Page 38 of Contention

Kara has tried emulating Gale any time she’s working with clients. Cool. Polite. Cultured. Polished. Gale is perfection in her eyes and...well. Kara isn’t anything like Gale, but she can pretend.

Quietly, she knocks on the large wooden door, hearing Gale shakily say, “Not now,” behind it.

Kara doesn’t listen, simply slipping in, closing the door behind her. Gale looks up, wiping at her blue eyes angrily, looking like she’s about to yell before she recognizes Kara standing there in front of her glamorous desk. Her face softens, emotion filling her gaze. “Oh. Kara. I thought-”

Perfect Gale Clarke looks like her world isn’t all together and the very idea of it has Kara’s throat tightening, like a hand is squeezing it closed.

“So, it’s true.” Kara feels a certain panic wash over her. “You are leaving the firm.”

Gale Clarke is a handsome woman, dark blonde and statuesque. She’d just turned forty earlier in the year; Kara knows because they had thrown her a party in the office, celebrating Gale and all her successes. She’s widely loved and commands respect with ease. It kills Kara to see the woman she so admires looking utterly downcast and defeated.

At the same time, Kara feels betrayed. Miffed. Gale is…was having an affair…with Derrick?What the hell, Gale?

Clearing her throat a bit, as if to erase the emotions about to spill over, Gale glumly says, “As I’m sure you’ve figured out- along with everyone else in this office- I’ve made a foolish mistake. I’m not proud of it. My husband has given me an ultimatum; I’m to leave the firm or else he’ll leave me.”

Staring in shocked silence, Kara tries and fails to remember anything that would have given hint to this secret affair happening in the office. She’d never even noticed. All this time, Derrick had been going around with Gale. Both of them, outwardly happily married. This is why Kara doesn’t trust romance! “What about…what about all of your clients? And I…I learned so much from you, working with you. This is a surprise. I…I don’t know what to say. Most of my workload is with you…”

What does this mean for Kara? Does she have to build a new relationship with someone else in the firm to keep building herself up and gaining much needed experience? She can’t just rely on Derrick…this is the first time she’s even gotten a chance to work with him, after all.

“The majority of my clients are coming with me.” Gale gives Kara a weak smile with watery eyes. “You’re my girl, you know. My clients trust you; I enjoy working with you and mentoring you.” She sighs with regret. “I’d looked forward to helping you move up quickly. That’s why I suggested you to Derrick for the Debra Mills case. I wanted you to shine. Now…I hope he doesn’t hold it against you.”

Gale recommended me? She…put in a good word on my behalf? God, why does she have to leave?

Derrick wouldn’t hold anything against Kara in regards to her being close to Gale. Kara knows that he wouldn’t; he’s as fair as they come. Though, perhaps he won’t work with her as much going forward, knowing she was Gale’s golden girl. The idea of favoritism makes Kara feel a little ill, but in truth, it really is all about who you know and how far they will help you go. The thought makes Kara’s stomach sick. As if she didn’t already have things to worry about. “You know he won’t do that, Gale.”

Sighing, Gale sits back in her fine leather chair, looking around at the boxes already piling in the corner of the office, out of sight. She steeples her long, elegant fingers, decorated with lovely amethyst gemstone rings. “You could maybe come with me. My clients would be happy with you staying on their accounts.” Her voice goes quieter as she speaks more to herself, “I can ask Nicholas about it.”

Kara almost swallows her tongue, going pale. “You’ve already found a new firm? You don’t mean Calais, Vickers, & Yates?”

The older woman shuffles a few papers on her long oak desk, placing them in folders before filing them away. Stacks of placards and picture frames are piled in the boxes in the office. “The one and only. Like I said, I can see if I can snag you and bring you along. You have so much raw potential. Derrick would be irritated, naturally, and I know the infamous trio at CVY is a bit of a boy’s club, but you’re tough.” Gale gives Kara her ‘mentor’ look, trying to hold back a grin. “Though, no challenge comes without a good reward. What do you say?”

There is literally only one thing to say. “Calaishatesme, Gale.”

The other woman quirks her eyebrows. “You know Nick? Oh, that’s right; the Debra Mills case. Whatever did you do to him in court to make him dislike you?”

Spluttering over the absurdity of it, Kara says, “What didIdo tohim?!”

Gale waves the outburst away dismissively, her mind apparently set on something. The woman is a force of nature, after all. Her tears are momentarily forgotten. “Never you mind. I’ll fix it. We went to Yale together. I’ll call him.”

The image of melting into the floor while screaming, ‘please don’t’ flashes into Kara’s mind. There and gone. The urge to vomit returns, stronger than before. What if he disparages her to Gale?! Telling Derrick she’d overstepped her bounds is one thing, but telling Gale that she’d screwed up? That would put the lid on Kara’s mental coffin.

“Gale…you really don’t have to do that. I don’t want you to risk your new role.”

Her mentor smiles at her, pink lips soft and kind. A wisp of hair elegantly falls over her left eye, giving her a mischievous look. “It’s not your job to worry about me, Kara. I’m a big girl; I’ll be fine. I have to deal with my own mistakes, as public and humiliating as they are. Now, let me get back to packing up. We’ll do lunch in the next few days to chat. I’m still here through the end of next week.”

Kara nods glumly, sadness falling over her as she exits Gale’s office. Of all the places Gale could have chosen…she chose the one that Kara will not follow her to.

When Friday comes, so does the festivity. Friday always means a night out with Bianca.

Ever since college, neither girl has been able to shake the habit. Even when Kara attempted to kick alcohol for all eternity, it didn’t work. Even when Bianca had walking pneumonia, the bar hopping didn’t stop. It was dangerous, stupid, yet the habit never seemed to die a final death.

Tonight, one of Bianca’s friends is celebrating her dirty thirty. The young woman is an acquaintance of Kara’s through Bianca, so naturally she’s invited along. It’s in one of the more popular dance clubs and the irony is not lost on Kara that it’s the same nightclub she got drugged in the other week.

“Well, maybe we should get you one of those baby sippy cups. With a cover and all,” Bianca quips as they all stroll inside, dressed to kill. “It would take a dedicated man to drug you through a capped drink!”

The birthday girl, smooshed between two of her other friends that Kara doesn’t recognize, gasps, drunken valley-girl style. “Oh, you got drugged here once? That’s not alright! Did you set your drink down?”

Kara doesn’t have the patience to tell Birthday Princess that she learned not to do such stupid things way back in college. All it likely took was her looking away from her drink in her hand for five seconds. Anyone can reach over and drop something in with a harmless grin when you aren’t looking.

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