Norah sat in Paul’s office trying to figure out why he had called them in. They were waiting for Evan, who was still on the phone with a client. She knew that Paul, Jim, Kurt, and the other partners were aware of her problems with Evan, but she thought that she had successfully kept her disagreements with her coworker to a minimum. Now, she guessed, Paul wanted to give them further counseling on how to get along with each other.
Norah was the newest in the firm, the only female attorney, in this high profile group. It was the oldest law firm in town, with clientele from all over the world. She had a hard time of it at first; she knew that Paul had gone all out to get the other partners to agree to hire her, and she felt that she owed him personally for his efforts. She always did whatever he asked, usually staying late and working weekends on endless briefs and covering other mundane details in order to prove her dedication and her worth to the firm. Although she never complained about any job thrown her way, and even though she usually accomplished things in a thorough and efficient manner, she still felt that the senior partners, Jim and Kurt, didn’t respect her. They were traditional thinkers, old fashioned and conservative, and they openly teased Paul as being a radical weirdo for wanting to “save the world” by hiring first Evan, and then Norah.
Evan Anderson was Paul’s other “good deed”; he had been hired five years ago, right out of law school, like Norah. Also, he was a first for the firm, the first African American attorney. It had taken the senior partners a while to get used to Evan’s presence, but after five years, he was one of the guys.
Norah had tried to befriend Evan in the beginning. She’d thought he was dapper and attractive, with his dark good looks. He had a tall, muscular physique and he was charming and witty with the other women; but whenever he dealt with her alone, she found him to be arrogant and snobbish. She had assumed that he’d come from a disadvantaged background, and Evan was immediately offended by her assumption. She found out from Paul that Evan had had a privileged upbringing, even more so than Norah, and Paul had chosen him, like Norah, for his law school performance and his drive and determination.
Since then, Evan had been frosty towards her. They avoided each other whenever they could, but of course, since they worked for the same firm, they were bound to share work sometimes. On these occasions, they usually spent most of their time arguing and sniping at each other. Evan was always suspicious of Norah, and Norah complained that he condescended to her. Norah was a very prideful woman, and she never let him get away with treating her like an idiot without putting up a fight.
“Evan says he’ll only be a few minutes more,” Sandy, the receptionist, popped her head in. She gave Norah her usual raised eyebrow as she left the room.
Norah was aware that a number of her coworkers assumed that she was hired for her looks. She was an attractive woman, but for most of her life, she’d tried to downplay the fact. She never wore anything provocative or revealing; she usually dressed in dark or muted colors, and she wore pantsuits or the occasional knee-length skirt to work. She always wore her shoulder length black hair pinned up, and she hid her intense blue eyes behind dark rimmed glasses. She was always professional and aloof at work, not wanting to give anyone an excuse to accuse her of sleeping her way to the top. She didn’t really care about what the others thought, but she was smart enough to know that sometimes a nasty rumor could be dangerous enough to ruin a career.
“Sorry I’m late,” Evan finally walked in, stepping between Norah and Paul, almost tripping over Norah’s high-heeled feet. He gave her a dirty look as he sat down.
“It’s okay,” Paul folded his hands.
Norah could feel worry building up. Whenever Paul folded his hands, bad news was coming.
“Let me get right to the point…”
It must be about our latest argument, Norah thought.
“Harold Mayer’s getting divorced, and he wants us to handle things for him.’
Harold Mayer was an eccentric millionaire, who had just married a woman young enough to be his granddaughter, two years before. He owned many properties in different states, including a ranch in Arizona, fifty miles outside of Phoenix. Paul told them that Harold’s young wife had filed a restraining order against him, so he was staying in a hotel in Phoenix. Norah and Evan were to fly there the next day to take a deposition. As he gave them further instructions, Norah’s worry grew tenfold.
“I don’t understand,” Evan spoke up. “We have to go together? Why?”
“Well,” Paul explained, “Kurt’s on vacation, Jim’s working on the Mitchell case, and I have three different cases that I’m running behind on. I know that you two already have loads of work, but Jim or I can take care of all that until you get back.”
“How long do you think this is going to take?” Norah asked.
“It shouldn’t take more than a few days.”
“A few days!” Norah cried.
“Harold’s a bit strange; he takes patience and care, something that you two seem to have an infinite amount of with other people, but you don’t have any of when it comes to dealing with each other.”
“Then why are you sending us together?” Evan asked. “I should be able to polish the old man off in a few hours.”
“I want you to go together. It will be a good experience for Norah.”
Norah started to grind her teeth at this comment. Paul made it sound as if Evan would have the upper hand. She looked at Evan, wondering if he would dare to complain. He was just as eager to prove himself as she was; he didn’t seem to be budging.
“So, you’ll fly tomorrow,” Paul said. “Sandy’s made all the arrangements.”
Norah had almost tuned him out, imagining the headache of spending a long flight sitting next to Evan. She looked at him again, but he was careful to keep his face neutral. She stood up as soon as Paul finished talking, rushing back to her office to try to finish up her work, or at least leave her notes in an understandable format in case Paul or one of the others had to look through her files while she was gone.
---
Norah had to trot to keep up with Evan. He had rushed ahead of her, as soon as they’d deplaned. He didn’t seem to be walking fast, but he was a lot taller than she was, and she had worn heels, so she kept up a breathless pace as he strolled through the airport. She also had more baggage than he did, and true to form, he’d made a sarcastic comment about her garment bag, purse, briefcase and overnight bag when they’d met at the airport back home. He had only brought a garment bag and his laptop bag, and he didn’t offer to carry any of her things for her, so she kept losing step with him, stopping to adjust the weight of her luggage from time to time.
He drove the rental car, pulling off before she even closed her door completely. Norah’s temper had about boiled over at this point, but she knew that they had a long drive before they reached their hotel, so she decided to avoid having a war with him in the car. He spent most of the drive gabbing on his cell phone, openly making snarky comments about having to be stuck with her for this trip. She stared at the passing scenery, counting the minutes until they would be able to go back home.
They arrived at the hotel to discover that a tech industry convention was being held in town. The hotel lobby was bustling, and Evan dealt with the clerk while Norah went to the restroom to freshen up from the heat. It was one hundred plus degrees outdoors, and even though they’d driven with the air conditioning running on high, they could still feel the sun blaring down on the car. Norah emerged from the restroom to find Evan talking to the hotel manager. She quickly approached him, to see what was wrong.
“I can’t believe this. What do you mean, ‘The place is full’?” Evan glared down at the shorter man.
The manager looked tentatively at Norah, but she looked to Evan, with a question on her face.
“I’m sorry, Sir,” the manager said. “The situation just can’t be helped. We’ve experienced a plumbing emergency, as well as problems with the A/C, and the rooms you have reserved are both in a section of the hotel where the system has broken down.”
Evan rolled his eyes and turned away from the man. “Well, since you can’t honor our reservation, I want to know if you can get us rooms somewhere else.”
