“Knock out walls?” Evie said, a bit startled.
“If you like. Isn’t that what people do?”
“But won’t everyone else in the building care…?”
“We’ll be careful.”
Evie looked at her. “Stuff might fall down. The building might fall down.”
“I have no idea,” Natalie said. “But we can ask someone if you really want to try?”
“Um, no, actually,” Evie said. “I think I’m good.” She glanced around, still getting used to the idea that everything had changed. “Does this mean that’s my table now?” she said, looking into the kitchen.
“Of course. Half your table.”
Evie put her hand on the couch beside herself. “And this is my couch?”
Natalie nodded.
“Shit,” Evie said. “What if I spill wine on our couch and then you hate me forever? I mean, if it’s only your couch, then who cares. You can get it cleaned, but if it’s ours… that seems like a big deal.”
Natalie was grinning again. “I won’t hate you,” she said.
“I know you won’t. That isn’t the point.”
“Oh,” Natalie said, and sat there. “All right. What’s the point?”
“Honestly? I have no idea.”
Evie sat there, not sure what to do next. Natalie sat too, looking at Evie, apparently waiting until Evie had calmed down a little. She was giving Evie space, Evie supposed, and that was probably best. Evie still needed it, a little, while she gathered her thoughts. This was all still something of a shock.
*
Evie stood up, a little aimlessly, and began drifting around the room. She went in a slow circle, touching the furniture she passed. She stopped in front the stereo. It was on a bookshelf on the wall facing the couch, with all Natalie’s CDs on the shelf above it. Evie looked at the CDs for a moment. At all the new music she’d just gained, she thought to herself, but didn’t actually say that out loud. That joke was probably done, she thought. It probably wasn’t still funny.
She noticed the sad jazz make-out music that Natalie had played the first night she was there, mixed in with everything else. She took a couple of those cases out, and read the inside covers. She didn’t say anything for a while. Behind her, Natalie was quiet too. Natalie was probably waiting to see what Evie did next, Evie thought. Natalie was probably being kind and patient and everything she usually was, enough that Evie felt almost undeserving.
Evie stood there, reading, trying to get up her courage. She had stood up quite deliberately. She had walked across the room on purpose. There was one more thing she needed to say, and she wanted to say it away from Natalie. Not near Natalie, and not looking at Natalie either. She wanted to say it from across the room, because it was probably going to start a fight, and much as she didn’t want to fight, there was one more thing they needed to discuss before this conversation was done.
She was stalling, she decided, and she really ought to stop.
“So tomorrow,” Evie said, without turning around. “You’re getting a trust. By the way.”
“What?”
“I mean it,” Evie said. “Get a trust. Move assets. Date everything as a couple of days ago, and I’ll send you an email tomorrow saying I’m moving in. Then you’ll have a starting point in writing that keeps everything safe from me.”
“God, Evie,” Natalie said. “Why?”
“You know why.”
“I really don’t.”
“Don’t be an asshole. You know. You need to protect yourself.”
“I don’t,” Natalie said. “And could you turn around?”
“Nope,” Evie said, and kept pretending to look at CDs.
“What’s wrong?” Natalie said. “What’s going on?”
“We’re both lawyers,” Evie said. “So don’t be an asshole. We both know exactly what’s going on. You’re rich and I’m not, so we kind of need to do this properly.”
Natalie was quiet for a moment, thinking. Then she said, “Is this about Meredith and what she thinks of you?”
“Of course it isn’t,” Evie said. “It’s about common sense and protecting yourself and how your judgement is pretty seriously fucked up right now if you haven’t done this already. Have you done this already?”
“No, of course not.”
“Well you should have.”
Natalie shrugged. “If you want to take everything I own, you can. I don’t care.”
“Don’t be an asshole.”
“I mean it. You can if you want to.”
“And I mean it too,” Evie said. “Just, no.”
“Could you turn around please?”
“Nope.”
“Could you at least stop calling me an asshole?”
“Don’t say assholey things and I won’t.”
Natalie sighed. “Why was that assholey? About taking everything I own?”
“Because we might break up one day. Obviously.”
Natalie didn’t answer.
“We might,” Evie said.
“Well I suppose so, yes…”
“So there you go,” Evie said. “You need to be careful.”
“Why?”
“Because you do.”
“Actually I don’t,” Natalie said. “I’m not going to. I refuse.”
Evie turned around, then, surprised. She looked at Natalie. She looked at Natalie’s worried face.
“I’m not interested in all that,” Natalie said. “If the worst happens, if we break up, you can do what you like. I won’t especially care.”
“Um, yes,” Evie said. “Kind of the whole point. Because maybe I will. So you need a trust to protect yourself…”
“No,” Natalie said. “Just no.”
Evie looked at Natalie for a moment, and decided she was serious. “Okay,” Evie said. “Then I’m not moving in.”
Natalie looked hurt. “Really?” she said, sadly.
“Yep.”
“Fuck.”
“Pretty much.”
“Evie,” Natalie said, sounding upset. “You can’t change your mind now. Not over something like this.”
“I can,” Evie said. “I will. Try me.”
Natalie seemed dismayed, and a little desperate too. “Can’t we just, I don’t know, wait and see?” she said. “Just try things as they are, and let them work out?”
“Wait until I forget you mean?”
“No, just…”
“I mean this,” Evie said. “I mean all of it. I won’t move in if you don’t let this happen my way. And I want to move in, I want to a lot. So please don’t make it so I can’t after all.”
“I want you to as well,” Natalie said. “But...”
“So please just do what I’m asking you to do.”
“I don’t know if I can.”
“Then we’re kind of stuck,” Evie said. “Aren’t we?”
“I think we are.”
They looked at each other for a moment. They seemed to be at an impasse. Evie looked at Natalie, and didn’t know what to do. She sighed. “This is really bad,” she said.
“It is,” Natalie said. “It really fucking is.”
“Please?” Evie said.
Natalie shook her head.
Evie thought for a moment. She needed to try and explain everything more clearly, she decided. She needed Natalie to see this as she did. It wasn’t that she needed to make Natalie do what she wanted, she thought, not exactly, more just that Natalie probably would, if she considered it all the right way.
“You just have to protect yourself,” Evie said. “You get that, right?”
“That’s for me to decide.”
“But a trust is the right thing to do,” Evie said. “It’s the smart thing to do. You know it’s smart. You’re just trying to prove something too, every bit as much as me.”
Natalie sat there for a moment. “I don’t understand what you mean?”
“Prove about us,” Evie said. “To Meredith,”.
Natal
ie seemed taken aback.
“Not on purpose,” Evie said quickly. “And not really to her. More, I don’t know, to the ghost of her presence hanging around over us still.”
Natalie was thinking.
“You are,” Evie said. “I’m sure. Every bit as much as me.”
“I’m not,” Natalie said, uncertainly.
“Liar. You completely are.”
Natalie seemed upset. She bit her lip, and looked at Evie, but didn’t actually speak.
“Sorry,” Evie said, after a moment. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be awful…”
“Then don’t.”
“But you’re doing that. You are. You’re doing exactly what you think I’m doing.”
“I promise, I’m not.”
“Except yes you are,” Evie said, urgently. “Can’t you see? Meredith thinks I’ll take your money, so you have to prove that you think I won’t. You have to prove it by not having a trust.”
“Oh,” Natalie said, surprised. She thought for a moment. “Maybe,” she said. “I don’t know.”
“Definitely,” Evie said. “Perceptive, remember?”
“Maybe,” Natalie said again. “But don’t you also have to prove something, the opposite thing really, by insisting I do have a trust?”
“Yep, of course. Except my way is the sensible thing to do. No trust is a fucking stupid idea...”
Natalie didn’t answer.
Evie was proud of herself. She might actually have managed to fix this, she thought.
“Stop it,” Natalie said. “Stop looking so smug.”
“Sorry,” Evie said.
“No you aren’t.”
“Well anyway,” Evie said, still grinning. “The point is, you’re going to protect yourself, even if I have to create the trust.”
“Evie, I’m not saying yes yet.”
“Don’t be an asshole. I’m completely serious about this.”
“So am I.”
“Really? Enough I don’t move in?”
Natalie sat a moment longer, and then she shrugged.
“Because also,” Evie said. “One other thing. I know absolutely nothing about trust law, so if I create one, it’ll be a shitty trust and full of loopholes and you’ll probably get stuck with gift tax and god knows what else.”
Natalie started to smile. “Why wouldn’t you just hire someone to…”
“Because I have no money, asshole. Which is the whole point. So if you won’t do this, then I’ll have to.”
“Oh,” Natalie said. She sat for a moment, thinking. She seemed happier, Evie thought. They were arguing about law now, she supposed, not about whether Evie actually moved in. That probably seemed like an improvement to both of them.
“You can’t just move my assets into a trust without my permission,” Natalie said suddenly.
“Want to bet?” Evie said. “I’ll create it, then put the papers somewhere, and then in fifty years when you’re senile or in hospital or whatever and you give me your power of attorney, then I’ll sign it for you.”
“That’s the silliest thing I ever heard. If we’re together in fifty years why would you need to…”
“I’m still going to.”
“Just to prove a point?”
“Yep.”
“There’s no way a trust like that would stand up in court,” Natalie said.
“Except I’d be the one challenging it if anyone was, and I wouldn’t, so actually it would.”
“But the gift duty…”
“Like I said. A shitty trust. And a shitty plan. So you should just go and sort it out.”
Natalie sighed. “This is some kind of condition?”
“It absolutely is.”
“Rather than changing the curtains or knocking out walls?”
Evie smiled. “Yep.”
“Then fine. All right. I’ll make a trust. I’ll talk to someone and organize it.”
“Tomorrow,” Evie said.
“I have quite a busy…”
“Tomorrow.”
“Evie, I can’t just drop everything and…”
“Tomorrow. You’re not getting out of this by pretending not to have time, and avoiding it, and hoping I’ll forget.”
“I actually don’t have time.”
Evie held her hand next to her face and pretended it was a phone. “Oh hello other really important lawyer who does trusts,” she said. “Make me a trust for all my assets. Try not to cost me huge amounts of tax. Don’t make Evie a beneficiary. Simple. Done.”
Natalie sighed.
“You can even do it in the car,” Evie said.
“I don’t have time.”
“Two minutes. Less.”
“No, longer because any solicitor I’d have any faith in, I’ll need to wait on hold to speak to...”
Evie looked at her grinning, feeling tender and fond. “And now you’re just being difficult,” she said. “So do it and stop arguing.”
“Fine,” Natalie said. “I will.”
“You promise?”
“I do.”
“Thank you,” Evie said.
Natalie looked at her for a moment. “Now can you come back over here?”
Evie smiled, and went back to the couch. She sat down beside Natalie, and kissed her carefully.
“Are you all right?” Natalie said.
“I think so.”
“Only think?”
“I will be.”
“I’m sorry,” Natalie said. “It’s all a big change. A big surprise…”
“The moving in?”
Natalie nodded.
“Oh that, that’s good. That’s wonderful. The not all right is that I just had a conversation about separating matrimonial property, and I’m so completely not ready for that.”
“Tell me,” Natalie said.
“It’s fine,” Evie said. “I’m fine. I just don’t know what to think.”
“We don’t have to do this if you’d rather not…”
Evie was surprised. “After all that?”
Natalie shrugged.
“Really?” Evie said. “After that huge fight?”
“If you’d be happier if we don’t, then perhaps we shouldn’t.”
“Of course I want to,” Evie said. “I’m just… out of my depth, I suppose. You’re getting a trust to protect your property, and I don’t have property. Not really. I have clothes and some books. I’ve got two hundred dollars in the bank and I keep losing my interest bonus because I take money out the account too often. I don’t know if I could even get a credit card right now. I probably couldn’t.”
“So keep using mine.”
Evie started to grin. “Asshole,” she said.
“I mean it.”
“I know.”
Evie leaned on Natalie, and held her for a moment. “Hey,” Evie said, after a while. “I love you. Just by the way.”
“Hey,” Natalie said. “I love you too.”
“I’d kind of guessed.”
“I had too. We’ve just never said that before, though.”
“Nope,” Evie said.
“It’s probably time we did.”
Evie smiled. “Probably.”
“Well then, I love you.”
“Yep,” Evie said. “I heard the first time.” She kissed Natalie gently. “I love you too.”
Epilogue: Evie, a year later
A year passed, and for Evie it was a good year. She was offered a position at Natalie’s firm, which she took without hesitation. She moved in with Natalie too, shifting all her things in just three trips of Natalie’s car. She began work, and concentrated on that, and quite quickly everything settled down. She was happy, and Natalie seemed happy too. Everything seemed to be going well, especially everything between her and Natalie.
At first, Evie suspected, Natalie had been a little worried about their working together. She had seemed uncertain how it would turn out. Evie wasn’t sure what all Natalie’s concerns were, and hadn’t wanted to ask too spe
cifically in case she started fretting about them herself. Some she had managed to work out, though. She knew Natalie had worried Evie wouldn’t be able to fit in at the firm, that her weed and cigarettes and her urge to clever wit would be too much. Natalie hadn’t said anything, but Evie had guessed, just as she’d guessed that Natalie was worried the other first-year associates would be mean, or people would gossip, or Evie would react badly if Natalie ever had to tell her what to do. Natalie had worried, and anticipated all sorts of problems, but in the end, none had actually happened.
Instead, Evie had worked hard, and kept her clients happy, and tried to be discreet about her relationship with Natalie. As far as she knew, the firm’s partners were aware they lived together, and both Evie and Natalie’s assistants knew too, but beyond that, Evie had mostly avoided saying who her partner actually was and had left it to people to find out on their own. She assumed some would find out. She assumed there was some gossip, behind closed doors, so she tried not to listen too carefully. Gossip wasn’t unexpected, she thought. She’d known it was likely when she took the job with Natalie, and she might have gone elsewhere if Natalie’s firm hadn’t been the only major one that made her an offer. She’d expected some gossip and envy and resentment, but in the end there hadn’t been much. Everyone at the firm was ambitious and driven, she supposed, and that mattered more than who people’s families were.
In the end, it had been a good year. It had been a busy, exhausting year, but also the best year Evie could remember, because of work, and especially because of Natalie. It had been as perfect as Evie could ever have hoped for, and she was pleased everything seemed to be working out.
*
The first Evie knew the firm was in trouble was when Rachel, her assistant, followed her into her office one morning and said, “We’re safe, right?”
Evie took off her coat and hung it up. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Come on, Evie…”
“I really don’t,” Evie said, thinking about the day ahead.
“Natalie hasn’t said anything?”
“Um, what about?”
“There’s rumours,” Rachel said.
“Yeah, I gave up listening when they were all about me.”
“There’s rumours about redundancies.”
Evie's Job Page 51
