Fiction - Outsourced - Part 34

– Shannon McNamara –

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Outsourced © 2008 Shannon McNamara. All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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Buy me a cup of Coffee!

“Another bottle, please.” The woman grabbed the empty one and gave me a look of sympathy and shock. She knew. I used to wait tables. We always knew.

He held his glass up as a toast. The rest of the table begrudgingly followed the lead, me included.

“To being adults,” he toasted with performative grace.

I took a sip, and it tasted bitter. Brian didn’t sip at all. Kelly followed my example and emptied her entire glass.

“So, how has work been going, Brian? Still billing junior associate hours at partner rates?” Andrew smirked, clearly enjoying this entire charade.

“We’ve been busy.”

“Busy?” Andrew leaned back in his chair and casually draped his arm over the back of mine. My spine stiffened, and I felt like I was sweating through my deodorant, even in the cold air-conditioned room. I made eye contact with the waitress who was back in the shadows. She emerged like a white shirted savior in that moment.

“Good evening, and welcome everyone to Harbor & Hearth. I am Brianne, and I will be your waitress this evening. We have already started with one of our best wines, but might I interest you in something to nibble on at the table while the chef prepares your main entrees?”

“I took the liberty of ordering the Chef’s sampling this evening,” Andrew turned and smiled at me. Did he think that was going to help this entire train wreck?

“How about an hors d'oeuvre?” I looked with pleading eyes at Brianne. She nodded and seemed to see what I was doing here.

“Oh yes, I can definitely send out a sampling of the starter menu. How does that sound for the table?”

“Lovely, “I answered before anyone could interject. I needed to find a way out of here, and after two glasses of wine, I needed to think clearly with some food in my stomach.

Next week I will stop drinking. Seriously.

“Great idea, Meg.” Andrew tapped the back of my chair with a rap rap.

“So Brian, that last brief I sent over today. Riddled with typos. But I understand, hard to focus on multi-tasking when you are busy texting the paralegals.”

I stared blankly at the wall. I couldn’t even gaze in that direction. Kelly let out a slight puff of air. I thought I wanted this, but it was honestly way too much.

“Andrew,” I started as a whisper.

Instead of laying off, I received a maddeningly menacing smile.

“Don’t worry, Meg. I’m just recognizing Brian’s talent. His diverse skillset.”

He stared. Brian stared back.

I looked down at my hands. My skin was prickling against the silk in the dress. I realized I was in a costume and this was nothing more than a show, where I had become some sort of carnival side attraction. What was my role?

Ex-lover?

New lover?

Someone seeking closure?

I didn’t even know anymore.

“Excuse me,” I pushed the chair away from the table with all my might and stood up, feeling the weight of both glasses of wine sloshing inside my brain.

Four sets of eyes looked up at me.

Andrew.

Brian.

“I’ll be right back.”

I grabbed my purse and hurried away from the table, and felt an arm grab me and pull me towards a set of doors.

It was our waitress.

“The bathrooms are right here.” She gave me a knowing look.

“Thank you, Brianne.”

“I can wait outside the door if you need me to.”

“Thanks.” I began to push the door open when I realized there was more she wanted to say.

“What is it? I really need to know.”

She sighed.

“This isn’t the first time he has pulled this. I’m sorry.” Brianne whispered to me in a hushed tone.

“He pulled it on me, too.” I spun around to my left and saw Kelly standing there in the hallway.

What?

“Go in, we’ll chat.” Her eyes showed no remorse or empathy as she pushed me into the doorway and slipped the lock down silently behind us.

Kelly pulled a lipstick out of her neat, small bag and began to apply it at the mirror.

“Andrew and I were a thing,” she expertly applied a red to her lips, I would never be able to pull off.

She stopped for a moment, catching my eye in the mirror.

“If you are waiting for an apology for what happened with Brian, sorry. He pursued me, and that’s the best you are going to get from me.”

“Listen, I don’t need this. I’m just going to go.” I began to push the lock open on the door when she spun back to me.

“No, just wait. We aren’t going to leave this bathroom ready to braid each other’s hair, but I think you should hear what I have to say.”

I paused.

“Ok, fine, you said he pulled this with you? What do you mean?”

I hated that I was curious. But I was. I spun and stared her down at the sinks.

She sighed and put the lipstick back in the bag.

“I was you in the scenario last time. Let me guess, he bought you that dress? Driver picked you up at your place, and you had no idea where you were going tonight? Then bam, you walk in and find yourself face to face with your ex and their new love interest at a back table lit with candles?”

Damn.

Because this restaurant was remarkably fancy, this was not your ordinary bathroom. We were in a sort of lounge area before you got to the stalls. There was a wall of mirrors, and across from the mirrors were two highback chairs with a table between them. Kelly motioned to the seats.

“One second,” I flipped the bathroom lock quickly and looked to see if Brianne was still outside the door.

She was, oh, bless her.

“Hey, think you can bring us a bottle of red, two glasses, and put it on asshole’s tab?”

She smiled, happy to be a part of this scheme.

“But of course, Meg.”

A few moments later, there was a small knock on the door, and Brianne passed me two glasses and what looked to be a very expensive bottle of Pinot Noir.

I placed the bottle and the glasses on the table and took a seat across from Kelly.

“Ok, go on.” I poured us both a glass and took a sip of mine. I didn’t want to be off kilter when making decisions this evening.

“This was three years ago. I had been dating one of the other lawyers at the firm, Andrew, and he had been rising together through the ranks, and there was a lot of speculation as to whether Andrew’s father was going to head the call of nepotism and make his baby boy partner, or if Mark might be the one who got the spot.”

She paused and took a sip.

“Mark and I had been dating for about a year at that point. I was his paralegal, but no one knew we were seeing each other. It’s not necessarily frowned upon, but I was new there and I was the one who didn’t want people to think what they were going to think.”

I took another sip, because it had to be said.

“Aren’t you Brian’s paralegal? Didn’t care about what it looked like anymore?”

I wasn’t going to let her sit here and just spin her Cinderella story without my input.

She sighed.

“Not that it matters, but I’m actually not Brian’s paralegal. I work with Mr. McCabe, one of the other partners.”

Right, I remembered the firm’s full name then. Tullson, McCabe, and Reynolds.

“Now that we have that cleared up, can I finish?” She glared over the glass at me. She was right, we were not going to leave this bathroom as friends.

“Go on.” I motioned with my hand for her to continue.

“The next part will be rumor, but I feel like it needs to be said. Later on, and it was much later on, I might add, I heard that Andrew was the one to invite Mark out for drinks after work. They were both working on a major property acquisition, and the whispers around the office were that whoever pulled this off was going to be made a partner. Mark was putting in crazy hours, which meant I was putting in crazy hours alongside him. I didn’t mind, but I was also clearly still his subordinate, and he was beginning to act more like a boss with this promotion coming, rather than a boyfriend.”

I looked over at the mirrors and could see just the tops of our bodies above the marble counter’s surface. Two women, sitting in the chairs of an alternate universe, enjoying an expensive bottle of wine neither could afford on their own, gossiping while their partners were back at the dusk-lit mahogany table.

Oh my God, what was happening at that table?

I sipped again. That was for them to figure out.

Buy me a cup of Coffee!