The Attorney ✓( A White House occupants prequel)

Chapter Eighteen

2010

Sometimes we make mistakes that we had no idea were mistakes at the time. Take my life for example: I went to school for almost two decades of it, majored in things and took a job I had no idea would turn out this way.

After I left my "interview" that day, all there was left to do was wait. So I sat around my hotel room eating way too much room service and staring at the firm's building across the street, waiting for that damned phone call. When I got it- and they told me I was the most qualified candidate (thank you Noelle), they also said I could start immediately if I wanted.

So I did.

And then they stuck me with corporate tax cases that nobody else wanted because I was the new guy. My first few weeks were spent with a small business, one that was trying to avoid it's share of taxes. It's one thing to not be able to pay, but the owners were just assholes trying to claw their way to the top. You can imagine how that worked out for them in court.

They ended up loosing everything, and as their lawyer- I had to hold back my smile, but it was one of the hardest things I'd ever done. I was only doing it for a paycheck.

I knew I wouldn't be able to choose my cases in the beginning- Sam told me that my first day, I just didn't think I'd still be dealing with this two years in.

  I decided to learn how to drive, since my apartment's a few miles away and I didn't want to pay to use the metro. Oh boy that was fun. I almost killed my instructor, but I slowly got the hang of it- and then got my license and first car just last year, at twenty six.

  So as I pace around my tiny office, avoiding the paperwork that is absolute hell- I let my mind wander back to the first time I drove it. There are no dealerships in New York City. I had to go out to Albany, take the day off, which really pissed Samuel off since I was in the middle of a case, but oh well.

  A woman- the mayors wife I think, walked out in front of my car the same way I used to do, and then I finally got it, because I could have run over her. She was visible, I knew she was there obviously- but it's hard to stop a moving car, something I didn't understand until I got my own.

  I have a lot more respect for people in general now.

  I plop down in my desk chair, trying to adjust it for the thousandth time, but failing. You'd think for such a prolific firm, they could afford to fix the little things, but nooooo. And there are so many little things you don't notice the first time you walk in the building- but start to notice overtime.

  There a small brown spot in the corner of my office that slowly, but steadily drops liquid every time it rains. Most, if not all of the office chairs are creaky (the ones in the waiting areas and supervisors's offices are fine), and the ac breaks at least once a month. I keep telling Samuel I could get one of my brothers up here to fix it permanently but he keeps denying me, says that we'll be fine.

  He won't think it's so funny when the entire roof caves in- or when somebody dies from heat exhaustion during one of those unlucky days, and we, a law firm- get sued.

Watching his reaction to that would be quite comical-

"Joe? Can I talk to you for a second?" I hear a familiar voice just in front of my door. Speak of the devil.

"Yeah, it's open." I put on my fake professional voice.

He emerges through the crack, nosily looking around my office and I want to strangle him, but I don't. I need to pay the bills somehow. God, I wish I had somebody explain to me what a living hell real adulthood is.