Searching for Mr. Darcy

Scene Seventy-Four

"What are you going to do, Maze?" Talia asked that evening after Maisie filled her in on the call.

"Honestly, I don't know.  I don't really want to sue.  They fired Roseberg, and he's the only one I had any problems with.  But, and Clay agrees, the severance package and promotion offers make me think they are worried about something.  If there were multiple complaints about him, and no one did anything about it, that helps me and potentially others in a civil suit.  They wouldn't be so generous now if they weren't afraid of losing more later."

"But if you took the severance, that's an entire year off!  You could travel, or take classes, or have your eggs frozen. The possibilities are endless!"

Maisie laughed.  "I don't know about endless, but I do like the idea of traveling.  I haven't had the opportunity to go anywhere yet, and I've always wanted to get out and see the world."

"Oooh - you can buy one of those around the world tickets! You know what I'm talking about?  Airlines offer them so you can literally go to every country."

"I don't know if I'd be able to literally visit every country in the world.  A year's salary wouldn't last a year of traveling.  Eventually I'd have to get another job."

"True, and I don't want you to leave me for that long anyways," Talia teased.  "What does Clay think you should do?"

"He thinks I can probably get a higher settlement if I go through the early motions to sue, but it will cost me because he wouldn't be able to do it for me.  I'd have to use another lawyer at the firm and they'll bill me."

"That sucks - what good is it having lawyer friends if they can't give you free legal work?"

"That's almost exactly what Clay said when he broke the news."

"Really?!"

"I told you you two were a lot alike.  Anyways, he said the other downside to suing is that H&L is a big, national corporation with deep pockets, so they may choose not to settle - they might just bury me in paperwork and wait for me to run out of money."

"I don't like the sound of that."

"Me, neither.  This is all insane.  I shouldn't even be in this position."

"Can you sue Roseberg individually?"

"I don't know.  I doubt it would be worth it, though.  Even if I could get a settlement awarded in my favor, I doubt he'd have the money to actually pay."

****

Laying in bed that night, Dashwood purring at her side, Maisie tried to imagine what she could do with a year off, with no additional income.  She'd be able to take a couple of trips, if she kept to a strict budget the rest of the year.  She could do some knitting - maybe open an Etsy store - but selling handmade pieces could be cost-prohibitive, according to the stories told in her Facebook knitting groups.

What were her other interests?  Reading - but she did plenty of that already - she certainly didn't need time off work for it.  She glanced across the room, to shelves lining the wall, her Austen collection prominent among the display.  What would Austen do? she thought.  Write, obviously.  She'd write the story she wanted.  But Maisie was not a story-teller, and even if she was, she had no idea what she wanted.