Broken (Nick #1) Page 18

  “Hey, Nick, we’re going to play some Trivial Pursuit,” Natalie said. “You and Ava against me and Nate.”

  This is going to be interesting. Four Ivy-League educated people playing a trivia game. “Cool,” I said. “Let’s get started.”

  So, we played for the next few hours. I had a good time, but, every time I looked at Ava, I imagined Scotty sitting there with us playing the game. How I wished that Ava was Scotty. I tried to will myself to stop thinking like that. To be present and in the moment, as opposed to trying to be someplace else. To enjoy what’s in front of me instead of thinking about the one thing that I couldn’t yet have.

  But I was going to have her. I knew it. I could feel it. It was just around the corner. Scotty was going to be mine.

  In the meantime, though, there was Ava, who was a lot of fun, I had to admit. And she was flirting with me the entire evening shamelessly.

  Finally, the evening ended. Ava left, and I got her number and promised to call her. I still wasn’t sold on taking her out, but I had her number just in case.

  I stayed around to help clean up and catch up with Nate.

  “So,” Nate said. “Ava is really digging you. Hard. She wants you bad.”

  “Uh huh,” I said. “And you know this how?”

  “Because she told me that she’s digging you and wants you bad. Well, not in those words, but I got the gist. So, you promised me that you would give her a chance and take her out. Where are you guys going to go?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll take her to a show or to a gallery opening.” Two places that I really wanted to take Scotty.

  “Cool,” Nate said. “Well, good luck to you. We all want you to be happy, now that I’m happy and Ryan is too. It’s your turn, buddy.”

  I nodded my head. “Thanks.” I knew that he meant well with his little set-up with Ava. Nate and I were never as close as Ryan and I, which was why Nate so clearly was trying to force me into something that I just wasn’t into. Ryan never would have done that.

  Sometimes I missed that guy so much.

  I drove home from Nate’s feeling depressed. I kinda had to take Ava out at least once, because I kinda promised Nate that I would. But it wasn’t something that I looked forward to.

  I found myself driving uptown towards Scotty’s apartment. What I would do once I was up there, I really didn’t know. I only knew that I was compelled to drive up there, almost as if there was a magnetic force bringing me into that neighborhood. I got to her street, and drove around for almost a half hour, looking for a parking spot that was within a couple of miles of her apartment. It was harder than ever, however, to find such a spot, considering this was Thanksgiving.

  I finally found a spot, and jogged the whole way to her building, even though I was wearing dress slacks and dress shoes.

  My heart in my throat, I buzzed her place.

  Then buzzed again.

  Then waited out in the cold for about fifteen minutes before buzzing again.

  I finally gave up and went home, feeling bluer than ever.

  I was officially pussy-whipped.

  Chapter 36

  Scotty

  Thanksgiving came and went, and I felt a sense of basic emptiness, such that I had never felt before. I was always happy before just hanging out with Jack and his various men. I really didn’t want for more. Now that Nick was in the picture, and I felt like I was in love with him, in love for the very first time in my life, I felt that there was a hole in my heart. A hole that was never there before.

  So, when Jack, his friend Heath and I went out on Thanksgiving evening, doing our usual tour of neighborhood holiday lights, I had fun but felt that there was something missing.

  Jack sensed that there was something wrong.

  “Love, you’re so quiet tonight,” he said. “Are you doing ok?”

  I nodded my head. “I don’t know, Jack, I’ve been feeling lonely lately. I never did before. I wonder what’s wrong with me?”

  He looked at me and said nothing. But I knew what he was thinking, even if he didn’t come right out and say it for fear of causing a fight. He was thinking that I brought the loneliness on by blowing off Nick.

  What’s more, I knew that he was right.

  It was going to be difficult to keep up the façade that I was happy living without love and protection. Because that was what I felt when I was with Nick. Loved and protected. We really had known each other for a very short time, yet there was a real connection between us. There was no denying it.

  So, yes, I missed him that Thanksgiving evening. Very much. And I wished that I could see him. I imagined that maybe he would stop by and see me on a whim. How wonderful that would be.

  But, it was not to be. The holiday came and went and I woke up on that Friday still very much alone.

  ∞

  The following Friday, when I arrived at the office, I got a most unpleasant surprise. I got called into a meeting with four of the top partners, including Portia. Nick was no place to be seen.

  As I made my way into Mark’s office, who was there with William, Gregory and Portia, I felt apprehensive to say the least. There was something afoot that I wasn’t liking.

  My fears were confirmed when Mark shut the door.

  “Have a seat, Ms. James,” Mark said, motioning to a chair.

  I obeyed with trepidation. I suddenly felt extremely small.

  Mark cleared his throat. “I suppose you are wondering why we brought you in here.”

  I just looked at the four people, feeling very intimidated. I nodded my head. My hands were shaking. If it weren’t for the fact that Portia was there, and Nick was not, I might have possibly thought that this was a positive meeting. But in looking at the partners there, none of whom had been particularly friendly to me, I knew that this meeting had to be bad news.

  But the bad news that was brought to bear on me was something that I would have never, in a million years, expected.

  William was the next person to speak. “Scotty, it’s been brought our attention that there has been some major embezzling from this firm.”

  I looked at Portia, who was in tight with the CFO for the firm, I knew. Then I realized that Portia was railroading me after all. She found a way to get me gone, and it involved trumping up some kind of embezzling issue. “Ok,” I said. “And what does that have to do with me?”

  “Well,” William said, “we know that you were arrested several times for theft.”

  He was referring to the arrests that occurred during the year that I was living on the streets. I got caught stealing three times, but only had to do community service each time. I think that the prosecutors felt sorry for me, as they somehow realized that I was homeless. Of course, those were juvenile records. Sealed juvenile records.

  I wondered who they bribed to get ahold of them.

  I nodded. “Yes, I was arrested for stealing. I was homeless and I literally had to steal in order to eat on some days. I was fourteen. What does that have to do with what’s occurring now?”

  Portia finally chimed in. “Scotty, we think that you were the one who was embezzling. And we’re going to recommend immediate termination.”

  Oh, good god. Is this really all they got? “What proof, pray tell, do you have that it was me?”

  I looked at their blank stares and realized that they didn’t have proof. They probably didn’t need it. Portia had a lot of power in that firm, just as she said. She was going to convince the other partners to oust me.

  “When are you guys going to have your meeting about this?” I asked.

  “Today,” Portia said. “We just wanted to tell you that this would be going on.”

  I just nodded. “Do you need me to keep doing my work today?”

  “Hold off on that.” Mark.

  After that meeting, I felt like this was my last day.

  And I didn’t even get to finish my projects.

  Chapter 37

  Nick

  I was going to a meet
ing with the partners, and we were going to discuss a variety of issues. They were usually pretty boring, but necessary for the typical housekeeping duties. All of us had to report to the firm the status of our projects, what kind of support we would be needing in the coming weeks and months, and what projects would be in the pipeline. I didn’t mind the meetings, unless I was hot into a design project, and I didn’t want to be interrupted. But I was kind of experiencing an easy enough day, so I really didn’t mind attending this particular meeting.

  Little did I know what was in store for me.

  I took my seat around the long conference table. I helped myself to a cup of coffee and chatted a little bit with some of the other guys, waiting for the meeting to begin.

  Finally, George, who usually conducted these meetings, appeared and brought everything to order. “Okay, we need to get statuses on everybody’s projects.”

  And, one by one, everybody gave a status on their individual projects.

  Towards the end of the meeting, George asked if anybody else had an issue that needed to be brought up.

  Portia stood up, and looked right at me. “Yes, there is. Mark, Greg, William and I are recommending Scotty James for immediate termination.”

  I immediately stood up. “Over my dead body,” I blurted out. “What grounds do you have?”

  “She’s been stealing from the firm,” Portia said. “There have been large amounts of money missing, according to Richard, and I consulted an accounting firm to prove it. Ms. James has a criminal record, and to my knowledge, she’s the only one here at the firm who does. Do the math.”

  “What the hell? What kind of a criminal record does she have?” I asked.

  “She was caught stealing several times.” Portia didn’t elaborate on this.

  I’d have to ask Scotty about that, but I was quite sure that she probably was caught stealing food or something during the year that she was homeless. And what kind of bullshit was it that they would be able to obtain those records in the first place?

  “And?” I said. “What else you got to prove that it was Scotty who was stealing?”

  “That’s enough proof,” Portia said. “Circumstantial evidence can be used to convict in a court of law, and it’s enough for me right now.”

  “Oh, no,” I said. “You’re not going to get away with this.”

  Portia just smiled. “Well, we’ll see. Let’s take a vote right now on terminating Scotty’s internship.”

  I knew then that I was screwed. Portia had been there ten years and had brought millions upon millions worth of business into the firm over the years. And, in a firm that was 90% men, her being eye-candy didn’t exactly hurt her cause either. The other partners were not going to want to cross her, especially not in an open vote.

  All I could do would be to try to persuade, and, if they voted to terminate her, resign from the firm. They could kiss my ass.

  “Listen,” I said, addressing the other partners who were sitting around the table, ready to vote. “This is a woman’s life you are dealing with. She might seem disposable, because she’s a student and only an intern, but if you do this, it will follow her around for the rest of her life. You’ve all been interns once before. How would you feel if somebody ousted you on zero evidence? Would any of you be where you are today if that would have happened to you early in your career?”

  I then looked at Portia. She was giving me the evil eye like she never had before. Yeah, I’m in love with Scotty, and now you know for sure, Portia. I was flipping her off in my mind as I looked at her.

  Around the table were the fifty senior partners, most of them men. If twenty-six of them voted to oust Scotty, that would be all she wrote. I mentally calculated everybody who I knew to be Portia’s allies, and realized that the vote was going to be close.

  George, who led the meetings, and really liked Scotty, addressed the group. “Does anybody else have anything to say?”

  Peter stood up. “I like Scotty. She’s hardworking, always on time and has a ton of potential. She’s respectful and really wants to learn. And Portia has no evidence whatsoever that she has done a thing wrong.”

  One by one, partners stood up to make their case for or against her. The ones who were against her had nothing at all to say except that Scotty was a convicted thief who couldn’t be trusted. Nobody could say a word about her work ethic or her talent.

  Finally, the partners voted. “Ok,” George said. “All in favor of terminating Scotty James’ internship raise your hand.” George counted. “26 in favor. All those opposed, raise your hands.” He counted. “24 opposed. Ok, the motion to terminate Scotty has been upheld.” He looked at me. “I’m sorry, Nick. Majority rules.”

  I just sat there and stared at Portia. “Ok, then,” I said, staring right at Portia. “I tender my resignation. Effective immediately.”

  At that, there was a ton of uproar. Suddenly, all those men who were willing to railroad Scotty out of a job were all over me.

  “You can’t do this, Nick,” Greg said. “You’re too important to this firm. You’re one of only two Pritzker winners here, and we only landed the Chase account because they knew that you would be the one designing it.”

  “Well, then, Greg, you should have thought of that when you decided to drink the Koolaid that Portia was giving out. But I will not work with people who have so little spine that they would fire an intern on no evidence of any wrong-doing.”

  There were people shouting at each other all around the table. “Now look what you did,” Peter was saying to Richard, who was one of the 26. “We’re going to lose the most high profile members of our firm.”

  “If Portia wants to get rid of her, then that’s enough for me,” countered Mark to another partner who was shouting him down.

  I looked at Neil, who, at 80-years-old, was the oldest member of the firm, both in number of years there at the firm and in chronological age. He had been with the firm ever since he graduated from Yale some fifty-five years ago, and he was a guy who took no bullshit.

  Neil was trying to say something, but there was so much bedlam around the table that nobody was paying attention to him.

  Finally, Neil stood up. “Now wait just a damned minute,” he said in a loud voice, and everybody immediately got quiet and looked at him. Neil rarely spoke in the meetings, but when he did speak, it was like EF Hutton. Everybody listened.

  He addressed Portia directly. “Portia, what kind of fool thing do you think that you’re doing? You want to get rid of that young lady for no other reason than that she’s more attractive then you, and that makes you feel threatened.” He looked around the room at all the other men. “You guys all know it’s true. Every one of you knows that Portia will try to railroad any attractive female who gets a job here. Now, I’m just stating what’s on every one of your minds, so don’t even try to play dumb here.”

  I smiled, big. Good ol’ Neil. Leave it to an old man to tell the truth that nobody else wanted to address.

  George stood up. “Portia, Neil’s right. You’ve managed to convince the partners to get rid of any woman who doesn’t physically resemble Yoda. We’ve gotten rid of all of them, mainly because none of them had a strong advocate for them like Scotty has in Nick. We’re lucky we haven’t been sued yet.”

  Portia didn’t try to defend herself, mainly because she had no defense. She knew that what we were saying was 100% true.

  Matt, who was clearly one of the 24 who voted against terminating Scotty, stood up. “I, for one, am not willing to see the most talented member of our firm leave, so I say that we take another vote. And,” he said, looking at every individual member, “you guys better think harder about this vote. That’s all I’m saying.”

  “Ok,” George said. “Let’s take another vote.”

  Portia stood up. “That’s against our policy. One vote for every major issue. You can’t just call another vote to the floor.”

  “I can do whatever I want,” George said. “I lead these meetings. Now
sit down, Portia. We need to take another vote, in light of the fact that Nick here has threatened to resign over the last vote. Now, all those in favor of terminating Scotty, please raise your hand.”

  This time, only five people raised their hands, all of them Portia loyalists. Mark, Gregory, William, Portia and Richard raised their hands.

  “Ok,” George said. “All those in favor of keeping Scotty on, please raise your hands.”

  Everybody else’s hand shot up in the air.

  “Well, Portia,” George said, “looks like you’re outnumbered after all.”

  Portia shot me a look of death.

  The meeting adjourned, and Portia grabbed my arm. “This isn’t over, O’Hara. Not by a long shot.”

  I felt badly for all of Portia’s lackeys who now would experience the brunt of her rage. But, at the same time, I didn’t care.

  Scotty was safe.

  That was all that mattered.

  Chapter 38

  Scotty

  I had just gotten out of my meeting with Portia and her evil bunch, and I was sitting at my cubicle just staring at the little walls. I had tacked up pictures of Jack and me all over the cubicle walls, and a few of Aaron. Usually seeing those pictures comforted me, but not today.

  Today would, no doubt, be the last day for me at this firm. I wouldn’t have any more lunches with Nick to look forward to. No more running into him while I’m going from office to office. I would only be able to see him in class now. But I wouldn’t be close to him anymore.

  I realized that I craved seeing him. Craved being near him. I was excited, every single day there at work, just because he was there.

  Now I wouldn’t have that anymore.

  That devastated me even more than knowing that losing this internship would certainly mean a black mark on my professional record. I doubted that I could even list the job on my resume any more. I had learned a lot, even in just the short time I was working for the firm. So, the internship wouldn’t exactly be all for naught. But, as for it being a feather in my cap, a way to show to the world that I worked for a prestigious firm, therefore I was somebody – eh, not so much.