Her Result

“Oh,” said John processing the statement.  Vivian imagined that he was probably changing  everything he knew about her in his head.  He was turning her into a lesbian.  “I didn’t know that you…”  he cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

“I’m not,” she jumped in.  “Or at least I don’t think I am,” she thought to herself.

“Okay…” John said confused; not really sure what to do next.  “Well it doesn’t really matter I guess.  I mean I’m glad you told me but you didn’t really have to worry about it.”

Vivian allowed herself to be reassured by his words.  She ignored the nagging voice in her head which said that John uses the same tone with his clients.  “Thanks John,” Vivian said sincerely, “and I’ll let you know what happens with the Cotter case.”  She got up and left.  She was hoping to have felt a lot better after telling him but her shoulders felt just as heavy walking out of his office as they did when she walked in.

For the next month Vivian focused on her work.  She avoided John and distanced herself from her colleagues; she even began to see Cecilia less.  She was afraid that even Cecilia couldn’t make her feel better and Vivian preferred to believe that Cecilia was her saving grace.  She pulled away from Cecilia in order to protect her image.  She pulled away from everything and everyone, except for from her work.  Vivian worked harder that month than when she first got hired.  Somehow she knew that succeeding at work would help build her confidence back up.  Even if the partners looked at her like she was a different person, she could always count on her hard work to hold her up.

It was a Friday when John called her into the board room, it was only a couple of hours after Vivian had won the Cotter case.  The D.A. settled like Vivian knew they would and it was satisfying to put another tally mark in her win column.  She opened the board room door and saw four people and knew immediately what was going on.  Kristen, the HR Manager; Chuck, the company attorney; Mitch, a senior partner; and John, the managing partner, all sat on one side of the long 30 foot table.  They invited Vivian to sit on the other side.  As soon as she sat down Chuck began to talk.

“Vivian it has come to our attention that you have not been contributing to the company as much as we would like for you to,” he said.  Chuck continued but Vivian didn’t hear his words, she already knew what they were.  He was an attorney and he knew how to use his words so that she could never come back and refute them.  She stared at John the entire time.  Staring.  Blinking.  Closed lips.  Her expression did not change throughout the entire meeting.  John was a coward and he knew it.  He didn’t return her stare; he rarely even looked in her direction.  She didn’t know what she would do if he did look at her but she didn’t really care anymore.  She just wanted everything to be over, she wanted things to go back to normal.

“Vivian,” Mitch said.  She turned towards him without changing her demeanor.  Mitch continued with a little regret in his voice, “we want you to sign a separation agreement.”

THE END