Mariana's Choice

Work, Work, Work

    *As always I appreciate you sticking with me. I've posted and picture of Liz and the song Let Me Go by 3 Doors Down. The song really doesn't have relevance to the chapter, it's just one I particularly like.*

            “Liz thanks so much for picking me up again today. The shop is supposed to deliver my car this afternoon so I won’t have to take advantage of you like I have the past two days.”

            “It’s no problem Mariana, I am happy to do it.” She answered pulling into the underground parking garage of their office building.

Once the car was parked they both got out grabbing their items from the backseat before walking toward the building’s entry. It was Friday, a day Mariana looks forward to every week. She loves her job, but she also loves her personal time. Being a junior partner in a law firm is a little demanding, especially when the majority of her clients are high profile, which meant high maintenance.

Today she has three meetings with clients who want to negotiate their contracts with their respective teams. Simple enough most of the time, but at least two of the three are very nitpicky and tend to drag things out longer than they need to be discussing every single detail and line. It’s nerve racking to say the least, but it does pay the bills.

Most people think that because her mother, Maria, is one of the senior partners that Mariana gets special treatment, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Matter of fact, she knows she gets worked harder because her mother expects so much out of her.  She had to always make sure her grades were top of the class, not just in college but also high school. That left very little time for a social life or friends.

Her father, Michael, works as an investment banker, so she always grew up around people who took their education and careers seriously. Becoming an attorney was always something she wanted to do, but she just feels as though she was pressured to be a certain way or else she wouldn’t be accepted. Her mother wasn’t that bad, but her father who was ex-military didn’t let anything go, ever.

She has an older sister, Marisol who works as a pediatrician in Tennessee. Marisol was smart because she got out of Ohio and stayed out of Ohio, not having to constantly hear their parents berate them for the choices they may or may not be making with their lives. It was definitely a pain in the ass to say the least.

They also have a younger brother, Martin, who didn’t live up to their parent’s expectations at all because he is a baseball coach at one of the high schools in the city. When he said he didn’t want to become a banker and take business courses in college their father went through the roof. They thought for sure he would follow in their father’s footsteps, but Martin was adamant about what he wanted to do. He went to school majoring in kinesiology so he could become a fitness instructor.

She can find a little happiness in the fact that she has her own home and doesn’t depend on them for anything. The only time she sees them is a couple of weekends a month when they have a family dinner. She is close to her mother, mainly because they are very similar in personality and can relate to each other in a certain way they can’t with other people.

            “Do you want me to prepare the Matthews file?” Liz asked as she set her bag on her desk and turned on her desk lamp.

            “Sure, he’s first right?”

            “Yes, he will be here at 10am so you have a little over an hour to get ready.”

            “Great, thanks.”