Chapter 33 – Brynn
As soon as Clay and I get back to the office from the diner, it’s obvious that the whole firm is waiting anxiously to hear about what we’d discussed.
I smile uncomfortably as Paul Makens opens the door to the conference room and motions to the head of the table and the seat right next to it, both of which have been reserved for us while everyone else sits all around the rest of the table.
All of this is happening so fast. I don’t even know if I want it to be happening. I know that the partners want me to do whatever Clay wants and that this is likely to help my career.
I also know it will bring me closer geographically to Larson. Those are the positive aspects. But the big negative aspect is that Clay is seriously starting to creep me out.
When I first started working here, the partners were happy to hear about my Albuquerque connection with Clay because he is the firm’s biggest client. But he didn’t seem to pay me any notice until the Halloween party.
Shit. Must have been that stupid cheerleading costume. Because now he doesn’t seem to be doing anything but paying me notice.
He even puts his arm around me as we walk into the room. Sure, it’s mostly to usher me into the door but I don’t want him touching me at all. I have common sense enough to know, however, that now is neither the time nor place to tell him that.
My complaints will have to wait until some other time when all eyes are not on us, desperately hoping that we bring good news to the firm. Business has been slow lately due to the election and holiday season and the partners seem elated that Clay wants to talk money.
I sit down in the chair reserved for me and try to inconspicuously slide my phone out of my purse. I had wanted to text Larson since Clay and I were at the diner but I knew he would consider it rude. Clay is the type to expect and demand one’s full attention, and especially and maybe understandably so when he’s about to propose a venture that will bring a lot of business and money to the firm.
I hadn’t wanted to do anything that could blow this deal and make the partners mad at me. I’d been specifically instructed to not fuck it up.
But I’d thought that when we got back to the firm I’d have time to run to my office or at least to the bathroom, so that I could text Larson. I have no choice but to try to do it right now before this meeting starts.
I glance down at my phone and notice that I have a new text notifications from Larson. Shit. He’s probably so pissed.
I get as far as moving my thumb across the slider on the screen that opens up the text when Clay clears his throats and looks very obviously down at my phone. I look up at Paul and see that he is glaring at me.
“Brynn, I know you’re waiting on the final documents in that big settlement we worked out for the De la Cruz case but this is a very important matter,” he says. “So why don’t you give your phone to Dee so that she can check any incoming documents or messages for you?”
Dee, a floating assistant who is in the room for whatever assistance might be required during this meeting, looks as confused as I feel. Then I realize that Paul is just looking for a way to take my phone so that I can’t be distracted by it anymore.
“Dee, better yet, go ahead and take Brynn’s phone to Mary so that she can take a look at whether those documents have come in or not,” says Paul.
Good thinking on your part, I want to tell him. My assistant Mary is the bomb and she’ll know that we’re not waiting on any documents in the De la Cruz case. That settlement finalized months ago and Paul just pulled the most recent big settlement out of his ass to brag about to the client and use as an excuse to take my phone from me.
Mary will think that Dee is confused but will know to check my email from my office computer just to make sure nothing has come in. So this is just Paul’s plan to take my phone away from me.
I guess I can’t even be trusted with a cell phone. They must view me the same way they would a 12- year- old.
I know it was a stupid move to try to text Larson right when an important meeting just started but I also had no idea that today would turn out this way and I really wish I could let him know what’s going on. As usual, I feel torn between my personal and professional obligations.
Once Dee has come to take the phone from me— and I wonder why she just doesn’t put me in the corner with a dunce cap on while she’s at it— Clay nods with smug satisfaction.
“I’m sorry about that, Clay,” Paul apologizes. “And so is Brynn.”
“Yes,” I say quickly, nodding my head humbly. “Very sorry.”
“Now it appears the meeting is ready to officially start,” Paul continues, as Dee exits the room with my phone— and my only opportunity to contact Larson— in her obedient grasp and shuts the door behind her. “Clay, would you like to let us know why we’re all here?”
Yes, good question Paul. Why are all of us cooped up in this room on a fine Sunday afternoon? But I already know the answer. It’s because Clay always insists on being the most important person ever. He enjoys having a captive, spellbound audience.
And maybe somehow he’d heard that Larson was coming to town. I can only imagine he’d want to outdo him in that scenario.
Clay smiles at me and then tells the room, “Well, as you all know, I’ve been very impressed with your associate Brynn, and I know that she hails from my hometown of Albuquerque. She and I just had a very productive lunch. And I’d like to let you all in on what we talked about.”
Paul nods at him, as if urging him to get to the good stuff.
“But I can’t,” Clay says.
An audible gasp can be heard around the room.
“I mean,” Clay continues, stretching his arm out in a dramatic and sweeping manner. “I can tell you the overall points of it. But it involves Brynn and I working very closely together on issues that can’t be fully discussed with just anyone and everyone.”
I squirm in my seat. The partners are glaring at me as if this arrangement that I hadn’t even known about is my fault.
I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that Clay is telling them there are things he would work on with a lowly associate— me— instead of with them, or the fact he is implying that our professional relationship is a little too up close and personal.
I don’t want either of these things to be true. I just want to head back home to Larson and Caleb and pretend that this nightmare of a day never happened.