Everything

VI

I sat at my desk, sipping a steaming hot cup of tea from my favourite mug. The snow was still falling as heavy as ever in New York and the biting chill so common of the season had once again returned.

Being near the end of November, case work seemed to have slowed. The festive period meant disputes were often put on hold as families travelled cross-state and cross-country in order to visit people they hadn't seen in months and even years.

As usual, the season was romanticised. Christmas music had already begun playing in a vengeance and there wasn't much avoiding sales and the usual stuff associated with the holidays.

I, however, was still locked up in the office, going over reams and reams of paperwork that had been dumped on my desk yesterday by Mr Boone, the senior partner of the firm. He seemed very impressed by my move for partner and had been very amiable ever since I'd put in my application. Everyone in the firm said I was practically guaranteed the role, but I was still treading carefully, working hard in an attempt to show my true worth and tirelessly defending my clients to the bitter end.

A'marie, the client I had taken a few weeks back to defend her attack from a police officer, had been released from prison on a two year probationary measure. My arguments coupled with the evidence they had gathered meant that the case was ruled as self-defence, the judge was more lenient, he stated, as her children were so young. The scumbag Officer Bryant had made a recovery from his injuries and that served to help our case. He had been suspended from the force whilst they did further investigation but it looked as if he would be reinstated as a traffic officer. That hurt A'marie more than anything, she said, to know that her attacker was back on the streets and could violate another innocent young woman if he really wanted to. For now, she was focussing on getting her life back on track, taking care of her mother and her children who were still shaken by the experience. I had got onto some more contacts to provide them with a counsellor and it seemed as if things were going right again. I couldn't have been happier for her.

For now, I was the only person bundled up in the office. The annual Attorney's Ball was going on this afternoon and we'd all been allowed to have the morning off in preparation for the large scale event. The Attorney's Ball was the main event in our social circles.

Every year, law firms from across the country were invited to a lavish New York hotel for a party that rivalled many other celebrity events and cost thousands. The ball was like a coming-out party for many young up and coming lawyers. If you wanted anyone to know who you were, what you were about, what you were good at - then the Ball was the perfect place to do so. This ball was therefore super important to me. I'd had my so-called 'coming out' years ago, when I was invited after I had finished my internship and had been given a permanent post. But this? This was making partner and by the end of this evening I wanted to be a household name.

Therefore, I had opted to stay in the office and finish off some case work. Why wait until the new year when I could get so much done now and look impressive?

Planning for the party was a good year in the making. As soon as one finished, preparation for another started and I was always surprised how we had time to organise so much when we had case files coming out of our ears. In the spirit of preparation, my date to the event was Mark Holloway, however, things between us hadn't exactly gone to plan, and so, I had no other alternative but to go alone. My dress had already been bought and this was an event that a potential partner would definitely have to attend and so bailing wasn't even on my radar.

For the last few weeks I had been excessively stressed. My cases were getting harder and harder by the minute and I was branching into areas of law that I'd only just touched on in theory, not believing they could even really be possible. I'd had to bail on Licia and Spencer more times than I could keep track of and despite their worry, I convinced them, and indeed myself, that by the new year, I would have dealt with all the backlog of cases and would be ready to make a fresh start.