2. GRANT

I’d been dealing with contracts in Asia and Europe for the past six weeks at some of our satellite offices. I didn’t stay up to date on all the memos that were sent through, but in particular, I paid attention to the one that came trough about Henry Beck. I’d gotten it wrong, assuming it was his father that was the judge. I was skeptical of the hiring at first, having someone around with an air of superiority about themselves. The kid seemed anything but superior, I kinda wanted to give him a pat on the back and tell him it was all going to be ok.

My office was on the thirty-nineth floor with all the other partners. I had a nice view of the city with some very nice furnishings to sit and enjoy it from. I often stood though with a coffee in hand if it was the morning, and if it was the evening, a coffee with a dash of something stronger.

The managing partner, Rachel Kline came into my office with a knock on the glass door. Rachel was in her sixties, always dressed in flashy pink with her black and gray streaked hair quaffed like a type of decorative pruned shrub. “Grant,” she said. “You’re not supposed to be until Thursday. I told ya, take a break, enjoy a couple days.”

“Come on, Rachel,” I said. “You know this world doesn’t take a break. I’m not missing a single day. And I met the new hire. Who hired him?”

“Between the two of us, the decision was made before he set foot in the interview room,” she said, closing the glass door behind herself. She approach me by the window. “You know Sam Dorsey was put in charge of hiring, well, apparently the kid’s big dream was to work in this area of law. His grandfather was some rockstar lawyer in the federal courts.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got the memo on him,” I said. “He seems nice, a little nervous, but I guess I put him on the spot.” I might’ve actually ruined his chance to have this information stay under the radar. “I guess a couple of associates heard as well.”

“As I’ve always said, it’s not about who got you where you are, but what you do when you’re there,” she said. “We all have connections, we need to use them. Speaking of connections, Lila Vance might need a little handholding from a partner.”

“And here I thought you were going to just chastise me from not taking time off,” I said. “But you see how much you need me here. I’ll get on it.”

“You’re a star, Grant,” she said. “And please, let’s keep her under control, I know Aurora Records are threatening to drop her if this contract goes awry, and that would reflect poorly on us. We’re already at threat from losing them because of their new in-house counsel. We need to remind them why they also have us on retainer too. We’re bigger, better, and we’ll get results.”

“I’ll do just that,” I told her. Whatever she said, I would not fight back about it. I liked my job too much to be a problem. I originally started out as in-house counsel for a production company, and sure, they had a lot of money they used to pave problems away with, but they didn’t allow me to spread my wings like I was able to here, and now, that company was one of our clients. It was a win-win situation all around, and one of the reasons I figured Rachel liked me.

I took a seat at my desk, coffee on the table and looked through the emails that came through. Most of the emails coming through were meetings and dates that had already been scheduled for a couple of days time, when I was supposedly meant to be back in work.

The temptation to take time off was strong some days, like today. A new Christmas movie had dropped, and I was about to get a screener to another one coming out. It was a major perk of bringing in the company that mass produced Christmas movies all-year round.

Sitting in my inbox from a separate email address I only used for movie website, I saw my friend’s email, Legal Elf. We’d immediately bonded over our love for Christmas movies and the need for more gay Christmases on our screens. I was also on the benefitting side of knowing he had some legal knowledge too, he would often note inaccuracies from the Christmas movies, and then we’d laugh about how we could overlook absolutely anything in a Christmas movie. It really was the most magical time of year.

‘ Morning Legal Elf,

I’m still wondering where to send all this bread and jam I brought back from France. I know it’s not going to make anyone fall head over heels for me. I’m lucky they allowed me to bring so much of it back through the airport.’

I paused while drafting up the email. I had brought a lot of cheese and jam back from France, most of it for the break room and gifts for the other partners. It was a fun adventure to be sent out to Europe alone, and I wanted to repay their trust in me with gifts. It was a love language thing, even if I wouldn’t say I particularly loved anyone here, this was a cutthroat business, and some of them were downright ruthless when it came to their area of the law. I was a good negotiator, but I wasn’t that great in a courtroom.

‘ I know you mentioned previously about living in New York, but honestly, you could be anywhere from Upstate to my next door neighbor. If you’re interested at all, I’ve seen a little theatre holding a Christmas classics movie marathon. If you’re interested in that I could pass the details along. Anyway, let me know how your day went after being full of nerves last night.

Yours, Daddy Kringle.’

One of the TV networks the firm represented was hosting the marathon and I could’ve hooked him up with tickets if he wanted. I didn’t want it to sound like I was asking him out. We didn’t even know each other’s names but speaking to him through emails was a highlight whenever it happened, and it had been going on now for many months.

I sent the email off and started overthinking it. Sure, the idea of a date would’ve been nice, and we sometimes flirted, but this might’ve been the first time I’d openly invited the idea, other than once saying maybe we’ll bump into each other and not even know right when we first started talking last year.

An attorney knocked at my office door, the frosted glass only went so high. He could see right through. It was Elliot Rivera, and he was visibly grinding his teeth as he glared in at me.

I gestured for him to enter and he sauntered in with his tailored suit and smell of vanilla cologne. He carried a case file in his arms.

“Did Rachel send you my way already?” I asked with a big smile.

He forced a smile and quickly went back to stone faced. “No,” he offered up plainly. “I want in on the dealings with the European office. The French TV network is primed for to have it’s shows syndicated world wide and I would like to be part of the team that oversees that contract.”

“So, what’s in the file?”

“Oh, this,” he placed it on my desk. “Just an empty file with some paper. Nobody bothers me when I’m carrying something. So, I know you’ve just got back, but if you could put in a good word for me with—”

“Do you speak French?” I asked.

“I took a semester of French, and—”

“Do you have any understanding of French laws and contract regulations?”

He shook his head. “But I’m willing to learn.”

“Listen, Elliot, I know you’re eager to make partner, but you’re gonna bite off more than you know what to do with, and you’re gonna spread yourself too thin,” I told him. “I’m overseeing the contracts there because of the US network partnership. You should focus on the clients you’ve already brought in.”

“I don’t want to have to stick to my regular clients, I want to take on something meatier.” He gestured with his hands in the air as if gripping something girthy. “And I will, I just need someone on my side to help me get to it.”

After a moment of biting the tip of my tongue and staring at his wild wide eyes, I shrugged. “I’ll see what I can do about bringing someone in on future meetings.”

“Thank you, you won’t regret it,” he said before leaving.

Elliot was one of the sharks who I knew would eat the whole ecosystem alive if it meant getting recognition. But I had to always give it to people who asked for what they wanted, there were some people at the company who faded into the background, sometimes quite literally, I almost had a heart attack when someone spoke and I hadn’t realized they were in the room.

Another knock came at the glass panel door. It was the lawyer I’d met earlier, still playing coy. I gestured for him to enter and he crept inside with his shoulders hunched and a collection of files in his arms. Elliot had left the fake one he was carrying around with him. I grabbed it and flicked through, it was a pad of legal paper and a to-do list. Come see me and get on the European cases. He had balls, this kid, on the other hand didn’t quite.

“Rachel told me you were the partner overseeing the Aurora Records case,” he said, standing in front of him, his voice not really projecting.

“Take a seat,” I said, filing Elliot’s folder to the side of my desk, wondering if he’d meant for me to see his little faux manifestation notes. “How’s your morning been so far?”

He smiled and nodded. “I signed the employment contract, and I’m getting my picture taken later for my security card. Oh, and I’ve been reading through the handbook, but I just want to get started on a case. It’s really the whole reason I’m here, to get stuck into this part of the law.”

Turns out, he was a talker, quiet, but he liked to talk, whether that was a nervous habit or not was yet to be seen. “Rachel works fast,” I told him.

“Yeah. Everything has happened quick so far.”

“It’s the pace we like to keep,” I said. “It’s Henry, right?”

“Henry Beck,” he said. “You were the one who mentioned my grandfather earlier.”

I pressed the bottom of my palm to my forehead. “I regret that. I didn’t want to out you as such.”

“It’s fine, honestly, it was bound to come out sooner or later.”

“Obviously, you’d have rather it was later.”

He snickered in an almost snort of laughter. “My father always said whenever I talked about leaving his firm that people would just associate me with the family, and I just wanted to live in the belief that I got here alone, even if I didn’t.”

At least he was self-aware to the fact, but I wouldn’t confirm it. “So, I’m new to the case, can you give me a run down of what’s happened?”

Henry’s eyes grew big, like they were about to swallow his head. “I—”

“Come on now,” I said, offering him a reassuring smile. “I know you’re new to it. But have you read any of the information yet?”

He cleared his throat and opened the file up. “Yeah. I’m not fluent on it, but I’ve got a case summary.” He read from the page. “Aurora Records is in a contract dispute between Lila Vance and a streaming platform, PulseStream, who are claiming exclusivity over her material. Lila claims the deal was brokered in bad faith and the company is working to suppress her music and wants to expand to other platforms.”

Surprisingly well spoken for him speaking so softly. I flipped the file around to see if he was reading it verbatim anywhere. And he wasn’t, they were legal notes from a previous lawyer who’d worked on a case a while back. “Sounds like you’ve got a handle on it,” I told him. “What I’d like for you to do in this case, is look at Lila’s original contract and find loophole and ambiguities in the language. We’ve dealt with PulseStream before, they’re a big sloppy in their wording. And if you need me for anything, you can just come right up and ask.”

He smiled. “Sophia was also a great help,” he said. “But I’m really excited to get into this and, maybe meet Lila in person.”

The novelty of meeting famous people would wear off quickly, but I didn’t have the heart to tell him that, especially not during the holiday season, which was all of December. “And you definitely will,” I said. “Assuming we have good news for her, otherwise, you might just see the back of her when she threatens to throw a mug through the window.”

Henry gasped. “What?”

There I went, one moment thinking one thing and the next saying another. “I’m kidding. The windows are reinforced.” I couldn’t stop joking with him now. He was going to think I was a jerk.

“I guess nobody ever truly knows what a famous person is going to do, right,” he said. “That’s why they have us.”

“You’re right about that. Just wait until you’re personally called by a client trying to and dodge a speeding ticket,” I grumbled. It had happened several times while I was working as in-house counsel for a company. Not as much anymore.

He stood. “God, I don’t know what I’d even do in that situation.” Maybe not the wisest of words he could’ve said in front of me, but I knew he was clearly nervous. “Maybe just tell them to co-operate with the police.”

“Always advisable, and to be kept on the line to listen to the check,” I said. “But don’t worry, unless you’re personally handing out your phone number to every client you come across.” And there were some associates who tried that. “I’d suggest not doing that, ever.”

Henry laughed. “Thank you. I’ll go and read this fully to figure out what I can do to help.”

“Use more assertive language,” I recommended. “Do it with yourself. I’m going to find a loophole and demand action .”

He repeated the words back with a bigger smile on his face.

“I’ll talk to you later, and remember to have fun here,” I said, raising my coffee cup and drinking from it. It was red and white candy cane themed with a Santa face on the side. “It’s a great job to have, no matter how you got it.”