Holding Her Breath (Indigo) (25 page)

The gravity of not having thought about work all weekend hit her full-force when Bettina reminded Whitney Monday morning that her team had a meeting with opposing counsel that afternoon. They were supposed to talk about the possibility of a settlement. Whitney and her team had finally talked their client into at least discussing a settlement with the other side.

Whitney’s stomach dropped through the floor. She hadn’t done as much prep over the weekend as she should have. She’d spent the weekend actually acting like she had a life. Most of it with Chace and a lot of it in bed. It’d been Valentine’s Day weekend, after all. Not that she expected that fact to matter to the partners. Or especially to Kim.

Bettina walked into the office behind Whitney. “She’s really on the warpath. I just wanted to warn you. I heard her in there with Andersen this morning and I think I heard the words ‘disciplinary action.’ ”

“Crap,” Whitney muttered. That was the last thing she needed.

“She’s a dragon, but you know there’s nothing you can do to get rid of her. So don’t let her get rid of you.” Bettina put a hand on one of her slim hips. “I couldn’t stand this place without you.”

“I’m trying not to,” Whitney said. Her heart sank when she spied a folder lying on top of her keyboard. She clasped her hand to her forehead. “I didn’t have you send anything to opposing counsel Friday afternoon did I?”

“No,” Bettina said.

“No, no, no,” Whitney moaned.

“Don’t panic.”

“Why should I? Except for the fact that my life is over?”

“I know your schedule back and forth, remember? I knew you probably meant to have me fax those over Friday. You spent most of Friday afternoon working on them, after all. So I faxed everything in that folder over to Todd before I left for the day. Then I put the folder back on your keyboard so you’d be sure to have it for your meeting today.”

Whitney sank into her chair, relief flooding over her. “Bettina, I owe you—my life, the world, just everything. Do you know you’re the best assistant in the world?”

“Yep.”

They laughed.

“I better go pre-conference with Kim.” She made a face.

Bettina made a sympathetic face. “She’s looking for you. That’s what I was trying to tell you earlier.”

“Great.” She tapped the folder on her desk. “No use putting it off, I guess.” She stood and dragged herself to the door. Bettina followed.

Whitney went to see Kim and got the tell-tale cold shoulder, but at least it wasn’t the worst it could possibly be. Kim wasn’t happy with her for several reasons that had to do with assignments that hadn’t even reached their due dates yet. The woman just wanted to rage at her. She accused Whitney of not being a team player. However, Kim left her as lead on the first round of settlement negotiations although Kim would be a close second-in-command. Nobody knew the case as well as Whitney, after all. Plus, Whitney had a knack for negotiating settlements that impressed even the partners. Even Kim begrudgingly acknowledged it.

At ten that morning they walked into the conference room where the negotiation was supposed to be taking place. Whitney felt like she was being walked to her execution even though it was just a negotiation. She’d been involved in several dozen during her time at the firm.

Their client, Skylar, arrived just after opposing counsel even though he was supposed to show up early so that they could have a brief conference before the negotiation started. Everyone expected that from him by that point, though. They would just have to talk after the meeting. Or they would have to ask opposing counsel for a break so they could have a side conference with Skylar if things got dicey. They had to work around this guy and his whims and on his schedule and terms. That was just the way it was with him.

Whitney and her colleagues referred to Skylar as their eccentric child billionaire client. That was what they called him when he wasn’t around, anyway. After skipping a couple years of high school and graduating college a year early, he’d started his own software company with a couple of his friends at the age of twenty. He was a tech genius, and he and his two friends had recently incorporated the Bevyx Corporation. They’d named it after a comic character they had created while in college together.

Bevyx was a freakishly tall alien with a bad fake tan who was good at everything he tried, except for school. The comic had apparently been a running gag and a hit in an e-zine they created in college, but had never made it much further than that, yet Bevyx lived on in the name of their giant software company.

It was rumored the Bevyx Corporation was going to grow up to be the biggest thing since Microsoft. And that given a few years, they would dwarf both Google and Apple. That was, if this lawsuit didn’t cripple them first.

They’d been accused of using a woman who worked for one of their rivals for the trade secrets she knew and then forcing her out of their fledgling business before incorporating it. Now, the disgruntled former employee was suing Bevyx and attempting to shut it down before it even got off the ground.

Skylar, their client, had dressed for the meeting in his usual jeans and T-shirt even though he knew it was an important business meeting. At least he’d finally taken their advice about not wearing jeans with holes and frayed threads to the firm. He wore suits to court. It was the best they were going to get, probably. Whitney smiled at the flip-flops on his feet. They reminded her of Chace.

Skylar had propped his Aviator sunglasses on top of his head. He wore his hair in a buzz cut and his face was pockmarked with acne scars. He kept twisting his chair from side to side as if sitting still was impossible for him. This guy made more money than her just by sitting in the chair at the table in the conference room.

The opposing counsel sat on the other side of the table with the plaintiff, Natalie. She was slim and wore rectangular-framed glasses. She wore a skirt suit and black tights. Her black hair was pulled back from her face in a ponytail.

Whitney didn’t doubt for a moment that a kid like Skylar, feeling entitled to everything he wanted, would sit back and let Natalie do all the work and then take all the credit for it. She knew his type. Brilliant yet oblivious to the real world because he didn’t have to live in it. But that didn’t matter. She had to be a zealous advocate for her client.

This case was making her feel for the first time in her life that she was doing something wrong by defending the supposed rights of the guy with the most money.

The opposing counsel was a two-person team from a plaintiff’s law firm. Whitney had spoken with the lead lawyer, Todd, about the settlement over the phone. A short guy with sandy blond hair, dull brown eyes, and a neutral-colored suit, he easily faded into the background and seemed an odd choice for lead lawyer over his taller, flashier counterpoint. Until he started talking. The guy’s short man complex came across loud and clear when it came time for business, even if he could be quite pleasant otherwise.

Todd and Whitney shook hands. The rest of her team hung back. She could feel Kim’s eyes on her back, though.

“Thanks for coming over to talk with us,” Whitney said to Todd.

“Sure. We were happy to get your call. We want this thing to go away as quickly and painlessly as possible for both parties,” Todd said.

She nodded. “So do we. How was your weekend?”

People from both sides sat in the leather high-back chairs at the conference table. They opened the folders in front of them and began rifling through them. A few people started scratching out notes on yellow legal pads with ball point pens. Skylar was preoccupied with his smart phone. He didn’t seem too concerned about what was about to take place.

Todd smiled. “Oh, it was great, thank you. I spent it with my wife in the Poconos.”

“Oh, yeah?” Whitney opened the leather portfolio in front of her, smoothing her hand over the blank page of a fresh legal pad.

“Yeah. It’s gorgeous up there this time of year. How was yours?”

Kim cut into the conversation. “Sounds wonderful. But why don’t we get down to business? I’m sure everyone here has a busy schedule they need to get back to.” Kim sent Whitney daggers with her eyes.

“Yes. Of course.” Whitney swallowed hard and fought to keep a smile on her face as she turned to Todd, his co-counsel, and Natalie. “Have you had a chance to look over the documents that my assistant faxed to you?” Whitney could still feel Kim’s glare. “I have copies here as well.” She patted the stack of copies that the conscientious Bettina had made.

“We have them right here. And yes, we had a chance to take a look,” Todd said as he and his co-counsel pulled copies of the papers from their attaché cases.

“I believe you’ll find our offer very reasonable,” she said. Kim shuffled papers, and she tensed. Everything about the woman had the ability to set her on edge at that moment.

“Yes.” Todd nodded. “It’s a good starting point.”

Skylar snorted and muttered something unflattering about Natalie under his breath. He never did anything helpful for his case. Kim passed Whitney a note written in all caps, telling her to control her client. Sure. All she needed was a muzzle and a cage.

The negotiation went rather smoothly, all things considered. Whitney shook hands with opposing counsel and the plaintiff before they left. Then she told Skylar she wanted to see him after he spoke with Andersen. Kim caught Whitney by the elbow, holding her back from the group leaving the conference room. “That was a close one, Whitney. Too close.”

“I’m sorry?” Whitney tried to keep her composure when she really wanted to snap at Kim the way the woman had snapped at her.

“Skylar almost ruined everything. It’s your job to make sure he knows how to act in these situations. We can’t afford for you to keep having these little slip-ups. Did you meet with him to prepare for today?”

“No,” Whitney said. Kim knew how hard it was to catch up with the child billionaire. “I’m sorry.” The words grated harshly against her throat because they weren’t what she wanted to say. She thought the meeting had gone really well, and Kim hadn’t said one word about that fact.

“Even though there’s a possibility of settlement on the table, we still need to prepare for a possible counter-claim. I want a decent brief on my desk with a legitimate argument in it by Friday. Not that pathetic excuse for one you delivered last week. Now, I may be mistaken about this, but I thought you actually attended law school, yes?”

“I’ll get right on that.” Whitney chewed on the inside of her cheek to keep herself from saying what she really wanted to. That Kim was lazy, Whitney did most of her work, Kim was an ingrate, and the only reason Kim cared that Whitney wasn’t killing herself for Gibson and Grey anymore was that it was actually starting to show that Kim didn’t carry her share of the workload for the group.

“You’d better. You’re not doing much to show me you’re partner material right now, Whitney. I really expect more of you.” Kim snatched her pile of documents from the table. “On top of that, as one black woman to another, you know we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard to be taken seriously, and you’re not doing that right now. I can’t say I’m not disappointed in you.” With that, Kim walked away.

She took a few deep breaths through clenched teeth before she could even walk back to her office without bursting into tears of frustration and anger.

* * *

Whitney put her legs on Chace’s lap. “My feet are so sore. I was running around all day between our Tyson’s Corner office and my office—the one in the city.” Ever since the settlement conference a few weeks ago, it seemed that Kim had gotten it in her head to double Whitney’s work load.

“I’m sorry,” Chace said, slipping her shoes off of her feet. He began massaging them, kneading his fingers into the soles.

She closed her eyes and moaned. “That feels so good.”

“Good.” He deepened his touch.

“I have the big eval tomorrow. We’re going to talk about whether or not I’m eligible for partner this year,” Whitney said. She wasn’t looking forward to it with the way Kim had been acting lately, but there was little more she could do than just walk in there and see what would happen.

“Yeah? You ready?” Chace’s hands moved down from the balls of her feet and then to her Achilles tendons, relieving the tension there. His touch felt so good that she just wanted to melt into him.

“I guess,” she murmured, feeling further and further disconnected from her worry with each new touch of Chace’s hands. “How are things with your job? And your photography?”

“Good on both fronts. I was talking to someone in my photography club who said there’s a local show I should try to get into. Apparently, a lot of local gallery owners and that kind of crowd go to it,” Chace said as his hands slowly moved up her calves, working the tension out of her muscles as they went.

“Mmm. That’s good. Any of them doing it?” Her eyes were closed and she was drunk with satisfaction. “The people in your club?”

“Nah. They’re mostly just hobbyists. Not interested in shows,” Chace said. His strong hands kneaded her overworked muscles. They were now at the top of her calves. He’d shifted up the couch so that she was now sitting on his lap. She opened her eyes and put her arms around his neck. His gaze was so intense that she forgot what they’d been talking about.