Back to Work for real

You kissed Gemma as she leaned into you. “Good morning, love,” you said softly with a little smile.

“Morning, love,” she said back with a grin, then backed off to head to her seat in the conference room. “We had to ride in with Eric again; he went to do the coffee run. Sabrina is just downstairs talking with Becks.”

“Ah, shit,” you said. “Today was supposed to be Andy’s day.”

“Mhmm,” Gemma nodded. “And he didn’t hear anything back from Andy yet, before you ask.”

“How did last night go?” you asked.

Gemma gave a rueful, half-smirk and shrugged. “About how you’d expect. Tasha was already super frustrated with Mosche and considering dumping him for the ghosting situation. Once we told her what we knew, she’s set on it.”

“So did she call him?”

“Nope,” Gemma said. “She’s going to confront him the next time they see each other at the comedy club.”

You groaned and shook your head. “That feels cruel, but it’s not like I can blame her. God, what a fucked up situation.”

Gemma had set her purse down and gotten herself situated, and she pushed back from the table and sighed. “At the heart of it, it was a communication issue. Tasha liked that Mosche was a little weird, but he didn’t pick up on social cues and read into things poorly. If they’d just had a straight-up conversation a lot of stuff could have been avoided.”

“Have I mentioned that I love you today?” you asked with a smile.

“Only once by text,” Gemma smiled back. “And I love you too. So fucking much. And we missed you last night.”

“Not that much,” you said.

“What?” Gemma asked.

Now it was your turn to smirk. “Becca sent me a video late last night. You and Sabrina were a little loud and kept up her and Charlotte.”

“Oh my gawd,” Gemma said, flushing with embarrassment and covering her face with her hands.

“I dunno, I think they found it kind of hot,” you chuckled.

“We just don’t take as much alone time together, OK?” Gemma said. “And we were both feeling thankful for each other, and you, after everything with Tasha.”

“OK,” you said, still laughing a little at the look on her face.

Sabrina arrived a couple of minutes later, followed by Eric about ten minutes after that as he balanced a particularly large coffee order. You ended up helping him with the deliveries, and then returned to the intern conference room and got to work.

There was a massive pile of shit to get done; all of the progress that the four of you had made in previous weeks felt like it had been erased. That was when you realised that Andy must have outed himself by getting almost nothing done - you wouldn’t have been surprised if the Associates caught him sleeping on more than one occasion. It was kind of sad not having him with you, but it wasn’t a loss to your group productivity at all.

Garrison stopped by in the mid-morning, looking tired but happy, and he told the four of you that negotiations had gone through the afternoon and evening on the case until the final settlement was signed just after 1 AM that morning. Vernic, the client, was making the acquisition at just under half of the original price. It was a big win for their client and therefore for the firm.

The celebratory pizza arrived for lunch, and with the amount of work looming over you, the four of you decided to work through your break. Then Sabrina pivoted in the afternoon to working on the Mock Trial, integrating the notes you’d been making last night into her current outline and plans and continuing to dive into her own research. That left you, Eric and Gemma to keep plugging away and by the end of the work day you’d made a decent dent in the pile of work but it was still way larger than you’d left it last Friday.

“So…” Eric said as he looked at the time on his phone and sighed. “I’ve got a flight to catch tomorrow after work. Are we working late tonight?”

“Yeah, we probably should,” you said. “Especially if we want to get stuff done on the mock trial as well.”

“Alright,” Eric said. “I just need to cancel on Lucy then.”

“Oh, she is not going to like that,” Sabrina said.

“Yeah, well, she can deal with it,” Eric muttered. “Business before pleasure. And she was kind of a bitch again this morning so maybe she needs some alone time.”

You glanced at Gemma, who gave you a look and rolled her eyes briefly. Same old, same old.

The four of you pushed on through the late afternoon, Eric pivoting to work with Sabrina while you and Gemma continued on the regular work. Dinner ‘mysteriously’ showed up in the form of Indian takeout, and a couple of the associates wandered by and snagged a bite while they were working late as well. Sabrina and Eric tried to pump them for information on who you would be facing in the mock trial, or any tips on the case if they knew it, but apparently they were all on strict orders not to help.

“Alright, we need to call it here,” Sabrina finally declared, closing her laptop.

“It’s only… Jesus, seven,” you said. “But we could go another couple of hours.”

“We have somewhere to be, actually,” Gemma said. “A friend needs our support?”

You frowned and cocked your head to the side.

“Tasha,” Gemma said. “She’s performing tonight.”

“You guys know a stripper?” Eric asked in surprise.

“What?” Gemma asked. “Who said she was a stripper?”

“Well- uh-” Eric stammered. “I just assumed because you said she’s ‘performing’ and it’s a Thursday…”

“She’s a comic, Eric,” Sabrina sighed. “She’s performing at an Open Mic night.”

“Ooooh,” he said. “So not a stripper.”

“No,” you said. “Not a stripper.”

“Well, I guess I’ll head home then.”

You didn’t bother asking if he would have asked to come along if it had been to a strip club.

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