All Work, Let's Play, page 4
Surprisingly, Mr. Newman laughs. Not a deep laugh, but a laugh, nonetheless. I’ve never heard one from him and I think it sounds nice. Again with the stomach flip. I shake myself and step into the room. It’s beautiful. Powder blue walls that match the bedding. Large wood dressers and nightstands that look like they were custom-made The carpet is thick and soft and I know that when I take my shoes off, my feet will sink into it. There’s a bathroom here, which I’m thankful for, until Mr. Newman bursts my bubble. “This bathroom connects the two rooms, so you’ll be sharing. I expect that’s not a problem.”
I really think he did this shit on purpose but staying here is better and more comfortable than a hotel.
Max shrugs. “Doesn’t bother me.” I didn’t realize he came out of the room Mr. Newman indicated for him and came into mine.
“Good. Well, I’m on the other side, the second door on the left. If you need me, just knock. Or text me. Whichever. I’m off to bed.”
“I’ll be up for a while. If either of you need something else for research, let me know.” I toss my bags on the bed and turn around to shut the door behind them when I see that only Mr. Newman has left. Max is still standing in my room, staring me down.
“What do you want?” I ask him, not liking the idea of being cornered.
“To tell you I didn’t forget what happened last month. You put your fucking hands on me, and I don’t appreciate that shit.” I look Max over. He’s about my height, five-eleven or so, but he has a few pounds on me. Maybe fifteen or twenty. I’m about one seventy, so he’s big guy. Not fat, but solid. He has the same dark brown skin as his sister. Same wide eyes, same button nose. Only thing different is their lips. While Joyce’s lips are on the thinner side, something she hates, Max’s are plump, juicy, the lower larger than the upper. There’s no beard framing his face, unlike mine, making the size and shape of his mouth more apparent.
I shake my head to clear it, wondering why I’m focused on his lips.
I rub my hand on the back of my neck and look at Max. “I apologize about that. I wasn’t in a good space when that happened. It won’t happen again. I don’t like…I hate violence.”
“Either way, I won’t forget. And I won’t forget what you did to my sister. She told me what happened.”
My head snaps up. What did she tell him? Whatever she told him is one hundred percent more than what I know. “Told you what? You read the letter just as I did. What could she have possibly told you that I did to her?”
“No need to act innocent now,” he says in a low voice. “Just know I know what happened and after this case is over, we’ll talk about it.” His tone makes ‘talk about it’ sound like ‘I’m going to fuck you up’. He raps his knuckles on my door and walks out, leaving me in stunned silence. What did she tell him?
Chapter Five
I don’t get to bed until nearly three in the morning. I thought about waiting to finish the research I was assigned until the following morning, but knew it was important to have everything done by the time Max and Mr. Newman woke so they could get started right away. I expected them to let me sleep in, since we weren’t at the office, but that hope gets dashed.
I’m sure I was deep in a dream, but it’s like I feel someone staring at me. When I open my eyes, I almost jump out of my skin. Max is standing over my bed, looking down at me with a weird look on his face. What kind of fucking creep stands over someone while they’re sleeping?
“Jesus fucking Christ, Max! You could have knocked!” I put my hand over my heart, trying to keep it from galloping out of my chest.
“You need to get up,” he says, not bothering to apologize for being a creep. “We have a lot to do and you have work waiting for you.”
I grab my phone from the nightstand and see that it’s eight fifteen. “I haven’t been asleep that long. I have everything you’ll both need in manila folders on the desk with the laptops.”
He scoffs and eyeballs me. “Yeah, we got that. We need more. Get the fuck up and get dressed. You have work to do.”
I put my arm over my face and take a deep breath. I’ve only ever lost my temper with him once. I’m not the type to get loud or confrontational. After that one slip, I told myself I wouldn’t let it happen again. Saying snarky shit to Mr. Newman is one thing. Yelling and physical assault is too much like how I lived in those foster homes. Not something I wanted to emulate. “Okay. Let me get a shower and I’ll be right down.”
He turns and leaves through the bathroom, showing me I need to find a way to lock that door so that shit doesn’t happen again.
I drag myself out of bed and lay out a suit, deciding to wear one today. I’m not sure if we’ll be going to the courthouse or to the jail to speak to the client and it’ll be easier to already have it on than to change, even though we’re working in the house right now. And I saw Max had one on, so I guess that’s the attire, regardless of if we leave the house.
I collect the things I’ll need for a shower and walk into heaven. There’s a glass frameless shower with two rainfall showerheads and a built-in corner alcove tub. In front of the shower and bathtub are fluffy rugs to catch water. Beside the shower are large towels and thick bathrobes. There are jack and jill sinks, jack and jack in this case, and Max has already claimed one side.
I add my things to the other side and pluck a towel from the rack beside the shower. I turn the shower on and step under the spray, letting it wake me up, since I’ve only gotten a few hours of sleep.
My eyes burn, and I can’t stop yawning. After the flight, the drive and the long night, I’m exhausted. And I’m sure there will be more days like this.
After my shower, I dress and jog down the stairs. I follow my nose and turn to the left at the bottom of the stairs instead of going to the right to the office. I walk through the doorway and see a plump, older Black woman at the kitchen counter, putting pancakes on a plate that’s laden with sausages, bacon, grits and eggs. She looks up and smiles at me.
“Good morning, sir. Are you hungry?”
“Gage, please. And I am. Thank you…” I let my voice trail off, waiting for her name.
“Jeanie,” she supplies and shakes my hand. “You want me to bring your plate out to you?”
I shake my head. “No ma’am. I’ll eat here, if that’s okay. I have a thing about food anywhere else but the kitchen.”
She smiles and slides a plate over to me and comes back with a fork and knife. I’m about to dig in when I hear his irritating voice behind me.
“Ah yes,” I turn and see Mr. Newman walk into the kitchen, straightening his suit jacket. “My very sleepy paralegal decided to grace us with his presence. How thoughtful.” His tone is full of sarcasm.
“Long night, Mr. Newman,” I answer back, fighting not to roll my eyes. I’m too tired to think of a witty remark. Any other time, I’m prepared, but my eyes are dry and itchy and I’m struggling not to fall asleep where I sit.
“I bet it was,” he counters, giving me an almost playful eye roll. Dick.
He grabs a plate and gives Jeanie a kiss on the cheek. He gives me a bored look and takes his plate with him. I shake my head at him and Jeanie laughs.
“He likes you,” she says absently.
I scoff. “Hardly. He tolerates me. And only because I’m good at my job. If I weren’t, he’d have tossed me years ago.”
She chuckles and gets silverware for what I presume is Max’s plate. “I’ve been with his family for over 25 years. I watched him grow up. Trust me, he likes you. He might not say it, but he does.”
I don’t know what she means by he likes me. There’s no way. All he does is make snide comments, like the one just then, and talk down about my work. I don’t ask though. I remain quiet and enjoy the delicious food.
When I’ve finished my breakfast, I make my way over to the office and see Max and Mr. Newman hard at work. They’ve taken apart the research I painstakingly aligned into labeled sections and the papers are strewn about haphazardly. Lawyers are real assholes.
I sigh and sit in front of the computer that’s not occupied. Max hands me a piece of paper but doesn’t say anything to me. They don’t break from the conversation they’re having to even acknowledge me, besides him giving me work. If I wasn’t as tired as I am from doing a fuckload of research for them, I would have let it slide. But I can’t. Not when they’re acting so ungrateful and like I don’t exist.
“Good morning to both of you too,” I say, my tone displaying the annoyance I feel as I sit down. I hate being ignored. I work hard and I deserve respect.
Mr. Newman looks at me oddly. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. The polite thing to do when someone steps into the room, especially someone you’re depending on to help with this case, is to acknowledge them. That’s the least either of you could do.”
He cocks a brow and puts his arms on the table in front of him. “You should have been up hours ago. Had you been, I would have said good morning then. For now, you’re late. Just because we’re not in the office doesn’t mean the same rules don’t apply.”
I almost let it go. I almost keep my mouth closed and let him have whatever victory he feels like he got from chastising me about being late. But Max has to open his mouth. “Had a feeling you were lazy,” he says, not quite under his breath, but not at full volume. Mr. Newman raises an eyebrow at him and opens his mouth like he’s going to come to my defense again. There’s no need. Not this time. Because the both of them are on my shit list this morning.
I glare over at them and stand from my chair. I start with Mr. Newman. “Excuse me?! If I’m not mistaken, the two of you went to bed when we got here last night while I stayed up for hours to get the research you needed done. If we’re going to do the office rule bullshit, I shouldn’t have done that. I clock out at five every evening. But since I did stay up hours after I normally leave, expect me to put in for overtime. That includes the flight, the drive here and when I finally went to bed. And you.” I swing my eyes over to Max, who looks a bit shocked. Guess he didn’t think I would address his whispered comment. He thought wrong. “You don’t know how I work. You know dick about me, other than what your fucking sister told you, which I’m sure is a lie. You never took the time to get to know me, so you can’t have any feelings about me or my work ethic.”
I stop my rant and take a deep breath, closing my eyes and pinching the bridge of my nose. “Let’s get one thing straight. Me staying up late is a fucking courtesy to both of you ungrateful bastards. I could have taken my ass to bed just like you two and you would be a day behind on what you need.” I start unplugging the laptop from the cords and the printer and tuck it under my arm. “But I didn’t. I did my job. For you two and the client. You will not disrespect me. You will acknowledge that I’m a person and treat me accordingly.
“Now, if you need me to research anything else besides this,” I say and hold up the sticky note Max passed me without so much as a hello, “text me. I’ll be in the kitchen. If it’s not about work, do. Not. Speak. To. Me.”
It takes everything in me not to stomp off like a child. I walk with my head high to the kitchen and set up my mini workstation at the dining room table. I know I’ll need to go back to get the charging cable for the laptop, but for the next few hours, I’ll be able to work in silence.
I probably shouldn’t have gone off on Mr. Newman like that. After all, he’s my boss. He’s one of the founding members of the firm, which means there’s no one and nothing to stop him from firing me. But that exchange really frustrated me.
I spent so much time as a kid being looked over, forgotten, disrespected, and degraded that I don’t tolerate it in my adult life. Things that happened in my childhood affect how I react to things as an adult. Though my attitude today can partially be chalked up to me being dog tired and Max scaring the shit out of me when I woke up. The rest comes from the disrespect. What they just did was the height of disrespect. I might be the help to them, but I’m not invisible. I deserve more than someone handing me paper without eye contact or not even acknowledging that I stepped into the room. I don’t need fanfare, but a ‘hi’, ‘good morning’, something, is common courtesy.
Shaking my head, I look down at the sticky note that Max gave me and almost go back into the room and curse them out again. This is everything that I completed last night. Everything that I printed out, organized and had waiting for them that they so callously ripped apart. But I won’t do it. I won’t lose my temper with them again. I’ll do my job and make them feel small at the same time.
I close the laptop and walk back into the sitting room that now functions as the office. I put the sticky note in front of Max and I grabbed the now messy set of papers that I so carefully labeled and organized at two that morning.
“Can we help you with something?” Mr. Newman asks in a disgruntled tone.
“No, it’s what I can help you with,” I tell him in an almost cheery voice. “I can point out to you, page by page, the research I accumulated for you that you think you need me to do again.” I lay out the first section. “This is the Johnson case.” I lay out the second. “The Miller file.” The third. “The Brooks case.” The fourth, “The Sheffield case.” The fifth. “The evidence list for the Cobbs case last year.” And lastly, “The Freeman case the year prior to that.” I look at both of them and see they have the same identical look of irritation. I don’t give a fuck. They should have looked at the paperwork instead of being assholes.
“Now, since my work is done, I’m going back to bed. If you need anything, it can wait until after my nap.”
Mr. Newman glares at me. “Do you nap during the work day, Mr. Archer?”
“No, but I also don’t stay up until three AM working when we’re in the office. So let’s say the rules are different on the road. What happens in Virginia, stays in Virginia, yeah?” I wink at him and he sucks in a breath, looking stunned for a second. He hides it quickly, but I see it. I start to wonder at it, then realize I don’t care.
“You need anything?” I shift over to Max, leaning my head down to meet his eyes in a silent challenge. The way he’s clenching his jaw tells me he wants to say something but can’t. Not without looking like a dick.
“No,” he grits out. I know that’s hard for him, but I laugh anyway.
“Good. Please knock,” I emphasize, looking at Max again, “if either of you need anything. I’ll be down after lunchtime if you don’t.”
I jog upstairs, feeling on top of the world. I know both of them probably have attitude coming off them in waves, but I don’t care. They’re lawyers. They’re supposed to be the educated ones but can’t even read a simple table of contents to know that everything they needed was right in front of them.
I take off my suit and hang it up back in the closet. If they want to go to the courthouse or jail, they’ll have to wait for me to get dressed. At this point, I’m not going to be accommodating. It’s only the first day and already they’re trying to treat me like shit. I won’t have it. If it continues, I might not even stay the whole month. I can deal with Mr. Newman, but not Max on top of it. I’ll leave before they disrespect me further.
I lay on the bed and stare at the ceiling. After all the excitement of my morning, I’m not really sleepy. I’m tired, so laying back and relaxing feels good, but I don’t have the urge to take a nap. So I spend my time thinking about whatever pops into my head. Like what was up with Mr. Newman drawing in that breath when I winked at him? Maybe he thought I stepped over the line? That he was holding back from exploding on me? I did disrespect him twice in front of a new employee.
I curse to myself. I completely forgot that Max was a new employee. I spent so much time around him because of Joyce, it seems almost normal to have him around constantly. I spent a lot of time with her family, trying to integrate myself into a home and he was a part of it. But we’re not on a family level now. Technically, he’s my boss, too. Even though he doesn’t sign my paychecks, as a lawyer with the firm, if he needs me, I have to work for him.
Fuck. I just cursed out two of my bosses. It’s too late to go down and apologize. One, because I wouldn’t mean it and two, because they would know I didn’t mean it. So, I’ll just have to let whatever happens, happen.
I turn over on my side and close my eyes. Might as well try to take a nap to take my mind off the fact that I could be fired in the morning.
Chapter Six
I’m not fired, despite my outbursts. In fact, I’m useless for the next two days. The research I did was extensive enough that Mr. Newman and Max are able to use that to compile everything they need for discovery and opening statements. None of us mention my tantrum from the first day. We all choose to ignore it, but they do speak when I come into the room. They eat their breakfast in the office and I eat in the kitchen with Jeanie. I know they’re both wondering why I don’t eat in that room, but it’s my thing and I’ll keep it to myself. They don’t need to know more about me than they already do.
On the third morning, I step out of the kitchen when I’m done eating breakfast to find Mr. Newman and Max waiting for me at the door.
“Good, you’re finished,” Mr. Newman says. “We have to head over to see our client. We’ve finally been granted a visit. You have everything you need?”
I tell him no, then hurry upstairs to grab my messenger bag. I rarely unpack it, so I won’t have to try to locate my wallet, keys, phone charger and extra notepads I might need. Makes it easier to keep everything in one spot, for times like this.
When I’m back downstairs, Mr. Newman looks me over, dragging his eyes over me slowly. I look down at myself, making sure everything is buttoned, zipped and clean. I look back at him and tilt my head, wondering why he’s looking at me like he is.
“You look nice,” is all he says. I look back down at my suit, wondering if he’s never seen me in this color before. I don’t ask though. He’s probably trying to be friendly after the catastrophe of our first day. Max merely grunts, not willing to let shit go. I shake my head and follow them out.
