Sarah collapsed back in her chair and sighed. It had been a long day. With everyone leaving early for the holidays, a larger backlog of work than usual had made its way to her desk. The firm had a number of big cases coming up. She was the lead on some, and co-counsel on the others, but it increasingly felt like she was doing the lion's share of everything. Instead of work getting easier after she'd made partner, it seemed like all of the other senior partners were content to let her do all their work for them.
Her phone buzzed again.
"Sounds good! And thanks for the tip :) see you soon."
Finally getting out of her chair for the first time in what felt like hours, Sarah stretched. She arched her back and thrust her chest out, feeling her busty tits push up against her tight fitting sweater. Then she rolled her neck and hips, finally bending over to touch her toes.
If she didn't have to get back and see Tony's roommate, she might have just stayed in her office and done some yoga. She had a gym bag with some spare clothes. For a second Sarah contemplated it. With everyone gone, the company gym would be deserted. And, for once, she wouldn't have to deal with the ogling from either the senior partners or the junior associates. But the thought quickly passed. It would be rude to abandon Tony's roommate.
Slightly more limber than before, Sarah exited her office and plunked the bundle of files down on her secretary's desk.
Her secretary's head jerked up, startled by Sarah's emergence and the impact of the files.
"Oh Mrs. Barnett! I didn't realize you were done!"
Sarah smiled warmly. She liked Diana. While most of the senior partners had hired secretaries based on their looks, Sarah had hired based on competence. Diana's red hair, freckles, flat chest, and thick, wire rimmed glasses hardly endeared her to the men of the office. But she was more organized and competent than anyone except Sarah herself.
"Sorry to startle you Diana. I didn't mean to make you work so late. Vince got called out on an emergency job this morning. Katie doesn't come back till tomorrow. And Tony, even though he's back in town, is working a shift at his old job. I didn't have much of a reason to get home early and wasn't really thinking about the holiday. And all this shit the partners are asking me to do...well, you know. It comes through your desk too. Anyways. You really don't have to stay late when I do. I'm sorry I kept you so long."
"It's only an hour later than usual, Mrs. Barnett. Not a big deal. You're always so thoughtful and kind to me, so I'm happy to help."
"Oh, come on. I don't deserve you," Sarah said with kindness. "Don't do any of this now. I want you to go home and enjoy the holidays. But we need to make sure we are on time with the filing deadlines in both the Atwood case and the Brentwood Properties case on Monday. All the material is here. If you post it first thing, we'll be fine. Just make sure it gets out on time."
"Of course, Mrs. Barnett!" Diana said with a smile.
Sarah gave her a tired smile in return, donned her coat, and headed for the door.
The holiday traffic on the way home gave her time to think. Cars honked. The street in front of her was red with brake lights shining in the dark of the early evening. Her black Mercedes S-class inched forward.
Sarah was strangely grateful for the delay. It was the first time she'd had to think in a while. Her morning commute had been spent recording voice memos, and her day had been nothing but meetings, dictation, and doc review. There were few better opportunities to give your mind a break than in a traffic jam.
After Tony had left for college, she thought life would be quieter and calmer with more time to think and relax. But it hadn't been. Her work at the law firm had only accelerated and there was no end in sight. Maybe she should start looking for a new job. Maybe she could leverage being a partner into a better gig elsewhere. Maybe once she got this slate of cases off her desk the load would ease up. Maybe, maybe, maybe...
The light changed, but no cars moved. The cars ahead of her tried to change lanes and gain even a fractional advance amid the congested traffic. More honking ensued.
And then there was Vince. After spending years as a railway engineer, he'd gotten a promotion recently too. Deputy District Supervisor. Sarah smiled recalling the celebratory dinner they'd had after the announcement. Tony was still at home and Katie had even come back from Stanford for the occasion. All four of them had gone to Wiley's downtown and splurged. It was the last fun night she could remember.
The money at Vince's new job was a lot better--not that they needed it. The hours, however, were much worse. He was constantly being called away on crisis-management teams to deal with accidents or technical screw-ups in every remote corner of the region he helped manage. Off the top of her head, Sarah couldn't remember the last full weekend he'd been home. She supposed it was fine, given the extra work she had on her plate. More often than not she spent weekends in the office while Vince was off fixing a railway bridge or re-laying track lines. Both Sarah and Vince had seemed to have fallen into the same trap. By being the most competent people at their firms, they kept getting more and more work assigned to them. How much more was worth it?
The light changed to green and Sarah finally made it through the bottlenecked intersection she'd been stuck at for 10 minutes. Traffic eased and the route home looked smooth. Her Mercedes accelerated with a comfortable hum.
Sarah's thoughts turned to her kids. She was a little worried about Tony. Even aside from his awkward admission that he wasn't getting laid, Sarah had deeper concerns. Tony had always been the less motivated and more aimless of her two kids. He was at the state college an hour away, his grades were middling, and he seemed to drink a lot. That described plenty of college students, Sarah reassured herself. There was no reason Tony wouldn't figure things out eventually. He had 4 years and this was just the first semester. But deep down there was a pit of motherly worry and anxiety that she couldn't calm.
Finally Sarah's thoughts turned to her oldest child, Katie. Katie's return--her first visit since that celebratory dinner--was the thing that brought Sarah the most unalloyed joy. While Tony had always been aloof, Katie was made in her mother's image. They both had the same dark-brown hair, though Katie's had auburn hues rather than her mother's dark walnut brown. Both of them had the same heart-shaped face and small nose. Katie had also inherited her mother's work ethic and intelligence. She'd gotten an academic merit scholarship to attend Stanford and had excelled, making the Dean's List every semester and becoming president of her sorority.The only two things Katie hadn't gotten from her mother were her eyes, (she'd gotten Vince's hazel eyes rather than Sarah's blue eyes) and her breasts. Katie only had 34b's compared to her mother's busty 36c's. But they still looked phenomenal on her frame since Katie was smaller and more petite than Sarah (Sarah was 5'6, Katie was only 5'2).
Katie's only real problem was to decide on what she wanted to do after college. She'd gotten a job offer from JP Morgan, a Marshall Scholarship to Oxford, and an offer from the Peace Corps to work in Africa. Sarah, ever the careerist, was hoping she'd just take the offer from JP Morgan and stay comparatively close to home. But the job at JP Morgan would always be there, and it sounded like Katie was leaning towards the Peace Corps. This kind of decision was a good problem to have. At any rate, Sarah was just excited to see her daughter again.
By the time all these thoughts filtered in and out through Sarah's half-attentive consciousness, she realized she was almost home. As she turned her Mercedes into the neighborhood entrance, her lights flashed by the neighborhood sign and then on to a fairly large jogger, who was running at a determined pace despite the chill of the dark November evening. Sarah recognized the jogger immediately thanks to his hair: a high fade that was coupled with a distinctive shock of medium length-dreadlocks, most of which were tied up in a vertical bun. She slowed the car and rolled down her window.
"Hunter is that you?"
"Hey Mrs. B! Nice to see you!"
"You're braver than me for running in this weather! I usually stick to the treadmill this time of year."
"It helps build fortitude for the season!" he said back with a smile, his breath visible in the chilly air.
"You want a ride up the hill? This is the worst part of the jog. You still have twenty minutes to go from here."
"This is the part I live for!" he said back between breaths. "I'll see you up there. I bet I can beat twenty minutes!"
"Alright good luck!"
Sarah rolled up her window, grateful for the warmth of the car, and grateful that she wasn't the one jogging up the mountainous hill in their neighborhood tonight. She'd done it plenty of times. Sarah was a runner after and had completed 6 half-marathons. Even so, the distance between the entrance of their neighborhood and her house, coupled with the slope of the hill, always left her completely exhausted. After the day of work she'd had, she was thankful all she had to do was drive.
*****************************************************************************************************
When Sarah got back to the Barnett's large colonial house at the top of the hill, she began her usual weeknight ritual. First, she turned on the lights of the front facing downstairs rooms to make the empty house look more alive. Then she retreated to the dimly lit and cavernous living room at the back of the house. Rather than turn on any additional lights, she lit a fire. Then came her favorite portion of the ritual: pouring herself a scotch. Tonight she went with a Balvenie 25 to celebrate the holidays and almost all of her family being home. She kicked off her heels and curled up in the big leather armchair next to the fire. Sarah let out a deep, relaxed sigh as the peaty flavor of the scotch hit her tongue for the first time.
