Page 44 of Partner Pursuit
“All right.” Jake kissed Audrey lightly on the cheek. She closed her eyes and breathed in his clean smell.
“Good luck with yourmeeting.”
“I’ll start singing if it gets tense.” He pushed the stroller towards West End Avenue and the daycare. Audrey watched him go. And then he turned his head and saw her, standing there, transfixed by a kiss on the cheek. He smiled and waved. She waved back. Caught again. Subtlety was nother forte.
Chapter Sixteen
"They want to keep me here another week,” Winnie wailed on the phoneon Friday.
“Did you tell them about your boyfriend’s surprise birthday party next Friday?” Audrey asked.
“I tried, but Alex had to go. Some partner was at the door,” Winnie said. Alex was the associate in charge ofthecase.
“I’ll go talk to him,” Audreysaid.
“What doyoumean?”
“I’ll tell him that they can’t keep you down there for three weeks in a row. That’s insane,” Audrey said. “And if that doesn’t work, I’ll tell him we need you back for the Hen case. He’s not allowed to monopolizeyou.”
“No, you don’t have to. Maybe I can finish up by Thursday nextweek.”
“I’m doing it. I’ll call you back.” Audrey hung up the phone and marched down the hallway to Alex’s office. Alex was a year younger than her, and, similar to Tim, seemed ashoo-infor partner. He looked the part and radiated that assurance. She pushed open his door without knocking. “Alex, Winnie has been down in Texas for twelve days straight, working without a break and without returning home. You can’t ask her to stay anotherweek.”
Startled, Alexlooked up.
“That would be three weeks in a row. Without coming home. You told her a week,” Audreysaid.
“I didn’trealize.”
She shook her head. Caring about junior associates should be higher on the partner criterialist.
“You’re supposed to rotate associates, if it’s going to be a long document review. Not do a bait and switch, telling them one week and then leave them there for as long as it takes,” Audreysaid.
“I didn’t mean to, I thought she didn’t mind. I’ll send down Martin and let her come back. She just needs to brief Martin. I’ll ask him to go on Monday and they can talk today. She wrote me she was enjoying the food,”Alexsaid.
“When did she writethat?”
“Now that I think about it, when she first got down there,” Alex said. “Thanks for telling me, Audrey. I wasn’t paying attention. I’ve been so busy on this othercase.”
Audrey nodded. She walked back to her office. Alex was a nice guy, just really dedicated—so much so that he wouldn’t mind being away on a document production for three weeks. When she was a younger associate, she’d liked long business trips—all meals accounted for, and usually just the one case to worry about. Often there’d even been time to work out at night because client’s offices closed at 5 p.m. But unlike Winnie, she didn’t have a boyfriendbackhome.
Winnie:Alex called. Going home tomorrow.THANKYOU!
Audrey spent the next few hours trying to find a case contradicting the case Colette cited. She’d read one, and if it referred to a former case, hinting at similar facts to the Rothman case, she’d pull it up and consider if the law or the facts helped—and keep searching for the perfect case.Just one more,she’d tell herself. Then she’d read yet another, lured by its potential and the thrill of finding the one that could win the case for her client. Finally, she found exactly what she was looking for. Still, it may not be enough. But it gave them something to argue. She shut down her laptop and called the car service to gohome.
She wrote an email to her mom on the way home, asking her what was happening with next year’s schedule. She used to call her mom during these taxi rides home late at night to catch up, but she couldn’t now with the time difference. She wrote her that she was on a case with Malaburn, but it was okay. She was drafting a motion to dismiss, and if they won the motion, she’d be done workingwithhim.
Arriving at her apartment, she picked up an Amazon package addressed to her left on the landing outside her door.Please, let it befromJake.
She shut the door of her apartment, dropped her bag, and sliced open the box with a pair scissors. It was from him! She smiled as she pulled out a pink and yellow book,Love in the Cookie Bakery.Ooh, love in the title.With anote:
Friday
Dear Audrey,
Thanks again for helping me with Luna and Thomas. The label meeting seemed pretty smooth compared to persuading Luna to wear a pink unicorn shirt.
I found you an even better coloring book: Outside the Lines: An Artists’ Coloring Book for Giant Imaginationsfor relaxing when you finish writing briefs. I’m never going to see legal briefs in the same way. I hope nobody brings up a brief at my father’s next cocktail party.
