The Partner Track: A Novel by Wan Helen

Author:Wan, Helen [Wan, Helen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2013-09-17T00:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

I pulled the fresh pages off the printer and walked them back into my office, closing the door. I’d been working balls-out—so to speak—on the SunCorp acquisition, and everything was clicking. For weeks, I’d been practically living in the office, making sure we stuck to Lassiter’s accelerated timetable. Now we were ready to send a last round of the term sheet and pre-close documents over to Binney’s lawyers at Stratton and Thornwell—right on schedule. I just needed Adler’s final okay and then I’d pitch them over to the other side. Next week, Ted Lassiter would be coming into the office, and Adler and I would walk him through the pre-close documents in person.

I glanced at my phone display. 5:09 P.M.

I’d been up for thirty-four hours straight. My silk tank was clammy and stuck to my back. I was sure I must stink, but I felt terrific. There was nothing like getting a document out to the other side late on a Friday afternoon. This bought me a free weekend and a blessedly quiet week ahead, although it ruined the same weekend and upcoming week for our counterpart lawyers at the opposing firm.

I felt kind of sorry for the unsuspecting sap over at Stratton and Thornwell who was no doubt getting ready to call it a week. I imagined him lazily surfing the Internet in these golden late Friday afternoon hours, on his cell phone to a wife or girlfriend, negotiating where to have dinner and what movie to see. I knew exactly what would happen tonight and how it would all go down—the phone on his desk ringing just as he was walking out the door, the guy glancing at his caller ID, seeing the partner’s name flash across the screen, his heart sinking, his weekend dreams dashed, the wife or girlfriend throwing a fit. Fuuuuck.

“Just got the revised draft in from Parsons Valentine. Would you stop by my office, please? I’d be very grateful if you could review it over the weekend and get your preliminary markup to me by Monday.”

It was vaguely ridiculous, this I’d be very grateful aspect of the partner-associate relationship. I always preferred it when people spoke their subtext. And the law firm subtext for I’d be very grateful was You will lose your job unless.

The cruel beauty of this system was that the other guy’s loss was my gain. Now I actually had a whole weekend off, to do with what I pleased. Even better, Murph and I were planning to spend the entire weekend together. I didn’t really think of Murph as my boyfriend yet, but I certainly did think of him. All the time.

I picked up the phone and dialed Justin Keating’s extension. I needed him to stick around until Marty Adler had had a chance to approve the pre-close documents and help me send the distribution to the client and the lawyers on the other side.

Justin picked up the phone at the end of the fifth ring. No, please, don’t trouble yourself, Justin, no need to rush.

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