Page 1 of First Impressions
Chapter One
It’sa truth universally acknowledged that a single woman approaching the age of thirty, with a good education and promising career, must be in desperate need of a husband.
Well, at least that’s what society (and her mother) kept telling her. So what if she was turning 30 this year? Between college, getting her masters, and working relentlessly to be one of the top publicists at the Gardiner Group, who had time to spend on dating? She thought it was one of the biggest ironies of today, with all the focus on women’s empowerment, workplace equality, equal pay, and all the rest of those popular buzz words, that it still only took an average of four minutes of meeting a new person for them to ask her if she was married or had any kids; her professional accomplishments sidelined by the curiosity about her personal life.
Beth Bennet wasn’t usually so preoccupied with the idea of marriage or the need to find a husband, but mentally preparing herself to visit her mother generally precipitated this train of thought. This internal debate and defense built as she got into the Uber she had called to take her to her parent’s house on the Upper East Side.
It wasn’t that she didn’t love her mother, but Irene Bennet had very specific goals and interests in her life, and having all five of her daughters married well was on the top of the list. Let’s face it, it pretty much was the list. However, tonight, a“serious family matter”’is what her mom was focused on. She had left Beth a voicemail earlier asking if she would be able to stop over after dinner to discuss this ‘serious matter’. Now, most things were ‘serious matters’ to Mrs. Irene Bennet but when they were serious enough to warrant a post-dinner personal visit, Beth knew it was either one of two topics - some sort of gossip going around at her father’s law firmorher mother had set her up on yet another blind date with the newest marriageable associate or junior partner. Cringing at that thought, she fished through her purse for her phone deciding to call Jane and see if she had any idea what was going on.
Jane was her older sister and was your textbook, first-born child. She was kind, generous, patient, modest - and all those other ideal traits that most women can only falsely claim to have; Jane truly possessed them all. She was, by far, the most beautiful of the five Bennet sisters. She excelled at everything that she did and believed the best of everyone; whether that last was a blessing or a curse, Beth was still undecided. She was also a paralegal at Longbourne Associates – her father’s law firm that had been in the family for 3 generations. Since she worked directly with their father, Jane usually had better insight into what their mother was preoccupied with.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“Hey, I’m on my way over to mom and dad’s now. Were you invited over too and do you know what this ‘serious family matter’ is that mom is talking about?” Beth asked.
“I’m not sure. I was out of the office most of the day on errands, but I know dad was in a meeting this morning with lawyers from a Boston firm that’s not related to any case that I’m aware of. I’m almost to their place now so I guess we’ll find out.”
“Ok, I’ll be there in two. Text me if mom is trying to set one of us up again and I’ll make up some emergency to get you out of the house,” she half-heartedly joked, dreading the very distinct possibility of it being true. Jane laughed as Beth hung up the phone.
As the Uber pulled up to her parent’s house Beth thought that this was decidedlynothow she had planned on spending her Friday night, but it was better to address whatever drama was unfolding than to let it fester until her mother did something drastic about it. She got out of the car and stood on the sidewalk for a minute to collect herself. Her parent’s large brownstone was on 71st Street, right off of Park Avenue, a pretty typical living situation for the managing partner of a respectable law firm. The house had been in her family for as long as she could remember but the apartment that she and Jane shared in Tribeca always seemed like more of a home to her. With a deep breath, Beth steeled her nerves and climbed the steps to the front door.
Her parent’s home was extremely well-furnished, collecting art and decor over the several generations that had inhabited it. Her mother had changed a lot though, remodeling several of the rooms in the old Victorian style that she felt was an essential indicator of old wealth and status. As expected, Beth barely made it through the doorway before she heard her mother’s heels clicking frantically on the marble floor announcing Irene’s approach moments before she came rushing into the hall.
“Beth! Thank goodness, you’re here. Jane just got here and Mary, Kat, Lydia, and I have been waiting. Your father has some news he says he wants to talk to us all about. Everyone is in the den waiting for you; I’d offer you coffee but we’ve waited so long as it is,” said Mrs. Bennet agitatedly.
While a kind and loving mother, Irene Bennet was a force to be reckoned with when it came to information acquisition and propagation, more commonly referred to as gossiping. Beth never remembered her mother having a job and with not much else productive to do with her time or occupy her thoughts, Irene tended to get caught up in the social drama and intricacies of her family and her husband’s firm. She did yoga every day and while she had been very beautiful when she was younger, she relied on some minor plastic surgery over the years to reverse the effects of aging. The past few years had put a particular strain on Beth’s relationship with her mother due to her lack of interest in dating or marriage, which Irene considered to be one’s major accomplishment in life. Since Jane and Beth had moved out, things between them had calmed down somewhat; although, she had a feeling that her father might have intervened on her behalf. It was either that or her mom had decided to concentrate all her efforts on Jane who, while also still unmarried, was a more complacent personality for her mother’s schemes.
As much as Beth loved her family, she only got along with Jane and her father really well, mostly because they were the most easy-going and never pressured her into doing things that she didn’t want to do; they were the most supportive of her career and personal choices and genuinely cared aboutwhat her goals were for her life. Her mother and her two youngest sisters, Lydia and Katherine (or Kat), on the other hand, loved drama and gossip far too much for Beth to enjoy, or really be able to tolerate, their company for any prolonged period of time. It was ironic that she chose a career in the PR world, surrounded by gossip, but her job there was to set the record straight whereas her mom and siblings thrived on news with little concern to the validity of the stories they propagated. Her other younger sister, Mary, was the middle child and was on the autistic spectrum; she was very smart but also very solitary and socially awkward. Her disability made her very anxious and stressed around other people, especially those she didn’t know, so she preferred to stay at home and read, clean, and cook.
Sure enough, her father and four sisters were all in the den chatting as Beth and her mother walked in. As one entered the room, the large gas fireplace that was lit sat straight ahead on either side of which were two huge bookcases, mostly filled with compilations of case precedents that her father would reference from time to time; the den also served as a mini law library and home office for her father. Facing the fireplace was a loveseat, where her father and Jane were sitting, discussing a recent case that was in the news. Opposite them, Mary was curled up in a chair intently reading the new ‘Hamilton’ biography. On Beth’s immediate left sat their baby grand piano, where Lydia was seated on the bench talking to Kat, who had pulled up a chair next to her, deciding whose party to go to this weekend. They were both home from college on summer break; Lydia was a junior and Kat had just finished freshman year at NYU.
“John, Beth is here. Can you please tell us what this is all about?” asked Mrs. Bennet exasperatedly.
Mr. John Bennet rose from where he had been sitting by Jane on the couch and came over to give Beth a hug which she returned with enthusiasm. If there was one thing she missed about living at home it was seeing her dad every day. They would spend almost every night drinking tea in that very same room either talking about life or reading quietly, just enjoying each other’s company. Beth regretted not stopping bymore to see him, but she honestly just never wanted to deal with her mother’s persistent interrogations about the men who were (or weren’t) in her life. Of all his daughters, Beth knew she was the most headstrong and determined and she always felt that her dad, maybe not loved her more than her sisters, but admired her just a little bit more for it.
“Hi, sweetheart. I hope your mom didn’t have you thinking the world was ending when she called you to come over tonight.”
Beth laughed as she responded, “Well, she wouldn’t be mom if she didn’t.”
“Well there’s nothing to worry about, but I guess I should get on with it before she has a heart attack,” Mr. Bennet continued as he turned to face the rest of his family. “I’ve been talking to your mother about this for some time now but I’ve finally made the decision that I want to retire and sell the firm. I know that she made tonight into a bigger deal than it should have been but I wanted to tell you all in person so we could move forward as a family.”
“John! How could you not tell me that’s what you wanted to discuss?! Who are you going to sell the firm to? Are you going to sell it to Bill Collins? Did he approach you about it already? I always knew he was just waiting for you to give the slightest hint of retiring so he could swoop in and take everything. And what about Jane? What is she going to do? Is he going to let her stay on? Who is she going to work for?” Mrs. Bennet bombarded her husband with question after question without a moment for him to answer or for her to breathe.
“Irene, please. If you would just let me finish —”
“You’re right. I’m sorry, I’m just very concerned about our Jane because she isyourparalegal, and when you are gone what is she going to do? How—” Mrs. Bennet started to pick up her last train of thought when Jane interrupted.
“Mom, can you just let dad finish, please? I’m sure I will be fine with whatever happens. I’m 31 years old; I’m capable of finding another job at another firm,” Jane interjected.
“Of course you are, Jane. Thank you. Now, what I was trying to say is that I think it’s time for me to transition intoretirement and look at selling the firm. I’m well aware that Bill has been trying to weasel his way into managing partner for some time now, but I’m not confident in his abilities to effectively direct the firm which is why I’ve been looking into an outside purchase or merger with another firm,” continued Mr. Bennet.
Bill Collins had been a senior partner at their firm for over ten years and was a distant relative to her father. He was initially given an associate position in the firm as a personal favor to a family member but had worked his way up to senior partner on his own merit. Superficially, Bill was a nice person and a decent lawyer, but he had very strict and uncompromising personal and religious beliefs that got him into trouble with co-workers as well as clients. After his promotion to senior partner, it became clear that his ambition was to take over the firm as managing partner when her father retired. He assumed he had an inherent advantage being related to Mr. Bennet and knowing that the firm had stayed in the Bennet family for four generations; that assumption was further fueled when it became clear that none of John Bennet’s daughters had an interest in becoming a lawyer or owning the law firm.
Initially, Mr. Bennet had entertained that idea as well; however, once Bill was put in that senior position of authority, it became clear that his leadership skills were not where they needed to be in order to run the firm successfully. He could follow directions but he didn’t know how to navigate the ship and his awkward personality didn’t garner much respect or trust from his fellow employees. Unfortunately, Bill was blind to his deficits and had turned down her father’s multiple attempts to evolve his leadership skills by inviting him to personal growth seminars by the likes of Tony Robbins and John Maxwell. At one time, his persistent refusal had deeply frustrated her father because he had held high hopes for him, but quickly realized that his efforts were fruitless; Mr. Bennet admitted long ago that he could never hand over the firm to Bill in good conscience. He had tried to bring down Bill’s hopes gently over the years, but at that time, with no immediate plans to retire, he felt it was pointless to tell himbluntly that he would never own the firm. Maybe her father had hopes that Bill would change, or maybe, like Jane, he just disliked confrontation and so put off what was bound to be a difficult conversation.
“Well, Bill is not going to be happy about that. Have you contacted any —” inserted Mrs. Bennet.
“Yes, my dear. I was just getting there. Unfortunately, Bill is out of the country on vacation until the end of the month, right before the Charity Ball, so we will have to proceed without informing him until he’s back. I’m not going to call with what I know will ruin his holiday. In the meantime, I’ve been in contact with a few firms for some time now and I’ve narrowed it down to a buyer who is extremely interested. They are a very large firm out of Boston and are looking to expand into New York City.”
