21. Margeaux
21
MARGEAUX
The normal Monday morning hum of the office is amplified, everyone dialed in after a holiday weekend while still keeping one eye on the closed office door.
The boss is back.
No one is sure exactly what time Percy arrived this morning, since his car was in the employee lot and he was behind that closed door when the first of us arrived.
Translation—early. Really fucking early.
After being gone for nearly two months, the mountain of paperwork—and ungodly amount of emails—is probably more than a little overwhelming. That is, assuming he didn’t look at anything while he was gone. To the best of my knowledge, none of us heard from him while he was tending to his family’s business—even Gus—leaving me to only imagine what he came back to.
The excitement of his return is palpable though. Something that speaks volumes to who Percy is as a person and a boss. My time with him was incredibly limited before he left, so even after months of working for Hayes, all I really have to go on is the word of Dexter Wynn and what my colleagues tell me. Seeing everyone this excited about his return has renewed my own enthusiasm. This was part of the reason I agreed to join Hayes.
The secret knowledge that Percy’s return also means that Gus and I can now start to see each other openly doesn’t hurt anything either.
“Things can get back to normal now,” Teresa says.
Her comment hangs in the air, none of us knowing how to respond to the completely unprompted—and somewhat cryptic—words. Out of the corner of my eye I see Mabel perk up, lifting an eyebrow, her own skeptical way of trying to figure out what on earth Teresa might have put in her coffee this morning. Whatever it was, it must have been something good.
“Okay, I’ll bite,” Aaron mutters and I toss a glance over to Mabel, watching as she stops typing and changes to “reading” one of the documents on her desk. Oh yeah, she’s totally eavesdropping. “Because things have been so abnormal lately?”
Teresa shrugs, a move I think she means to look casual, but still looks harsh and pointed. “Things are just better when Percy is here.”
I keep my mouth shut, not taking the bait. Neither does Aaron. Teresa lost her ability to play teacher’s pet when Percy left, and Gus wouldn’t play her games. As soon as he mentioned that Percy would be back today, Teresa’s spirits lifted. The second that office door opens, the amount of ass kissing and sucking up that is coming is bound to require a barf bag for all those within earshot.
Little does she know that I’ve been counting down the days until our boss returned and Gus Hayes had nothing to do with our department again. Mine were just very different reasons than hers.
Changing the subject, Aaron asks Teresa how her Thanksgiving was. As one of the few Hayes employees to leave town, we were blessed with not having to see her at the Gobble Wobble, the Hickory Hills town tree lighting, or any of the other town events that were crammed into the holiday weekend. Making it that much better.
Not that the weekend wasn’t damn near perfect all on its own. Starting with Friendsgiving and the fully defrosted and perfectly fried turkey. Everyone raved over the boudin, étouffée, maque choux, and hush puppies, with Dolly declaring that I now have to make them every year. If that means I get to continue to be a member of this family and spend this holiday with the amazing group I did last week, then I will happily bust out every one of Papa Duck’s recipes.
That thought reminds me that I need to call my grandfather. I know that secreted away he has a breakfast casserole recipe that he and my grandmother used to make for us as kids. One that hasn’t made an appearance in many years, but would be perfect on the menu at Dolly’s. I bet that I can convince him to pass it on to Dolly as a wedding gift to help keep it alive and well loved for many generations.
“Teresa,” Percy says, his thick accent filling the office, pulling everyone’s attention to him. “Will you gather everyone in the conference room, please?”
“Of course!”
She’s out of her seat and bounding around the corner to start to gather the rest of our colleagues, many of whom already heard the request themselves thanks to our boss’s booming tenor, before I can blink.
It’s a tight fit, cramming the entire department in our conference room, but we make it work. All the chairs around the table are occupied, the walls fully lined with associates. If the fire marshal were to walk in, a fine would be handed out. The smile on Percy’s face is worth it though.
“I want to start by thanking y’all. I know my departure was sudden—sometimes in life you just can’t plan for these kinds of things, no matter how much you’d like to. I also know that I was gone longer than any one of us would have really liked, and that put a wrench in some of the things we were workin’ on. But…”
Percy pauses, turning to the door, his smile growing wider as Gus slips in. My heart leaps and I have to fight back my own grin. We’ve gone this far in keeping it all under wraps, and now is not the moment to let the cat out of the bag.
“But Gus here tells me that y’all stepped up and knocked it out of the park. So, thank you.”
There is a round of applause and a low murmur of conversation as people start to chat among themselves. Percy gives us all a minute, then motions for everyone to quiet again.
“I’ll be catching up with everyone individually at some point today or tomorrow, but there is one person I do want to highlight here and now. As I was starting to sort through my emails over the weekend, I came across a note from an old law school friend of mine who works at the patent office. He was reaching out to let me know that they received our request for the extension on the SafeSounds Widget on the grounds that it’s ‘life saving’ and have decided to review it.”
My heart stops.
All out stops.
The patent office is going to review it? Oh. My. God. It worked. Sort of. Maybe.
Holy shit…
“Margeaux Finnegan,” Percy continues. “That was some sharp thinking, young lady, and I like where your head is at.”
I’m speechless. My tongue is heavy, feeling like a cinderblock as I try to form words. Because…holy shit.
It’s a loophole’s loophole if there ever was one. One that exists, that few know about, and for good reason. Because patent law exists in its form for a reason. For fairness. But there are always exceptions. Not that Dexter, who taught me about this loophole, has ever managed to get something past the review board on the grounds like a device is “lifesaving” and therefore the IP should remain patented longer than its allotted twenty years.
“Th-thank you. It’s a long shot, but I thought it might be worth a try.”
“It’s a very long shot. Very, very long. And I won’t lie, I don’t have high hopes that they’ll approve it even once reviewed, but sometimes you just get lucky, don’t ya? And you might just be our new lucky charm.”
I don’t know what to say. Internally I’m screaming, doing the Irish jig that my father does every time he gets excited about something or is looking to make my mother laugh. Externally, I’m trying to keep it all level, knowing all eyes are on me. Including Gus’s. Gus’s very proud, very loving eyes.
You have my heart…
“So, because of that not so little win, I’m now putting you on a new project, Margeaux. I want you to see what else we might have that could qualify for this. Maybe there’s nothing, but who knows? That’s your priority number one now. Use Aaron and Teresa for whatever you need.”
“What? I don’t handle IP. I specialize in tax law,” Teresa spits out.
Oh, now it’s tax law…you were M&A a couple of weeks ago…
“I am aware, but you can still pull whatever files Margeaux may need,” Percy tells her. A chill settles over me, Teresa’s eyes boring into me. But I don’t have time for her pettiness. I have a new project. “With that said, the real reason I called this huddle was I wanted y’all to be the first to know—well, second, I suppose behind Auggie and Gus—but more importantly, I wanted to tell y’all face-to-face. ”
Everyone stills, the hush in the room becoming deafening as we wait for him to continue.
“As I said, I know I was gone longer than I anticipated. And during that time, I had a lot of moments to evaluate a number of things. And one of those things is just how much I’m missing out on being away from family. Being close to both my girls, as well as those grandbabies, these last few weeks was a real blessing for Betty and me. So, I’ve decided that it’s time that I hang up my hat and retire from Hayes, so that we can be closer to them.”
Retiring…
I rock backward, the physical blow of the news catching me off guard. Me and everyone else based on the chatter that kicks up around me. Eyes flicking to Gus, I try to read him, but it’s tough. He’s got his suit of armor on, plastered-on smile firmly in place, gaze squarely on my boss.
But I can still see it, in the very corner of his eye. This was new to him this morning as well, and he’s not sure how he feels about it. Not sure what it means.
“Okay, okay,” Percy says, holding out his hands, trying to calm the group. “I know there will be lots of questions. Auggie launched a thousand of them at me this morning. And you can too when we meet one-on-one to catch up this week. I will make y’all the same promise I made him—I will not leave you in the lurch. In fact, this is potentially an opportunity for many of you to take on some new challenges as we figure out what the future of this department looks like. But for now, I have taken up enough of your time, especially with all of us crammed in this little room, so let’s get back to it.”
The room starts to break, conversations kicking up. Percy stops just short of the door, snapping his fingers, everyone’s attention back on him in a split second for whatever his additional thought is .
“Oh, I hear that the baby Jesus has been found! One of the Conrad kids absconded with him, so the Nativity Lighting will be held tonight. I expect to see y’all there.”
A final nod, and he exits, the group dissolving for real this time, everyone breaking into small groups and conversations about the bomb that was just dropped. My head is spinning, trying to make sense of all of it—both my new project and the idea that my boss is retiring. The man I came here to work for.
Making my way out of the room, I try to focus on the good. Percy just put me in charge of a new project. My very own project. Holy shit.
A few of the senior associates stop to congratulate me, and I thank them, trying to be as gracious as possible, the party still raging inside me. Because this is a big deal. This is what I’ve worked for. What I spent all those hours at my internship for.
Now I need to continue to prove myself. That I am the woman for the job.
Out of the corner of my eye I see Gus grab Percy, and the two of them head back to Percy’s office and close the door. My heart sinks a little, wanting to run over and celebrate with him.
At least until I remember that he’s still not boyfriend Gus. He might not be boss Gus anymore, but he’s still colleague Gus, and these two coworkers are still not a couple. Publicly. Hell, we still need to put a plan in place on how to out ourselves. I floated a couple of ideas over the weekend, but Gus said he wanted to talk to Percy first. Something I can respect.
“I’m not pulling files for you,” Teresa snarks, pushing past me. “My clerking days are done.”
I choose to ignore her, knowing that I am better off without her help .
“Happy to do whatever you need,” Aaron tells me. “Although you should know, the copy machine and I aren’t friends, so there’s a chance that if you put me in charge of that, the document will get eaten.”
I look at him quizzically, not quite sure if he’s joking or not. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“You should be more concerned with what Percy’s retirement means for us,” Teresa barks. “And if there’s going to be a reorg.”
“It’s legal—how do you reorg legal?” Aaron quips. “We’ll get a new head of the department, and they might change up some assignments. We’ll all still be lawyers.”
Teresa huffs, her annoyance rising like mercury in a thermometer at not being taken seriously. “Well, I for one want to make sure that my future in this department is solidified. Depending on what they decide, they could name a new Senior Associate. They haven’t done that in the ten years I’ve worked here. And if this is a chance for advancement, then I’m going to take advantage of that.”
I have no doubt you’re going to try…
Biting my tongue, I return to my desk, not wanting to engage in this conversation any more than I have to. Nothing good is going to come out of Teresa talking about advancing her career. What I need is a distraction. Grabbing my phone, I tap it to life, noticing I have a text. From Gus.
Gus
Congratulations, pretty girl. See you, and that sexy brain of yours, at the Nativity lighting