Page 116 of Play the Game
Until this second, I’ve never understood how people haveentire conversations without words, but as Cooper studies me with blue eyes that radiate calm reassurance, that’s exactly what happens.
You okay, Rhodes?
The last thing I am is okay, but I need to deal with whatever this is before I deal with the other thing.
Then that’s what we’ll do. One thing at a time, Ev. Together.
Knowing Cooper is here, that whatever happens today I don’t have to do it alone, has my whole body relaxing, my shoulders dropping from where they were hunched up around my ears and my hands unclenching. Cooper gives me a smile and a wink as if to sayWe’ve got this.
With him next to me, I think maybe we do.
“If you’re finished,” Austin says cooly, and we both turn to face him.
I raise an eyebrow. “You were just about to tell me why I’m standing in this conference room right now instead of doing the million other things on my to-do list for the day.”
Like have a damn baby.
Cooper must read my mind because he snickers, sliding his leg over to knock against mine.
Austin lays his hands flat on the table and leans into them. “We’re here, Evangeline, because of your behavior in this morning’s deposition, which was entirely unbecoming for a senior associate at this firm. I have been concerned for months about the way you have been composing yourself, and this morning just confirmed for me what I already know. Given your…”—he trails off, his gaze traveling down to my stomach and back up again—“split focus as of late, I’m going to be reassessing your eligibility for partnership.”
Cooper stiffens, his entire body coiling tight like he’s preparing to go to battle for me. I reach over and lay a hand on his arm, a weird sort of calm settling over me as I size up Austin and his smarmy little henchman. It was always going to end this way, I realize. That partnership was never going to bemine, and it feels right, somehow, that I finish this right here, right now.
My life is going to change in more ways than one today.
Putting a hand on my hip, I lock my gaze with Austin. “And what, exactly, does reassessing my eligibility entail?”
Austin nods, like he’s taking it on faith that I’m going to accept whatever bullshit he’s about to dish out.
He’s about to be very disappointed.
“Seeing as you’ll be returning from your leave just as partnership decisions are being made, and we don’t know what that return is going to look like, I believe it’s in all of our best interests to delay your partnership assessment until next year, or potentially the year after. Because of your impending four-month absence, you won’t be advancing to your eighth year with your associate class. Instead, you’ll join the class below you and repeat your seventh year upon your return.”
It takes heroic effort for me not to roll my eyes at him. “No.”
“Excuse me?”
I lay my hands on the table, mirroring his pose. My stomach clenches tight again, but I barely feel the pain through the pure, unadulterated rage rushing through my veins. Fuck making partner and my parents never thinking I’m enough and working myself to death trying to prove something to them. Fuck absolutely all of it. The only person I have anything to prove something to is myself, and it’s about time I started acting like it. “I said no. No to reassessing my eligibility for partnership and no to repeating my seventh year. No to all of it. I’ve been working in BigLaw for seven years, Austin, and I’ve seen all kinds of bullshit, but I think this really tops it all.”
Austin furrows his brow like he’s actually confused. Honestly, fuck this guy. “What are you going on about, Evangeline?”
“I’m going on about you, standing there, telling me with your full chest that you’re pulling my eligibility for partnership and sabotaging my career, all because I had the absolute audacity to get pregnant and take leave when the baby is born. You’re reallytelling on yourself and saying the quiet part right out loud. I knew you were a crap lawyer, but I didn’t think you were stupid enough to hand me a discrimination lawsuit on a silver platter.”
Austin blanches, and I love to see it. “Now hold on a second?—”
“No, you hold on,” I interrupt. “You are everything that’s wrong with BigLaw, Austin. For years, I’ve worked five times as hard as any man in this firm to get a fraction of the recognition. I thought if I just did more, stayed later, worked harder, I could prove myself, but I could work twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and it wouldn’t make one bit of a difference because I made the mistake of lawyering while female. Well, fuck that. I don’t want to play the game anymore. I’m done.”
“Take him down, Rhodes,” Cooper murmurs, low enough for only me to hear.
I suck in a breath, standing up straight when another contraction hits because I’ll be goddammed if I show these two shitheads one single second of weakness. “I’m resigning from this firm, effective exactly eighteen weeks from today.” I hold up a hand when Austin opens his mouth. “I’ll be taking my entire maternity leave, for which I will be appropriately compensated, and I won’t be returning when it’s over. If anyone at this firm makes any attempt to mess with that compensation, I’m marching right across the street to our biggest competitor and having them file the biggest, splashiest pregnancy discrimination lawsuit BigLaw has ever seen naming this firm, and you, specifically, as defendant.” Leaning forward again, I look Austin dead in the eye, barely suppressing a smirk at the dumbfounded look on Fidget Spinner Kevin’s face as he tries to figure out what the fuck is going on. “You’ve been underestimating me for years, but that ends today. Let’s see how well you do without me here to carry you. My guess is, not well at all, and I can’t wait to watch you crash and burn.”
Austin opens and closes his mouth like he can’t figure outwhat to say. Somehow, I’m surprised when he decides on, “What are you going to do instead?”
Now I really do smirk. “That’s on a need-to-know basis, and you really, really don’t need to know. But in about nineteen weeks, I’d keep an eye on your inbox. I’m pretty sure there’s a high-profile client departure headed your way, and it’s going to sting. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have somewhere really important I need to be.”
Without another word, I grab my bag and turn, rushing out of the conference room. The second I get past the door, I turn into the quiet hallway by the restroom and sag against the wall, dropping my bag on the floor and bending over with my hands on my knees, breathing deeply as my entire body tightens.
“So…not Braxton Hicks,” Cooper says, crouching down and laying a hand on my back, rubbing slow circles.
