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Margo
Ibared my teeth at Andrew and stalked back to my office, hands shaking. Cynthia took one look at me and immediately stopped what she was working on.
“What happened?” She asked warily. I set my mug on my desk, hot chocolate sloshing over the side and onto a commemorative coaster someone had given me.
“Andrew fucking Markman, that’s what happened.” She simply raised her eyebrows for me to go on.
“That jerk took Brad off my deal. And now I don’t have enough time to onboard another junior associate. I’m going to have to get it done over the next few days on my own. I probably won’t even sleep until Christmas. I will kill him, Cynthia. I swear they will never find his body.”
“Oooohhh” she murmured. “That’s a really dick move.”
I groaned and lay my head on the desk. The adrenaline from my fight was draining out of me and I felt spent. “I’m not going to survive this. I thought the deadline was going to be hard when I had a helping hand. But alone? I might not be able to do it. I’m so tired,” I mumbled into my arms, wishing I could take a nap right here.
Cynthia patted my head. “You’ll be ok. You’ve done this every year for eight years. And every year we say we won’t survive another year. And every year we make it through.”
“You’re right,” I responded glumly. Somehow the thought wasn’t cheering. I was so tired. And eight years of this had made me old before my time. Eight years of agreeing to move deadlines. Eight years of volunteering for the Christmas Eve deal closing. Eight years of saying I didn’t care if I saw my family. And seven years of trading barbs with Andrew.
“It will be worth it, right? Can you read me my mantra?”
Cynthia recited from memory. “Kick ass, make partner, own the world.”
I sighed. “It’s not helping.” Usually the mantra I had come up with in year one was enough to get me out of any funk, but not today.
“Margo.” I raised my head to see Cynthia giving me a hard stare. “I’ve never understood the appeal of winning the partner race, since the reward is more drudgery, but I know you want it. You told me during our very first week here that you wanted to make partner. Think about all the associates who quit or were ushered out in the last eight years. You’ve outlasted all of them. Andrew is not going to take you down. Ignore him! You’ve worked your ass off for this and you’re so close. Stay focused and finish this deal.” She pounded her fist on the table.
I gave her a half-hearted smile. “Great stump speech.”
“I thought so.” She grinned. “Buck up. Think of all the money you’ll have when you make partner. You can buy me a handbag.”
“Wow. Something to look forward to then.”
* * *
“Screw you too Jason Elliott!”Cynthia exclaimed an hour later. She was still hiding in my office while we worked on our separate projects. It was pretty common for us to do this on the days when it got depressing. She gave her computer a black look and stabbed at one of the keys.
“That bad, eh?” Cynthia hated Jason. He was one of the top Mergers & Acquisitions lawyers at Covingly and he was opposing counsel on a lot of our deals. “Are you close? I think if I pull an all-nighter tonight I can get my deal done on time.”
She slumped into a chair and raised her mug. “I salute you Margo. I’m no closer than I was yesterday. Jason is a prick and makes me want to pound my head against a wall. In fact, I would do it if I didn’t know that Gerald’s priceless Waterford crystal would go crashing to the floor with every thump.”
“Yeah, keep that in your back pocket for when you really want to get fired.”
We both giggled.
Despite our kidding, both Cynthia and I were children of immigrants and would never dare leave a job that paid more than our parents had ever dreamed of making.
She looked back down at her computer. “Oh my god!”
I started. “What? What happened?”
“Did you see that email?”
“No. You know I turn notifications off while I’m drafting.” I quickly clicked into my inbox, frantically scrolling.
To: NY-All Partners; NY-All Associates
From: Reed, Gerald
Subject: MARGO CALL ME
