An Office Morning, and Eric gets Called Out

“You guys are so fucking mean,” Sabrina giggled.

Even with the sit-down breakfast, you and Gemma made it into the office relatively early and Sabrina was right on your heels. Without Eric there, or anyone else in your part of the office, you’d been able to give Sabrina a proper good morning kiss and then fill her in on what she’d missed since last night.

“Becca was pretty much humping her chair as we were eating, and dragged Charlotte back to their room afterwards,” Gemma chuckled. “The other side of things, though - I think we’ve entered a Cold War with Lucy. She knew we were all there last night, but didn’t start any shit. I’m pretty sure she locked herself in her room all night.”

“What a baby,” Sabrina sighed.

“Better that than a raging bitchmonster,” you said. “I would be perfectly happy with the Cold War lasting until you leave, Gemma. We should probably try not to antagonise her, yeah?”

Gemma made a face. She was the one who was the most pissed at Lucy after whatever it was she’d said about you during their last fight - neither Sabrina nor Gemma was telling you what it was, but apparently it was bad.

“Gemma,” you said. “No sparking World War Three. Or fighting proxy wars.”

“What if I just do one proxy war,” Gemma said, then smirked a little.

You rolled your eyes, but couldn’t continue the conversation because Eric came in with his arms stacked with the morning coffee orders. It was a particularly big one so you went to help him disperse the drinks. Thursday started out pretty much the same as the last few days - the four of you tried to slam through as much work as possible in the queue so that Sabrina could pivot to the Mock Trial prep. The four of you were supposed to make your case on Monday, so you only really had four days left.

After a fast lunch from the bodega down on the first floor, the four of you were just easing back into work when Garrison came and made his second appearance of the day, having checked in quickly earlier.

“Eric, come down to my office,” was all he said.

Eric shot the three of you a worried look before getting up and nervously leaving the conference room.

“Guesses?” you asked Gemma and Sabrina.

“Worst case is he’s fired,” Sabrina said. “Or suspended or something if it’s bad but not that bad.”

“Or his podcast appearances last weekend have caused more trouble,” Gemma guessed.

“Or maybe they spawned a completely new problem,” you added on. “I mean, he got to ‘maybe seeing’ that one producer girl and also hooked up with that model. Maybe someone is trying to make a case against him for something he didn’t do?”

Sabrina and Gemma both sighed, shaking their heads almost in unison, which made you smile.

“Hopefully not,” Gemma said.

Eric was gone for about thirty minutes before he came back, and his grin looked like it had been stapled onto his face, it was so big.

“So,” you said, raising an eyebrow after glancing at your girlfriends. “What was that about?”

“I cannot legally talk about how I just made $100,000,” Eric said. “Minus legal expenses.”

“Holy shit, he settled for that much?” Sabrina asked.

“I cannot legally talk about how I just made $100,000,” Eric repeated himself, his grin somehow getting even bigger as he sat down at his spot at the table.

“So there’s an NDA,” you guessed. “Which bars you from talking about the settlement or probably anything else with the matter, but they can’t stop you from talking about your own finances.”

“I cannot legally talk about how I just made $100,000,” Eric said again.

“So are you bailing on us for the rest of the summer?” Gemma asked. “Because that’ll really screw up our Mock Trial plans.”

“No, no,” Eric said, shaking his head. “The money is great and is going to help pay for law school without needing as much in student loans, but it’s not fucking retirement money or anything. I still need to do the internship and everything.”

“Good for you,” you said. “And also fuck you for taking that punch.”

Eric laughed, shooting you a grin, and you rolled your eyes and shook your head. The money would have been nice, but not getting punched in the face and knowing that Eric was so loyal even if you weren’t close were both wins, too.

The four of you got back to work, though Eric did slow down his pace as he was celebrating by texting with his parents and, you presumed, spreading the word by not spreading the word to his contacts. The afternoon dragged on and Sabrina got Eric back on track by looping him into the Mock Trial prep instead of the regular intern work - the case was starting to really take shape. You had been informed that certain associates from both your firm and the other one would be acting as witnesses, working from scripts, so you had to submit witness lists for the trial based on the deposition files that were in the case package. Then there were the motions that needed preparing, opening statements to write and practice, and outlines for potential closing statements that could be adapted on the fly. Not to mention the actual presentation of the case.

Dinner that night was Polish food, hearty and full of carbs and meat - pretty much everything was ‘food item wrapped around meat!’ It was all delicious though, and you ended up working straight through until 9 PM.

That was when Gemma closed her laptop and looked across the table at you with a smile.

“Again?” you asked.

“It’s not a date this time,” she said, grinning at you and then at Sabrina. “We just need to go support someone.”

“Oh,” you said. “Tasha and Mosche are both supposed to be at the Comedy Club tonight.”

“You guys are going to a comedy club?” Eric asked, perking up a little. “Can I come?”

“Almost any other night, we’d probably say yes, Eric,” Sabrina said. “But tonight there might be a lot of drama for a couple of our friends. Maybe next week?”

Eric shrugged. “I mean, I’m all for drama if it means I can get punched in the face again.”

You snorted, shaking your head. “Well, that could actually happen depending on which comics are there,” you said, thinking of ‘the Bull Dyke’ interacting with Eric. “But no one there will have the sort of money to be able to make a settlement, so it wouldn’t be worth it.”

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