Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 47606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
“Why doesn’t Ruby keep her schedule?” I asked, because Ruby was Ms. Mata’s first assistant.
“She does. All the second assistant has to do is put in any changes Ruby gives her and publish them to Pilar’s desktop and phone.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it,” Koji confirmed.
“This is sounding worse and worse.”
“That’s because it is,” he affirmed. “Now listen, the person who would get along with Ruby like peas and carrots would be you, buddy.”
“I—”
“You should totally apply. You’d love working with Ruby. She’s the best.”
“She is,” Natalie seconded. “And this way, you can move up and get some of that good litigation profit flowing through your bank account.”
“This is true,” Koji replied. “You’d actually be seen up on the top floor.”
If he knew me better, he’d know I had no desire to be seen at all. Working in the dungeon was absolutely to my liking.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Daisy began, leaning forward, lowering her voice. “I have news.”
We all leaned closer as well. It probably looked really funny from across the room.
“Drummond Burgess is starting at the firm.”
“No,” Koji groaned. “He finished law school?”
I had no idea Mr. Burgess had a son or nephew. But then again, the extent of our interaction was my going to the firm’s holiday party at his home. The rest of the time I stayed in the basement, where it was safe and nothing surprised me.
Daisy nodded. “Last fall. Harvard. Melinda accidentally looked at his transcripts when she printed them for Ruby—I guess he’s attached to litigation—and he barely graduated.”
“Litigation?” Natalie and Koji said at the same time.
“Yes,” Daisy said dryly. “Since litigation is the place to be a star.”
She was right; it was. The litigation team was in court every single day. It was rare, beyond child custody cases, that family law ever was, and the same was true for corporate that handled tax law for businesses as well as property disputes and purchases. Litigation was where you wanted to be.
“No,” Natalie grumbled, glancing at Koji. “This is going to suck.”
“Yeah, ya think? Named partner’s kid in our sandbox? What the fuck?”
That cleared it up for me. Son. “Wait? Drummond?” I asked. All eyes on me. “Does that shorten to Drum?”
“Who cares?” Natalie sounded annoyed. “None of us will be stupid enough to make friends with the little narc.”
“That’s mean,” I made sure she knew.
“And,” Daisy continued, raising her voice for a moment to get everyone’s attention, “they’re giving him his own office with a dedicated assistant. He won’t have to share Melinda or whoever the new Melinda will be.”
“What?” Koji gasped, sounding both horrified and surprised.
“Four of us share her now.” Natalie’s voice was much higher, and louder, than I was guessing she wanted. “Are you fuckin’ kidding me?”
“Maybe they’ll hire some new receptionists and move Dan or Theresa to litigation,” Koji offered. “That would make sense.”
I didn’t think either of the receptionists would accept that proposal if presented to them. At the moment, our two receptionists sat in the lobby and greeted everyone who came through the doors. They answered phones, directed new clients to the relevant department, and walked returning clients to their assigned attorneys. They did not have to deal with any office politics, no one asked them to run and get coffee, and they got profit sharing, as they were the face of the firm. Why would they want to do more work?
I shook my head at Koji.
“You don’t think so?”
“It’s safe at the front,” I assured him. “And besides, it would take longer to train Dan and Theresa than it would to simply hire people who are ready to hit the ground running.”
“Yes,” Daisy assented. “I just wish Jonah wasn’t in charge of hiring.”
“Why?” I asked, batting my lashes at her.
She flipped me off.
“What even is with Jonah and his shitty string of people who quit in the first week?” Libby asked her.
“We all know he’s looking for the second missus Dumont,” Daisy replied with a roll of her eyes.
“Ew,” Natalie muttered.
“Dipping your line in the company pond is not permitted,” Koji promised Daisy.
“It is as long as they don’t report directly to him.”
Jonah Dumont was one of the senior equity partners, and he worked in corporate law and oversaw hiring—the latter for reasons unknown to me. It might have been that David Burgess had given him that duty when he and Henry Mayhew named Ms. Mata the head of litigation over him. I had no clue, but as he really sucked at hiring—not as badly as the man who brought on a murderer, but it ran a close second—I was thinking it had to be something like that. Dumont had always struck me as a slacker, though perhaps I was wrong. It was his time away from the firm that made me and many others think like that. He was always running out for a business meeting or a lunch with someone. His assistant, Tobias Sinclair, had to continually rework his boss’s schedule, suddenly clearing it, making calls, to the point where I’d taken to grabbing him lunch from wherever I was going and dropping it off. In the beginning he thought I was trying to get his job, and then he revised that to me sucking up so I could change departments. Over time, though, he’d learned that no one with half a brain had designs on his position and that I was simply trying to be nice. Now I considered him a friend, and we did things outside of work as well, same as I did with Natalie and Koji.