The dial tone blares through the receiver after she hangs up, and my hand immediately massages the tension on the back of my neck. Her voice was not unpleasant, but I know she’s displeased with me. I canfeelit, and it doesn’t feel good. I’m really beginning to hate this recurring feeling of letting people down.
“Have a seat,” Mr. Grant says as I enter the conference room. He’s seated to the right of Mrs. Powell, who is at the head of the table. Steam rises from his coffee and he blows on the surface before taking a sip.
“Is there a reason you were late this morning Ms. Chase?” he says as the bottom of his mug clinks against the glass-top table. “We tried to reach you at your desk a few times before you finally answered. There are several prospective clients waiting on meetings and we need to get this over with beforehand.”
My forehead wrinkles, knowing I definitely wasn’t late. In fact, I was a few minutes early. Then I remember Emma’s little freakout that had me inconveniently detained and I take a deep breath. Instead of trying to explain that whole situation, I try for once to keep things simple.
“Sorry about that,” I say. The brown office chair squeaks as I lower myself into it and adjust the height for my short legs. Instead of giving into the urge to use the lever as a fidget to calm my nerves, I fold my hands on the table and wait for theinevitable lecture to proceed with a stack of termination papers being smacked down in front of me.
“I was happy to see that when I stopped by the police station last night, you had already been released. I attempted to call, but I imagine your phone must have died,” Mariana chimes in. Normally I can appreciate her typical power move of standing behind her chair like that, but right now it’s intimidating as hell. “You’ll be happy to know that I’ve been working with law enforcement for the charges against you to be dropped immediately.”
My eyes widen and dart between them. It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours. Oh, she’s good.
“But . . . how?” I’m sure they sense the relief in my voice. It’s not a completely out-of-the-woods feeling, but it’s damn close. I have a much better chance of keeping my job if there are no criminal charges.
“Henry gathered video surveillance evidence from the courthouse while I contacted witnesses. It was only a matter of hours before the chief viewed the footage and agreed that you were not only provoked but acting in self-defense,” she explains. “As for the indecent exposure, well, that was clearly an accident. The complainant had no choice but to drop the charges when I emailed him all that information.”
“You mean after you threatened him with a countersuit for mental anguish,” Mr. Grant scoffs.
“Semantics. The point is, it’s all been taken care of. And I need you in the archives so we can prepare for new cases coming up while the pro bono meetings take up the rest of the workload today. It’s a big slate. All hands on deck,” she says while tapping on the screen of a tablet at the same time. There’s a pen tucked behind her ear and she’s biting the corner of her lip, already on to the next thing in her mind. I’m convinced that even during a serious conversation, this woman never stops working.
“I don’t know what to say. Thank you,” I breathe out, relief flooding my body.
I should have known the guy at the courthouse yesterday didn’t have much of a leg to stand on. One minute I was looking for Emma and the next, the grumpy asshole who we just beat in a civil case bumped straight into me.
It wouldn’t have bothered me if he would’ve settled for an angry glare and moved on. But he couldn’t help himself.“Maybe I wouldn’t have lost if I had tits like yours,”he’d said as he shouldered past me with an eye roll. Loud enough for an entire group of people to hear as we were walking out of the room.
I’d turned to face him, already on edge from a circus of a morning that included a flat tire and a broken button on my blouse. When he widened his stance and got in my face, I whipped my purse up from my side as if I was going to put it over my shoulder, knowing it would smack him in the process. Two men had to hold him back when he flopped back dramatically like I’d struck him with a damn baseball bat. It wasn’t the Oscar-worthy performance that he was hoping for, but it was enough to get a few gasps from the crowd and attention from security.
The cherry on top was when I tripped over his leg as he flopped around on the floor. It caused my blouse to pop open, thanks to the missing button on top, and exposed my entire torso. He whined and cried to the security guards about my indecent exposure and assault on him and I left the place in fucking handcuffs.
Just once, I wish I could have kept my composure. I’m not naturally hot-headed, but I let my emotions get the better of me before I even arrived for the hearing. You’d think I’d be able to handle distress more eloquently, being so used to it. But that certainly wasn’t the case yesterday. His behavior toward me was like a loud clap at the bottom of a mountain of snow just waiting to bring down an avalanche.
I roll my shoulders back, attempting to shake off the urge to cry. If I were back in the city a few hours from here where I grew up right now, I’d be cowering in front of my parents, enduring a painfully long lecture about how reckless I am. Most of the trouble that I got into as a child and a young adult was to get their attention. It worked, but they grew to resent me for not being able to match their perfectly polished and posh demeanor.
Stop embarrassing us,they’d say.Be quiet and fall in line.
I never did either of those things and on top of refusing to play their puppet in the family business, they’ve all but given up on any sort of relationship with me.
Now, my desperate attempts to make them see me have morphed into a deep-rooted habit of self-destruction and Ihateit.
“No need to thank me. That man was in the wrong and it was all a misunderstanding,” Mariana assures me.
Mr. Grant huffs as he stands from his chair and gathers his things. “I’ll be in my office,” he grunts. He and Mrs. Powell exchange a look.
When the door closes behind him, I stand up to leave, but sit again when Mariana sits down next to me.
“Savannah, I’d like to have a conversation just between us now if that’s alright with you.”
I nod but my chest tightens and I swallow hard.
“This law firm prides itself on professionalism and esteem garnered from our clients. Now, I have empathy and understanding for the unfortunate situation that happened yesterday. I think you have great potential and I’d like to keep you around. Mr. Grant, on the other hand, is more skeptical and has suggested that you remain employed here under probationary terms.” Her voice is soft as she speaks to me. It’s a soothing contradiction compared to the tidal wave of meaning behind her words.
“I—” My head shakes and I fail as usual to come up with the right thing to say. How did I get hereagain? It’s uncomfortable and suddenly the weight of another crisis has me nauseous. “I’m going to do better. I promise.”
Mariana places a hand on my shoulder and nods. “Can I offer you a piece of advice?”
“Of course,” I choke out on the verge of tears.
