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CHAPTER FOUR
Zach
“Hey.” Iwaved to Joel who stood at the entrance to my office.
Joel was the Rowe partner in our Sheppard and Rowe corporate law firm. My last name came first, just because Iwas amonth older. My friend from Harvard Law and Iwere equal partners down to the cent, to the responsibility shared, to the hours invested in growing our firm.
We bonded over our competitiveness, two overachievers who pushed each other to work hard and ace every class as if it were the last thing we ever did. Besides that, he was an awesome person. Awesome to drink beer with, to hang out with, to be friends with years after we graduated.
That companionship led to us conspiring to launch our own law firm, one night over beers when we’ddecided we’dhad enough of people managing us.
And here we were, three years later with him in our vast offices overlooking the Boston Financial District.
“What’sup?” He strolled in, wearing agray, three-piece suit. He had acautious smile on his face, his usually clean-shaved jaw bearing alight scruff at nearly 8 PM.
“Same, same. Work.” Isignaled at all of the files that were sitting on my desk, plus the pile that Kevin, the office’sadministrator, organized for me. “Not complaining.”
“You never complain.” He poured two whiskey glasses from the liquor station, falling into our after-hours routine.
“We need to live up to the expectations we created with these huge-ass offices.” Ishrugged, closing my laptop. “And pay our employees, and still afford our lifestyles, the list is endless.”
As the founders of the firm, we had aresponsibility to pay our team. It wasn’thuge, but we hired the best people we could find, so even with only us, the senior partners, ajunior partner, asenior associate, four associates, and Kevin, the paychecks we had to write summed up to alot.
And then there were our offices. From the get-go we wanted to portray ourselves as strong and successful, and we rented the space in one of the most expensive, tallest buildings in the Financial District. Maintaining that front meant we had to work hard at signing new clients and then billing the fuck out of them through hours of work.
The expenses were piling up, and fortunately, so were the clients. We never let afoot off the gas, and Ihad no intentions of doing it anytime soon.
“Yes, we do, and I’mnot complaining either.” He handed me my glass and sat down on the chair in front of me. “To be honest, Inever in my wildest dreams imagined that we would make it this big.”
He never complained, that was true, but Icould tell the intensity of the job had taken its toll on him. For me the demands as an owner were the same as they were when Iworked for my father. Ihad worked there since graduation and climbed my way, on my own, from the starting position of an associate. Something constantly burned inside of me, the need to prove myself, and Iarrived before everyone and left long after the cubicles were emptied. Imade sure no one thought of me as Arthur’sson.
Joel, however, worked previously as an in-house counsel at ahigh-tech company. He didn’thave to chase clients and used to spend his evenings at home. The switch was jarring to him, until he eventually settled into the hectic, demanding pace of this life.
“Thanks.” Itook aglass from him, spinning the glass in my hand and letting the ice cubes clink against the crystal. Isavored the ceremony of drinking, the pause to my day, really tasting every sip instead of gulping it down.
Ifinally brought the glass to my lips and sipped from it, feeling the alcohol slowly absorb through my bloodstream and relieving me from the intensity of yet another day. “Ialways knew it was just amatter of time.”
“Let’sjust say we’re lucky one of us had this confidence.” He leaned back in his chair, placing the glass on my desk. His blond hair looked darker in the night, unlike his eyes. His bright blue eyes glowed even in the darkest of days or moments.
“Fuck yeah. You can always count on me to be overconfident when it comes to this.” The sound of emails coming in beeped from my phone and Iignored them. If Joel needed to talk about something, I’dgive him my full attention.
“Yeah, Ican. But can Ialso count on you to know when we finally got to where we were headed?”
“What do you mean?” The reason for him needing to talk started to unveil. Was that his version ofI’mnot complainingand then complain?
“Imean, we’re here now, at night, sitting here as if the day’sjust begun.” He picked up the empty glass from the table and passed it between his hands, left, right, left, right. “And while Ilove what we do, I’mnot single. There’ssomeone else depending on me; there’ssomeone else Ilove besides these four walls.”
“I’maware.” Inarrowed my eyes, examining him. “Iattended your wedding.”
He huffed alaugh. “No, Idon’tthink you understand. Besides Caitlyn needing to ask me for proof of life on days Istay here after eleven, which are most days, we’ve started planning afamily.”
“Planning as in?”
“As in she’spregnant.”
Igot up so fast my chair nearly fell over, and walked around the table. Joel saw my intention and got to his feet, accepting my hug with aside of slaps on the back. “You asshole, why didn’tyou just say it?”
When Istepped away, Inoticed his slight blush, his eyes shining even brighter. “It would’ve sounded like an excuse.”
