Page 27 of The Suit

“Hello,” he smirked, “fucked her yet?”

“No, I fucking haven’t. Get bored of this already!”

“Never!” he crowed with an expression matching Murray’s.

I slumped into my chair, suddenly more weary than I’d felt in a long time and picked up the whiskey I assumed was mine, downing it in one. This week… this fucking week. I wasn’t sure where my apathy was springing from, but my energy and enthusiasm had definitely decided to stay in last week. I usually lived for the fight, relished in the argument, the winning, the victory. But this week had been fuckinghardwork.

Every night since Monday I’d found it harder and harder to fall asleep, because every night Beulah Holmes would creep into my head just as I was about to drift off, and my heart would start pumping double time, pushing the adrenaline round my body and I’d find myself wide awake again, stewing in my own annoyance until I got up and fired a round of darts at her face. I was tired, grumpy, and I just wanted this case over so I could get on with my life.

Yet given her refusal to budge a millimeter, I really had no idea where this case was going to end up. The only thing I knew for certain was that New York City was not big enough for Beulah Holmes to be here too.

She needed to go.

“Come on then, tell us what’s been happening if you’ve not been fucking her.”

I hailed the waitress over and ordered another round of drinks; the first one hadn’t made a dent in the edge I needed taking off.

I removed my jacket, loosened my tie, and started rolling up my shirt sleeves. “Do you know Feather Smythe Jones and Partners?”

Penn nodded slowly. “Yeah, only by their less than stellar reputation. I’ve never used them.”

“Yeah, they’re fucking corrupt. I knew they were bad, but I’m amazed they’ve lasted this long. There’s probably more illegal activity than legal. At the very least they must be guilty of hundreds of counts of tax evasion. Anyway, Beulah Holmes, it turns out, is one of their lead attorneys, brought in to close the cases for the big-gun clients. She’s made quite a name for herself.”

The waitress returned with the round I’d ordered, Penn shooting her one of his million-dollar smiles before she walked away. From my periphery, I could see Murray shaking his head in amusement until Penn finally turned his attention back to the matter at hand.

“What d’you mean?”

“Cody’s been digging. She’s up for partner if she succeeds in this case.”

“Shit, that’s massive.”

“Yeah, probably why she’s being more of a pain in the ass than usual. But it’s different…”

“What?”

I fished around in my brain for what had really been bothering me this week, beyond the annoyance of petty games we used to thrive on in college. But this was more than petty games – it was now real people with real lives and real consequences.

“I’m disappointed, I guess.”

The pair of them stared at me, waiting for an explanation.

“It can’t be easy working there, but I just never thought she’d end up somewhere so corrupt. She was a pain in my ass at school, but mostly because her moral compass was practically carved in granite. It never moved. And now…”

I sipped on my drink.

Now she didn’t seem to have a moral compass at all.

“If I really admit it, I used to enjoy the competition, the games we played. All that push and pull. I’d spend hours plotting how to fuck with her next, because I knew she did the same to me. It was always about winning and one-upmanship. But I’ve got better things to do with my time, now. I have a whole firm to run, but she still gets right under my skin, even just a glimpse of her turns my blood to lava…”

I trailed off, I wasn’t even sure what I was saying or what I wanted to say. But I didn’t need to; Penn and Murray had lived through it all with me. Lived through Beulah.

“I dunno, it’s just... I thought I’d have grown out of it, but she hasn’t either. It’s virtually impossible to hold my tongue. I don’t want to behave like this, but it’s like I can’t help it. She’s just so fucking infuriating.”

Maybe she was just this infuriating with everyone, and I wasn’t special, although something deep down told me that wasn’t true.

“She made you a better lawyer, you know.”

My eyes flicked over to Penn who was peering over the rim of his whiskey with utmost seriousness, as he sipped.

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