Attorney at Law, K. Anderson never smiled. In fact, she never showed much emotion at all.
Stoic.
Poker face.
She was rumored to be cold hearted and vicious. Whether she actually was or not, ultimately was irrelevant. She was one of the most powerful attorneys this side of the Mississippi river, a senior partner in one of the most influential law firms in the country, Benter, Johnson, Anderson and Holgate. She had everything money could buy, though she never struck him as the flashy type. Designer clothes, beautiful home in the most exclusive neighborhood, personal driver, and massive corner office. No children, no husband, just work.
He was Fredrick Montgomery, and had joined the firm two years ago. He made six figures as an associate, which was pennies compared to her eight. And even with the ridiculous salary, Frederick was, as were most associates here, a lackey; he was here to get the grunt work done for the higher ups that stood in court and took all the credit when cases went the firm's way. When cases didn't go the firm's way, well, he and other associates usually got credited with that too. Sounds like a thankless job, and it is, but he loved it. He could have gone to work anywhere, but instead busted his ass all through law school to graduate in the top 3% in order to be exactly where he is today. No one had ever made partner at the firm under the age of 55, and no one under the age of 45 had ever sat second chair for a federal trial...that is, except for Ms. Anderson. He first saw her four years prior, when he'd spent a few months observing federal trials. He'd watched her pull off a victory that cemented her brilliance, and he respected her ever since. He wondered if she ever smiled, if she ever had fun, if she ever- literally- let her hair down.
He had never spoken to her, never had the occasion to. She was not the kind of woman you chatted idly with on the elevator or around the copy machine, she was too intimidating to even look at, let alone attempt to strike up some sort of witty, impressive banter; Fredrick had watched many a man try, and subsequently fail, to impress her, and besides, she had a boyfriend, a perfectly annoying attorney from another firm, Thomas Reynolds.
She plucked associates off of their regular duties at will, and he'd heard horror stories about lawyers who nearly went crazy working cases with her, some had quit, some, as rumor has it, plotted murder against their tough as nails boss. As quickly as she snatched them up, she would toss them back to their simple mundane offices if they didn't perform to her standard. Her nine hundred square foot office had three, much smaller offices attached to it; one for her private secretary, another for her paralegal, and the third, most infamous office, for the rotating associate. Those who failed their duties doomed their law careers and never made it past associate, anywhere. It was daunting.
Thankfully, Fredrick didn't work for her, but instead for another senior partner, William Benter. Still for all the rumors, Frederick admired her tenacity and professionalism; she arrived to the office every day before any other partner, and stayed later, every day, than any other partner. Fredrick was also one to pull long hours, and they often wound up in the same elevator, many times he was already in his office when she arrived, striding past without any acknowledgement. He was certain she wore a new pair of shoes and a new suit every day; her clothes were always sharp, but never overstated, complimenting her tight size nine frame perfectly. Her deep caramel skin was flawless, and she wore her hair swept back from her face; she was absolutely breathtaking, which made her all the more desirable to him, even if it was from afar.
"Hey." A familiar voice called from his office door. "What are you doing?"
Fredrick snapped back to the moment and looked over and James Watson, another associate at the firm who he went to law school with.
"What man?" Fredrick said trying to play the obvious down. "I'm thinking about this case, working on a brief for Benter-".
"No you're not." James said matter-of-factly walking into his office. "You're thinking about that woman again man, I can see it all over your face."
"Please," Fredrick said, "What do I look like?"
"You look like you're staring down the hall into her office, that's what you look like."
"Really?" Fredrick said, and then shook his head. "Shit. What are you doing?"
"See how bad you have it, get your ass together man, we got a staff meeting in the main conference room in about two minutes."
"Damn!" Fredrick said nearly spilling his coffee.
The senior partners met every day to discuss key cases and hear from senior associates, of which Fredrick was considered to be. He grabbed his note pad and stood up, stepping around his desk.
"Let's move then." He said.
Daily meetings never changed. Benter, who had been with the firm the longest, ran the meetings. He called out the partners, discussed and strategized their cases first, which were always federal, and then moved to the senior associates and their superior court cases. He was the captain of the ship, noted by the largest single office in the entire building, let alone the firm, and he made sure that everyone on the crew was doing their jobs. As a senior associate assigned to his team, Frederick made sure he had most of the information to review the day before the meeting; thus, the main purpose of the meeting was to make sure that everyone was on the same page- his page.
Benter was the only one to call Ms. Anderson 'K'. No one even knew what the 'K' stood for. Everyone else called her Ms. Anderson. Benter had asked 'K' for her case updates, and she ran down the usual list of clients and gave general updates on their status.
"The State of Philadelphia versus Charles Roles has been kicked down from federal to superior, therefore the next filing due to the court is on the 22th of this month." She stated. "I will-"
"Wait, K., just a minute, something is wrong here." Benter said adjusting his glasses and looking at his typed notes in front of him. "I have here that our next filing with Judge Haskins on the State versus Roles is the 7th. That's tomorrow."
K whipped on her glasses and flipped through the file. On either side of her were her staffers, including her most recent rotating associate, Brad. Need I say more? You could see the blood draining from his face as he peered into the file and looked at the timeline that he had prepared.
"Brad," she said, looking to him- as was everyone else in the room. You see, Ms. Anderson rarely ever misspoke, and even rarer, was corrected by someone else. It just didn't happen; but it was happening now.
Brad was mumbling aloud, "yes, you see here there are ten court days for the state to file their motion, and then 60 days for defendant's response-"
"Actually," Fredrick cut in, "those timelines are for federal, we're now back at superior, where the case originated, that puts us back on the superior timeline, which allows for 45 days, which puts the filing at the 7th, tomorrow." He finished.
The room was silent. Brad had just made the most severe mistake an attorney could make- he was going to miss a deadline, and worse yet, he was going to cause Ms. Anderson to miss a deadline on behalf of her client, who paid more than five million dollars to this very firm in order to retain its services, more specifically, her services. If Brad didn't know he'd just lost his job, he was the only one.
She took off her glasses and looked at Benter. "It's not a problem, it will be done".
"Of course it will." Benter said, and continued on.
When the meeting closed it seemed everyone stayed in their seats just a few seconds longer than usual, just enough time to allow Ms. Anderson all the space she needed to stalk swiftly out of the room, followed by her staff. She pulled Brad into her office immediately and closed the door.
Forty five minutes later, the office for the rotating associate, was vacant.
Ten minutes after that, Fredrick was called into Benter's office.
"Pack your things." He said bluntly, "you're moving." "Excuse me?" Fredrick said, genuinely confused.
