Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 136

Chapter 136

"I think Joy is a problem time bomb waiting to happen," you said. "I could say more, but I don't have any evidence to back it up so I don't know how far I would want to go."

Garrison put a finger to his temple, frowning. "That's some ominous wording," he said. "And beg some questions."

"Questions I don't think you want the answers to until I can show some proof," you said. "Believe me, I'd like to say you could do something on my word, but I think the world doesn't work perfectly like that."

Garrison nodded. "Well, you're not an idiot. What if I told you that I could only spare the time to mentor one of you, kid?"

You hesitated, options running through your mind. You wanted this, but... it didn't feel right. You'd gotten Garrison's attention mostly by luck. Not only that, but you were feeling like you'd pushed that luck to the limit in the past week with the Gemma and Sabrina situation. If it was a limited resource, your luck tank had to be running on empty.

"I'd say split the time between the three of us," you said. "We all deserve it, and I wouldn't want to deny the opportunity to the others. And if you really don't want to do that, I'd say focus on Sabrina since Gemma is planning to go back home and I assume go to school and work there. Sabrina is going to make an amazing lawyer someday if another industry doesn't swoop in and pick her up to make oodles of money."

"Not you, though," Garrison said. "Why put them over you? You know lawyers are supposed to be cocky, egotistical sons of bitches, right? Every single great lawyer worth their salt thinks they are top shit and deserve the best of the best."

"Oh, I am and I do, sir," you said. "And I can get there. But I still think Sabrina deserves it more, and getting it will help her stick to her ultimate goal instead of veering off into other things. We don't need more investment bankers or hedge fund gurus."

"You're a weird kid, John," Garrison said. "Alright, I'm going to have a special project for some interns soon. I'll keep this conversation in mind. Get back to work."

"Yes, sir. And thank you again, sir," you said.

He was already reading one of the papers on his desk, so you let yourself out.

Holy shit. Holy shit! Garrison was taking a bigger interest in you and the summer interns. You were torn about what you'd suggested. Gemma deserved the mentoring as much as you or Sabrina, but right now she was going to go back home to a different legal system on a different continent. It just made more sense for Garrison to mentor you or Sabrina.

And to be frank, you wanted to give Sabrina a reason to quit OnlyFans in the future. She was raking in cash now, but how long was she going to do it? How long until she had to get riskier for her content to keep up with growth?

How long until she showed her face, or wanted to work with another guy?

You hated that feeling. Maybe, if she could get some mentoring from Garrison, she'd keep her eye on the ball and law school.

And, you had to admit, on you.

Gemma was leaving, and you didn't want that at all. But if Gemma did leave, and you did have to end things...

You sighed heavily trudging down the hall and back to the conference room. There were too many If's going on in your life. If you could survive Bellagamba. If you could catch out Joy. If Gemma. If Sabrina.

Back in the conference room, you gave some reassuring smiles to the girls, moving over to take your seat.

"What was that about?" Joy asked you.

"Um, just a sort of check-in," you said.

"You shouldn't be needing to check in with a Partner," Joy frowned. "You should be checking in with me, and then I'll bring them whatever is going on."

"Whatever you say, Joy," you said, trying to say it as neutrally as possible.

Back at your work spot, you started kicking yourself a bit. You had your chance to throw down the accusations on Joy and get Garrison on your side. You'd seen him take command with her mother, and she hadn't come back to re-fire you. But in your gut you had a feeling that fight would be way different than a fight over Joy.

Especially if it was regarding sexual harassment accusations.

Time proceeded to continue rolling out slowly. It was a painful last couple of hours, split between your mind-numbing work scrolling through sheet after sheet of data and memos and the twisting knots of your own thoughts.

Nothing was clear to you anymore, other than that you were excited to get out of there and go to Sabrina's.

Joy packed up a half hour early and was out of these without so much as a word goodbye. There was so much work going on that even Andy didn't have time to make a comment. You all worked an extra half hour later than usual, but you got the documents done and you and Eric brought them back to the Associate's office while Gemma, Sabrina, and Andy all started packing up.

The office was quiet as you left, and Becks was already gone for the day downstairs.

You kissed Gemma good night outside the office, while Sabrina held your hand and smiled as she watched. Then she pulled you into an uber, wanting to get home quickly.

"I've got a schedule to keep," she said with a grin. "And I'm not going to let a little smooching throw it off today."