’s the job?”
Milo gives me his sharp, captain-of-industry smile.
The one that tells me I’m talking to CEO Milo Pierre right now.
“General Counsel of Pierre Pharma. Since I started the company ten years ago, aside from a small in-house compliance team, I’ve relied almost exclusively on outside counsel. I’d like for you to change that.”
I stare at him. “You want me to be the general counsel of your entire company? You know I’m only a seventh-year associate, right? Lawyers for pharma typically have, like, double that experience before they go in house.”
Milo shrugs, unbothered. “I’m not trying to hire other lawyers.
I’m trying to hire you. I’ve been working with you for two years, Evan.
I know what you’re capable of. I want you to come work with me and build the legal department from the ground up.
You’ll have unlimited discretion on hiring.
I was thinking three lawyers working under you to start, along with the requisite number of support staff, but I defer to you on that. ”
“When?” I ask.
“When what?”
“When did you anticipate this happening? In case you forgot, I have a bit of a life situation happening in, like, eight weeks.”
Milo laughs. “Evan, I’ve waited to hire you for more than seven years.
I can definitely wait eight weeks, plus, obviously, whatever maternity leave you decide to take.
You tell me what you need, and we’ll make it happen.
I’m sure my human resources department would frown on me saying this to you, but you can have literally whatever you want.
I narrow my eyes at him. “Has anyone ever told you you’re a really bad negotiator? You should never offer a blank check. Everyone has a limit to their worth.”
“Not you,” he says immediately. “You’re a scientist and a lawyer.
You’re brilliant and creative, and I have never met a harder worker in my life aside from the woman I married.
” His face goes soft when he mentions his wife.
“I know what it’s like to be a woman rising to the top of a field dominated by men.
I mean, I don’t know exactly what it’s like because, man.
” He points to himself. “But I watch my wife get up and do it every single day, and you remind me so much of her. If you like the law firm world, I totally understand. But if you’ve ever considered going in-house at some point in the future, I’m asking you to move that timeline up and consider doing it now. ”
I hear the words he’s saying, but I’m struggling to re-orient my brain to the idea of foregoing the partner track I’ve been running on since I was a summer associate after my second year of law school.
To getting out of the race. I can’t deny that the thought is appealing, but the idea of just giving up what I’ve been working toward all these years feels wrong, somehow.
I’ve never quit anything in my entire life.
You kind of hate it here.
I silence that voice in my head—the one that’s only gotten louder over the past month or so—and sit up, squaring my shoulders.
“I’m not saying no, but I’m not ready to say yes. I need some time to think it over. I understand if you need to look elsewhere in the meantime.”
Milo laughs. “Evan, what part of this hasn’t been clear? I don’t want to search for a lawyer to hire. I want to hire you. As a lawyer. Only you. Take all the time you need. This job is yours if you want it.”
“And if I don’t?”
He shrugs. “You’re still stuck with me because I’m your client right here. Right now, or three years from now, I’ll convince you eventually. I can be very persuasive.”
“I’ll just bet,” I mutter, and Milo laughs again, pulling a business card from his pocket and scribbling a number on the back, sliding it over to me.
“That’s my personal cell number. I’m sure you have it in your files somewhere, but here it is again.
If you want to talk more, or if you have any questions, text me, call me, show up at my house, or send a damn carrier pigeon, because one way or another, you’re going to be the general counsel of Pierre Pharma.
Might as well start getting used to the idea.
” He sits back, crossing his arms over his chest, his satisfied expression one of a man who knows he’s going to get exactly what he wants, and in this moment, I honestly can’t tell him he’s wrong.
“So now that we have that all settled, are you ready to showcase your mad legal skills and tell me how we’re going to finally wrap this litigation? ”
I shake my head, laughing a little as I slip the card into my portfolio. “My mad legal skills are going to have you out of this in five weeks or less.”
“That’s what I like to hear. Tell me everything.”
And for the next two hours, I do exactly that, all the time dreaming just a little about new beginnings and all the uncertainty that lies ahead.
But for the first time in twenty-two weeks, the uncertainty doesn’t feel so scary at all.