by DW Cee
“And you’ve handpicked your granddaughter, a third-year associate to fill your shoes? You know none of the partners will go for that, Roland. Even if you do own majority of the firm, the partners will not be happy.” Donovan wasn’t trying to belittle me in any way, or be mean. He was only speaking as a voice of the partners, and in a large way, he was trying to protect me and Gimpy from an all out revolt. It was true. No one would be happy with me at the helm. And even Gimpy would not flippantly offer me a partnership without the approval of all the other voting partners.
“When I die, this firm will be turned over in equal shares to all five sons and Jake. They will sit on the governing board and David will be the spokesperson for the six of them since he’s also a lawyer. But,” Gimpy emphasized, “a larger share will be given to Jane and..,” while the rest of us knew this story and knew who belonged after the “and,” Donovan had no clue. I could tell Gimpy was wondering whether or not to enlighten Donovan. I wasn’t even sure why he was telling him this info now. Obviously something had changed in the last few days that made Donovan “go after” Laney, whatever that meant.
“And who?” Donovan asked. “Doug? Is he switching over to law school? Or Laney? Did Ms. Mensa get into law school as well?” Our entire table chuckled.
“You know she’s smart enough to have gotten in,” Uncle Henry butted in. “But no, Laney’s not going to law school. You still have no idea?”
Donovan shook his head and answered, “No freakin’ clue.”
“It’s you, you dumbass,” my brother answered and I cracked up. “How long have I been telling you to pursue my cousin? She’s beautiful, brilliant, and the bearer of shares to your law firm.”
“Good one, big bro’.” I high-fived him.
“What the hell is Jake talking about?”
Gimpy answered the question posed to him. “I’d like for you, and eventually Jane, to be the face of the firm when I retire. Of course I’ll still be around even after I retire, but when I die, my hope is that you and Jane will lead Ascot, Ascot, and Pemberly.” Donovan looked shocked. “If Laney accepts you as you think she will, and if you become a part of the family, you will get equal shares as Jane. But, if the relationship doesn’t work out, then you get first choice to buy into those shares.”
“Shit. Seriously?”
“Yeah.” Jake added, “And if it doesn’t work out with Laney and you choose to buy into the company, I’ll make sure you make monthly person-to-person payments to Laney’s future husband.”
We all laughed at Donovan again.
“You sure you can win my baby’s heart?” Uncle Henry slapped Donovan’s back.
“No,” Donovan became glum. “I need to unglue her from this Michael, first.”
“So you get why I’m making the move?” I asked.
“Yeah.” Donovan was now deep in thought.
“And when are you making your moves on my cousin? When did all this come about?”
“The other day—I went and got everyone’s blessings to court Delaney, and I’ll be learning the ropes from Roland out of the London office.”
“That job requires you to travel all over Europe. You won’t be staying put in London the whole time. Come up with a new game plan of wooing my granddaughter while you’re separated from her.”
“I’ll just take her everywhere with me,” he said, looking only for Uncle Henry’s approval.
“You can do whatever it takes, as long as you can look me in the eye and tell me exactly what you’ve been up to, every time I call and ask.”
“Damn,” Donovan muttered. “I guess I’ll have to pull a Jake and Emily in Paris and get double rooms everywhere.”
“Damn, RIGHT!” My uncle called out a bit too loudly.
“Roland has homes everywhere,” I heard Jake whisper to his best friend. “Take advantage of that.”
We all separated and I hadn’t failed to notice that Max didn’t say anything during dinner and even now, he was silently getting ready for bed.
“What’s going on in that mind of yours?” I approached cautiously. This was one aspect of our relationship that irked me. I now thought through everything before bringing it up with Max. We’d lost that spontaneity and sense of ease where I could just blurt out what was on my mind without worrying about what he’d think. In short, I still felt guilty—whether by my doing or by Max’s.
“Just processing all that was said during dinner.”
“And what have you processed? Or maybe I should ask, what did you conclude?”
“First, honest thought...? How we’d have kids with your busy schedule.”
Shit! How does he always do this to me? His comments are out from left field. Whenever I feel like we’ve resolved one problem, there’s another larger one facing us.
“And your answer to this thought?”
“No answer,” was his answer as he led me to bed.
When will we ever have an answer to all our issues?
August 8, 2013 Another Birthday...This Time No Co-prise
So much has happened since Sunday’s dinner, I don’t know where to begin. I guess the best place to begin would be from Monday.
The partner meeting was a lunch meeting, so I had all morning to hang out with Max, or so I thought. We started the morning with a nice little wake up call for Max. “Happy birthday,” I said as soon as I finished him off. I didn’t leave him hanging like that one time at the hospital student lounge. This time, I finished him off nice and clean.
“Thank you.” Max said with a very satisfied grin. “How did you know?”
“How did I know it was your birthday???” I asked surprised. “Ummm...you’re my boyfriend, I’m your dutiful girlfriend. I should know these things.”
He smiled and pulled me back to bed as soon as I finished grabbing the large bag in the corner of the room. “Have we ever talked about my birthday? If we have, you know I don’t celebrate it.”
“Just because I wasn’t with you for your last birthday, doesn’t mean that I don’t know when it is. In fact I have a bunch of presents for you.”
I dumped all the presents on the bed.
“You bought me all this stuff?” He sounded somewhat horrified now. What kind of person didn’t celebrate birthdays? “Sorry,” Max said. “I don’t mean to be such a party pooper. My mom never made much of a big deal out of our birthdays when we were younger, so I guess that kind of stuck with me.”
“Well, as you know, we Reids make a big deal out of everything. And birthdays are a big deal.”
“Where did all these gifts come from?” I handed him the first gift, from his parents.
“Emily gave them to Jake, who gave them to me. Your ex-girlfriend, and my sister-in-law, collected these gifts from everyone and sent them across the country with her husband.”
Max found my sarcasm cute because we ended up making out on the bed and of course, you can’t just make-out on a bed and have it not lead to other, more exciting activities—of the copulating-kind.
“I don’t have to be in till noon today. I’ll make you breakfast, but won’t see you again till your birthday dinner.”
“I have to leave in thirty minutes,” Max countered after looking at his watch. “Shit. I’m late.”
Whaaa? “What, pray tell, are you late to?”
“Your brother’s picking me up and I’m going to listen to him speak.” I gave him a why the hell would you want to go to a medical seminar when you’re in Manhattan, look. “Because, my precious gem, it’s your brother. I’m sure there will be many attendees, but it doesn’t hurt to have as many people fill the conference room. I’m hoping I’ll have to stand because the illustrious Dr. Jake Reid is in the building.”
I picked a winner! This man had goodness written all over him, inside and out. “Did I ever tell you I love you?”
“Not lately.” He frowned.
“Well I do. I don’t know why my eyes would ever stray when I had you with me the entire time.” Now I got a bit sad and weepy. �
�I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I thought anything less of you than almost-perfect. I’m sorry I was so greedy, self-centered, and selfish. I don’t deserve you.” I started bawling, and bawling hard. It truly was a wonder why this man would love me so much when I’ve given him nothing but hell. Sure we’ve had many good days, but the bad ones were generally instigated by me.
“Gem, stop.” He said gently and lovingly as he wiped my tears away. “You are no more flawed than I am. My theory is that if there are things about you that bother me, I assume there are lots of things about me that bother you. Those negate each other.”
“I feel like I messed up so badly. You don’t treat me the same anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s a distance between us, an awkwardness that wasn’t there in the past. You don’t laugh as much with me, you’re uncomfortable with me, and I feel like I have to be so cautious whenever I’m with you now. I can’t spurt out my thoughts like I used to because I think you might dislike me even more.” I don’t know how I got that all out since I was crying so hard, I was doing all the crazy hiccupping, nose-running, face-a-mess business.
Max took off his night shirt and cleaned my face the best he could. “I’m sorry if you felt all that. I won’t lie to you and tell you that our relationship hasn’t shifted. But I still love you the same, and I’m working on being comfortable with myself.”
“I don’t understand. Do you mean you’re working on being comfortable with me?”
“No, I mean exactly what I said. All last month, I’ve been trying to figure out where I went wrong. What did I lack? Why would my girlfriend want the attention of another man?”
I made all kinds of crazy noises as I cried even harder.
“Gem, I’m not trying to make you feel worse. I’m only being honest. I don’t blame you for my shortcomings. Maybe I didn’t pay enough attention to you. Perhaps I didn’t do a good job of telling you how much I love you...I don’t know. But after much thinking, I don’t have any better answer as to how I’ll hold onto you. If I seem moodier than usual, that’s what’s on my mind. It’s my own insecurities. I’m not uncomfortable with you, I don’t want there to be any awkwardness or distance between us, and you are always free to speak your mind with me. That’s one of the complexities of Jane Reid I love most. Just give me a little time. We’ll be better than before.”
How, when I was the one who cheated on him, he found something to blame himself for, I couldn’t tell you. The undisputed fact that reared its ugly head—I was the reason this near-perfect man felt insecure.
“You did nothing wrong. I take all the blame. I know if our roles were reversed, I wouldn’t take you back. And there’d be a hell of a lot of bitterness and anger in my heart. I love you and I’m so very sorry for having stepped away from the security you built for us. I’ve learned my lesson. Please don’t put any blame on yourself. Let’s work on making us stronger than the start.”
“Agreed.” Max’s demeanor relaxed with his growing smile.
“Can I bring out the last elephant that’s hiding on my nightstand?” I pointed to the birthday present that hadn’t been addressed yet.
“That...” I had no idea what was coming next. “I seem to have a repulsion mechanism whenever I have a ring in my possession.” He laughed on his own. “The first girl I attempted to give a ring to, turned it flat down. The second girl threw it back in my face. I possess more diamonds than any man my age.” Now he was laughing even more. “Let’s table this until we are both better prepared.” I had no idea what that meant, and I was super disappointed, but I let it go.
“When will you be back? I have reservations for us for dinner.”
“I don’t think it’ll go later than 3-4:00.” He kissed me one last time and asked, “Are we good? Can I get in the shower and be ready before your brother kicks my ass for making him late to his own seminar?”
“We are good.” And we really were. All this time of reconciling, and this was the first time I felt like the air was completely clear, the chalkboard was blank, the slate was clean!
The partners’ meeting was an eye-opener for me and the partners. They all stared at me when I came into the meeting flanking Gimpy to the left, while Donovan flanked him to the right. There was no stupid man in that room. They all knew Gimpy was married to my grandmother and the cryptic writing was on the wall for everyone to surmise. I sat, listened, and kept my mouth shut the entire time.
“What’d’ya think?” Donovan whispered. While the meeting was done, there were still partners in the conference room speaking with the man who signed their checks.
“You partners get better lunches than we associates.” He laughed and tousled my perfectly coiffed hair. “Hey. I worked hard to look like Alicia Florrick today.” Donovan gave me his trademark what the hell look. “Good Wife?” After a brief while, he dismissed my entire statement.
“You look better than Alicia, whoever the hell she is. All is good with Max now?”
“All is freakin’ good, now.”
“What will you do concerning the firm?”
“Unsure...still need to talk with Gimpy.”
Birthday dinner ended up a surprisingly larger affair than I originally planned. The two of us had a romantic dinner planned at my favorite, Le Bern, but something happened between the time Max left with Jake, and my lunch meeting with Donovan. This was the text I got right before the start of the meeting.
Can you add two more to our reservation?
Yes, I suppose. I’ll call and ask. Who are the other two?
Your brother and the man sitting next to you right now.
Gimpy?
No. Maybe he’s next to Roland.
DONOVAN???
BINGO. CUL8R. <3 U!
What the hell??? I died laughing from the last line of the text, and I looked over at Donovan and he gave me a what the hell look as well. I suppose I’d figure this out later.
“So I’ve kind of made a decision in my mind about what to do concerning this move. I’d love all your opinions,” I addressed the three men at the table. “Max, I should probably talk to you about this first, but since Jake is here, I thought I’d bring it up and see where this leads. But, just know that your opinion weighs the most and I’m not demanding anything. I’m just throwing out what I’ve come up with after talking with Gimpy.”
Before I go on with the rest of the dinner conversation, I should note that Jake didn’t go back home tonight. His seminar was a standing-room only kind of success and the Q&A went so long, Emily convinced him to stay another night and come home the next day. Gimpy had a dinner meeting with the senior, senior partners so he didn’t join us in this celebratory meal.
“Speak. We are all ears.” My brother encouraged.
“I’d like to stay put in LA until you,” I turned to Max so he’d know I was talking about him, “finish your last year of med school. It’s not fair for me to uproot you during your last year.”
“Babe, I don’t mind.” Max put his hand over mine and squeezed it at the dinner table.
“I know you don’t. I love how selfless you are. Laney was right when she said you upped Jake in that category.”
“What???” Jake brought down his glass of wine to address me. “I thought I was Laney’s ideal man.”
“Why the hell is Laney speaking so highly of either of you?” Donovan was even more irked than Jake.
