Chapter 13 – Carolina
Despite the neck massaging and bitching about men, Erin and I have forged a nice little work relationship. She makes my cappuccino for me every morning, and I start to think her crooked teeth are cute.
Around the end of my first week, she told me that Garrett was facing some serious backlash from the other partners. Some of them were all really old and could barely walk, so at first, I just thought they were jealous. But apparently, not so much.
According to Erin, the all-knowing receptionist extraordinaire, Garrett had been warned many times to stop his behavior with female assistants in the office. Of course, I did sort of walk in on one apparent warning, so I was starting to put things together even without her explanation.
Erin said he was a serial womanizer. She told me the last temp agency paralegal, some well-endowed skirt named Selinda, had quit because he couldn’t keep his hands to himself, or so she said.
I couldn’t decipher if Erin was just trying to keep me away from him, or if it was all a little bit overexaggerated. And she did admit that it seemed Selinda was as much into Garrett as Garrett had been into Selinda, so her leaving the firm may have been due to sour grapes on her part. So initially, I tucked it away under “I need absolute proof” in my brain.
Soon enough though, she would be proven right. Not only was I resisting Garrett’s advances from about day two— although I was probably different than most of his office conquests since I wanted him more than I could ever admit— but he would come in late and hungover quite often.
Erin leaned in one morning and whispered to me, “Look, you should know that Garrett spends way too much money on women, drinks to excess, and forgets about his work. And they all know it. Especially that old curmudgeon, Arthur Friedmont. He points out constantly that Berg and his team over in Patent are creaming Garrett in Civil Litigation. I mean, I shouldn’t tell you this, but the only reason he’s not gone is because of his dad. So yeah, nepotism is alive and well. I mean, you really can’t repeat this but you should know since you are his exec ass.”
“His exec ass?”
“Executive assistant.”
“Oh.”
“So, you know, you may have to anticipate fires to put out is all I’m saying. He is performing the most poorly of any partners here. It’s sad, really. I mean, I like Garrett. He’s just in his own way. His emotional IQ must not be very high. And they think— the partners— it’s because he’s too much of a player. They have told him in no uncertain terms to stop chasing women as a national pastime.”
She rolled her eyes as if to indicate that was never going to happen.
“I did try to defend Garrett early on,” she continued. “I’m not afraid of him. Please! This place is peanuts compared to my old firm.”
Here, she shrugged, as if I’d worked a lot of firms myself and would know. But, I didn’t know. I was clueless and just starting to learn the ways of entitled law firm partners.
“Anyway,” she went on, “I told Artie that I knew many terrific lawyers from my last firm who had like three mistresses and not a loss at trial, not a misstep to be had. But he just grumbled something like, ‘Well, clearly they can think with both heads. Mr. Mack cannot.’”
As the words left Erin’s mouth, I started laughing so hard I snorted.
“Yeah, Friedmont is a grump. But just so you have the inside scoop, Garrett has been warned to either not date at all or at least not bring it to work—or settle down with just one woman, which he thinks is impossible.”
My ears pricked up. Immediately, I took note. I was determined to be the one. This was during my first week, and it became my secret goal. I would find a way to tame Garrett, the wild womanizer, without taming his scorching sexiness.
Of course, I still wanted to fuck him silly. I just didn’t intend to become another notch in his bedpost. Still, I would have to somehow remain professional at the same time. I wasn’t sure how, but I was once again feeling my own power.
And I sure am glad I have Erin around to help enlighten me. Every time she and I talk, I become more and more convinced that Garrett feels something for me the way that I do for him. Her stories become less and less about his past conquests and infamy for being a player, and more about how often he asks after me.
“He came looking for you when you were at lunch,” she’ll tell me. Or, “he wants you to go to his office as soon as you’re back.”
Each time, Claude would roll his eyes and say, “Straight people. Just get it on already.”
And I would think: that’s exactly what I’m trying to do.