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smackenzieStella picked that time to return with dinner, effectively ending any more awkward sex talk. Val decided he'd rather have sex than talk about it.
Fortunately for his stomach, the other two would rather eat dinner than do pretty much anything else. Stella gave Aidan grief for not setting the table, Val admitted he didn't mind eating out of the containers either, Stella gave him grief for not having any manners, and they ended up sitting in the living room, Aidan on the floor and Stella and Val on the couch, MST3K-ing the hell out of the remake of House of Wax while they ate.
It was fun. It was just like hanging out with your friends, and not so much like hanging out with two people who you were suddenly dating, with rules and everything. Val relaxed and almost made Stella choke on her rice from laughing when he made a rude joke about Paris Hilton's death scene, which was apparently a point in his favor as a boyfriend.
"I didn't know you had it in you," she laughed, when she could breathe again.
"Aidan's a bad influence," he said simply.
Aidan snickered and said "I can do better than that. Just wait."
When the movie was over, they read their fortune cookie fortunes in the traditional manner, by adding "in bed" to the end of each one, and packed up the leftovers. Stella made tea. Val declined. Aidan made a face. She called them both unsophisticated heathens in a fake-snooty voice. Aidan agreed. Val said of course he was a heathen, he worked for lawyers.
Eventually it got late enough that he had to go home, so Stella put her shoes and jacket back on and drove him back to his place. She asked him what he wanted for dinner on Tuesday and when did he want to go on his date with Aidan, and he said he didn't care about dinner and didn't know what to do about the date, and could they talk about something else. So they did.
"You worry too much," she said, as she pulled up in front of his building. "Aidan and I both want this to work out. We're ready to work for it. We're not going to let you go that easy." She grinned at him. "Trust me, ok? Trust yourself."
"I'll try."
"There is no try. There is only do." She giggled and beckoned with a finger. "Come here." Val leaned across the seat. Stella unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned towards him, lifting her hand to cup his cheek and guide his face to hers for a kiss.
Val was unprepared to get tongue in the front seat of Stella's SUV, so unprepared that he kissed back. He put his hand on the seat to balance himself and pushed back when she deepened the kiss, almost unconsciously trying to take control of the situation. But Stella held the kiss just as long as she wanted and then broke off when she was ready. She brushed his bottom lip with her thumb and smiled gently at him.
"I still promise to stop or go slower if you want me to," she said. "But you have to tell me, or I'll keep pushing."
"Ok."
"You're not a bad kisser. But you should do it more often." She ruffled his hair and gave him a push. "Now go home. We'll see you Tuesday. Well, Aidan will see you tomorrow. I'll see you Tuesday."
"Ok. Thanks." He wasn't sure what he was thanking her for - dinner, the ride home, the conversation in her and Aidan's kitchen. Maybe the kiss. Maybe everything.
"No problem. Good night, Val."
"Night." He got out of the SUV and went inside the building and up to his apartment, where Kirk was cleaning up in the kitchen and there was a voicemail from Val's mom, who just wanted to say hi. He figured he'd call her in the morning.
Val slept surprisingly well, considering the new things he had to think about, and Monday morning he skipped the swimming so as to get to Caswell Velez Malcolm and Simonson early, like Catherine wanted him to do. He figured he'd pissed her off and needed to get back on her good side, although he wasn't sure what good it would do him, so he was early to work in order to get as much done as possible.
He probably should have had his morning swim, though, because about halfway through the day he took complete leave of his senses and quit his job.
He would never be able to say later what did it, what pushed him over the edge. Something Catherine said, or something Greg said, or something they asked him to do that he'd already done or that wasn't his job to do in the first place. Maybe Ira left him another interesting project. Maybe Theo wanted more of his time. Maybe Chad just looked at him sideways. He'd never be able to explain.
All that mattered was that something snapped and suddenly Val was tired of putting in long hours at thankless tasks for people who weren't even going to acknowledge that he'd done anything for them. He was tired of busting his ass for other people's projects. He was tired of not getting credit and giving up his nights and weekends and he was tired of dealing with Catherine and all the other lawyers who thought that they had a right to demand more of your time than you actually had to give.
In the end, the only thing he'd remember clearly was looking straight at Catherine - she was on the tall side for a woman and she liked to wear ridiculously high heels, and Val wasn't short but most days he could look her in the eye, and that was a little disconcerting for him but exactly the effect she was going for - and telling her "I'm not doing this any more. I quit."
He handed her the stack of books and binders that he'd been carrying and went back to his desk and opened up his email.
To: aidan.mcinerney@cvmslaw.com, chad.moss@cvmslaw.com, sarbor@sheridanschool.org
From: valentine.brody@cvmslaw.com
Subject: oh shit
I lost my mind and quit my job. If you never see me again, Catherine took my head.
Val figured Chad at least knew by now, because Catherine would have told him, but he wanted Chad to hear it from the horse's mouth as well.
His phone rang. He let it and went to HR. He didn't think he could take back what he'd said to Catherine, but more importantly, he didn't think he wanted to. He had to have some control over something, and while this was probably a really stupid way to take it, he was still kind of relieved that he was done with this place.
The girls in HR asked him a bunch of questions about why he quit, what was he going to do now, had anyone harassed him or made him uncomfortable, did he give two weeks notice, did he realize he'd lose his health insurance when they sent him his last paycheck, and did he also realize he couldn't apply for unemployment? Well, he could, one of the girls confided, but he wouldn't get it.
"I didn't give two weeks notice," he said. "I just quit. Would they want me to stay?"
"Probably not," admitted the girl who'd mentioned the unemployment. He thought her name was Melissa. He'd never had to deal with her before, and she'd started working at the law firm after he'd been hired. "So today's going to be your last day?"
"Yeah, I guess. Yeah. Today's my last day."
They made him sign some forms and turn in his key card and said they'd have to call IT, so after today he wouldn't be able to access his work email or get on the network. He said that was fine, it made sense, he had another account anyway, and then he went back to his desk.
He picked up his phone to see if whoever had called before had left a voicemail, and it was Ira asking if Val had had a chance to look at the stuff he'd left last week.
"I didn't have a chance, I'm sorry," Val said. "I, um, I quit. Today."
"What?" Ira demanded. "Why? You had such a bright future here!"
"I don't think I had any future here." He hadn't realized he honestly believed that until he said it, and now that he had, it seemed obvious. "I really liked working for you, though, and I appreciate all the work you sent me. Thanks for letting me do it."
"What are your plans now? Another firm? School?"
"I don't know. Shit. I have no idea."
"If you want a recommendation, I'd be pleased to write one for you."
"Thank you. Really, thank you. I should get off the phone. I'm pretty sure I should be doing something but I don't know what."
"Good luck with whatever you decide to do.'
"Thanks."
He hung up. Aidan had already emailed him back. Val was a little surprised he hadn't called, although maybe this was Aidan's idea of keeping a secret and not spreading gossip.
To: valentine.brody@cvmslaw.com
From: aidan.mcinerney@cvmslaw.com
Subject: oh shit
WHAT THE HELL, MAN. ARE YOU SERIOUS? WHAT DID CATHERINE DO TO YOU???
To: aidan.mcinerney@cvmslaw.com
From: valentine.brody@cvmslaw.com
Subject: caps lock!
Take off your caps lock! Catherine didn't do anything more than usual. I don't know why I did it. I'm tired of working here.
To: valentine.brody@cvmslaw.com
From: aidan.mcinerney@cvmslaw.com
Subject: OK, OK
when a man is tired of caswell and etc. he is tired of life. Look, Ma, no caps lock. :) You're a crazy sonofabitch, Valentine Brody. What are you going to do now? Are you still coming over Tues?
To: aidan.mcinerney@cvmslaw.com
From: valentine.brody@cvmslaw.com
Subject: OK, OK
I'm still coming over on Tuesday. :P Don't call me Valentine. I don't know what I'm going to do. I think I just screwed myself over. If you're going to make a joke about screwing, don't.
He started packing up his desk, figuring if this was his last day he should get his stuff together - he had no idea if security would escort him out, like they'd done when the partners fired one of the criminal lawyers after having discovered some particularly nasty and illegal things the guy had done, but he didn't want to risk it. It wasn't that Val had a lot of important things in his desk that he could take with him, but he didn't want to forget anything that was actually his or that he thought he might need in the future.
Five minutes later Chad showed up at his desk.
"What did you do?" Chad demanded.
"I quit?"
"Yeah, I heard that, but why? Catherine gave all your work to me. I hate you."
"Shit, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking."
"I know that. Jesus." Chad huffed an angry breath. Val really did feel bad for him, and he really was sorry, but he couldn't go back to HR and tell them he wanted his job back, and he couldn't quit because he didn't want Chad to be overworked.
"What did she say?"
"Catherine? Just that you quit at a critical juncture and she'd make sure you never worked for another law firm again."
"Really? Shit."
"She said if she'd known you were this unreliable, she never would've given you the opportunity to help her."
"It wasn't a great opportunity and she knows it. You know it too." Val wondered what he should do with the "interesting project" Ira had dropped off last week. He should probably return all the material Ira had left for him. "It's a lot of grunt work for no reward."
"Yeah, I know." Chad sighed. "Well, hell. Maybe I'll quit too. We can go on unemployment together."
"HR said I can't claim it, since I wasn't fired or let go or downsized or whatever they call it. I just quit on my own. I should probably go say goodbye to people. Theo, at least." Chad snickered. "Oh, shut up. I was doing some work for him too. Ugh, this sucks. What was I thinking?"
"I don't think you were thinking. Look, give me a call sometime, we'll go out for a beer or something. I'll bring a date, she can bring a friend. Or you can bring a friend." He grinned. "Maybe Aidan will go with you, now that you won't get to see him every day."
Val had absolutely no intention of telling Chad that he would in fact be seeing Aidan tomorrow night, and again at some unspecified time in the future when they were supposed to be going on an actual date. He briefly considered it, but no, Aidan still had to work here even if Val didn't, and Val wasn't going to do or say anything that would make it hard for him.
"Good luck, man," Chad said, holding out his hand. Val shook it. "Here's to better days with fewer lawyers."
He went off to do his thing and Val went to say goodbye to the few people he'd actually miss, as well as the lawyers he'd done any significant amount of work for. All he told people was that he was getting overworked and burned out, and he needed to do something else before he turned into a bitter, angry lawyer. It wasn't even really a lie.
Aidan caught up with him outside Theo's office, but all he said was "We'll see you tomorrow night" and "I don't think that was the stupidest thing you've ever done" and, very quietly, "Don't worry, everything will be fine".
A security guy showed up at Val's desk and escorted him out of the offices, and that was by far the weirdest thing that had happened to Val in months, weirder even than learning how Stella and Aidan really felt about him. It was weird and uncomfortable, because some people stared, and Val hated being stared at. He wasn't a criminal. He was just tired of being a law clerk, and he didn't think he wanted to be a lawyer any more.
But maybe quitting his job with no prior warning and no other plan wasn't a particularly smart way to demonstrate that.
words: 2370
total words: 30,413
Fortunately for his stomach, the other two would rather eat dinner than do pretty much anything else. Stella gave Aidan grief for not setting the table, Val admitted he didn't mind eating out of the containers either, Stella gave him grief for not having any manners, and they ended up sitting in the living room, Aidan on the floor and Stella and Val on the couch, MST3K-ing the hell out of the remake of House of Wax while they ate.
It was fun. It was just like hanging out with your friends, and not so much like hanging out with two people who you were suddenly dating, with rules and everything. Val relaxed and almost made Stella choke on her rice from laughing when he made a rude joke about Paris Hilton's death scene, which was apparently a point in his favor as a boyfriend.
"I didn't know you had it in you," she laughed, when she could breathe again.
"Aidan's a bad influence," he said simply.
Aidan snickered and said "I can do better than that. Just wait."
When the movie was over, they read their fortune cookie fortunes in the traditional manner, by adding "in bed" to the end of each one, and packed up the leftovers. Stella made tea. Val declined. Aidan made a face. She called them both unsophisticated heathens in a fake-snooty voice. Aidan agreed. Val said of course he was a heathen, he worked for lawyers.
Eventually it got late enough that he had to go home, so Stella put her shoes and jacket back on and drove him back to his place. She asked him what he wanted for dinner on Tuesday and when did he want to go on his date with Aidan, and he said he didn't care about dinner and didn't know what to do about the date, and could they talk about something else. So they did.
"You worry too much," she said, as she pulled up in front of his building. "Aidan and I both want this to work out. We're ready to work for it. We're not going to let you go that easy." She grinned at him. "Trust me, ok? Trust yourself."
"I'll try."
"There is no try. There is only do." She giggled and beckoned with a finger. "Come here." Val leaned across the seat. Stella unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned towards him, lifting her hand to cup his cheek and guide his face to hers for a kiss.
Val was unprepared to get tongue in the front seat of Stella's SUV, so unprepared that he kissed back. He put his hand on the seat to balance himself and pushed back when she deepened the kiss, almost unconsciously trying to take control of the situation. But Stella held the kiss just as long as she wanted and then broke off when she was ready. She brushed his bottom lip with her thumb and smiled gently at him.
"I still promise to stop or go slower if you want me to," she said. "But you have to tell me, or I'll keep pushing."
"Ok."
"You're not a bad kisser. But you should do it more often." She ruffled his hair and gave him a push. "Now go home. We'll see you Tuesday. Well, Aidan will see you tomorrow. I'll see you Tuesday."
"Ok. Thanks." He wasn't sure what he was thanking her for - dinner, the ride home, the conversation in her and Aidan's kitchen. Maybe the kiss. Maybe everything.
"No problem. Good night, Val."
"Night." He got out of the SUV and went inside the building and up to his apartment, where Kirk was cleaning up in the kitchen and there was a voicemail from Val's mom, who just wanted to say hi. He figured he'd call her in the morning.
Val slept surprisingly well, considering the new things he had to think about, and Monday morning he skipped the swimming so as to get to Caswell Velez Malcolm and Simonson early, like Catherine wanted him to do. He figured he'd pissed her off and needed to get back on her good side, although he wasn't sure what good it would do him, so he was early to work in order to get as much done as possible.
He probably should have had his morning swim, though, because about halfway through the day he took complete leave of his senses and quit his job.
He would never be able to say later what did it, what pushed him over the edge. Something Catherine said, or something Greg said, or something they asked him to do that he'd already done or that wasn't his job to do in the first place. Maybe Ira left him another interesting project. Maybe Theo wanted more of his time. Maybe Chad just looked at him sideways. He'd never be able to explain.
All that mattered was that something snapped and suddenly Val was tired of putting in long hours at thankless tasks for people who weren't even going to acknowledge that he'd done anything for them. He was tired of busting his ass for other people's projects. He was tired of not getting credit and giving up his nights and weekends and he was tired of dealing with Catherine and all the other lawyers who thought that they had a right to demand more of your time than you actually had to give.
In the end, the only thing he'd remember clearly was looking straight at Catherine - she was on the tall side for a woman and she liked to wear ridiculously high heels, and Val wasn't short but most days he could look her in the eye, and that was a little disconcerting for him but exactly the effect she was going for - and telling her "I'm not doing this any more. I quit."
He handed her the stack of books and binders that he'd been carrying and went back to his desk and opened up his email.
To: aidan.mcinerney@cvmslaw.com, chad.moss@cvmslaw.com, sarbor@sheridanschool.org
From: valentine.brody@cvmslaw.com
Subject: oh shit
I lost my mind and quit my job. If you never see me again, Catherine took my head.
Val figured Chad at least knew by now, because Catherine would have told him, but he wanted Chad to hear it from the horse's mouth as well.
His phone rang. He let it and went to HR. He didn't think he could take back what he'd said to Catherine, but more importantly, he didn't think he wanted to. He had to have some control over something, and while this was probably a really stupid way to take it, he was still kind of relieved that he was done with this place.
The girls in HR asked him a bunch of questions about why he quit, what was he going to do now, had anyone harassed him or made him uncomfortable, did he give two weeks notice, did he realize he'd lose his health insurance when they sent him his last paycheck, and did he also realize he couldn't apply for unemployment? Well, he could, one of the girls confided, but he wouldn't get it.
"I didn't give two weeks notice," he said. "I just quit. Would they want me to stay?"
"Probably not," admitted the girl who'd mentioned the unemployment. He thought her name was Melissa. He'd never had to deal with her before, and she'd started working at the law firm after he'd been hired. "So today's going to be your last day?"
"Yeah, I guess. Yeah. Today's my last day."
They made him sign some forms and turn in his key card and said they'd have to call IT, so after today he wouldn't be able to access his work email or get on the network. He said that was fine, it made sense, he had another account anyway, and then he went back to his desk.
He picked up his phone to see if whoever had called before had left a voicemail, and it was Ira asking if Val had had a chance to look at the stuff he'd left last week.
"I didn't have a chance, I'm sorry," Val said. "I, um, I quit. Today."
"What?" Ira demanded. "Why? You had such a bright future here!"
"I don't think I had any future here." He hadn't realized he honestly believed that until he said it, and now that he had, it seemed obvious. "I really liked working for you, though, and I appreciate all the work you sent me. Thanks for letting me do it."
"What are your plans now? Another firm? School?"
"I don't know. Shit. I have no idea."
"If you want a recommendation, I'd be pleased to write one for you."
"Thank you. Really, thank you. I should get off the phone. I'm pretty sure I should be doing something but I don't know what."
"Good luck with whatever you decide to do.'
"Thanks."
He hung up. Aidan had already emailed him back. Val was a little surprised he hadn't called, although maybe this was Aidan's idea of keeping a secret and not spreading gossip.
To: valentine.brody@cvmslaw.com
From: aidan.mcinerney@cvmslaw.com
Subject: oh shit
WHAT THE HELL, MAN. ARE YOU SERIOUS? WHAT DID CATHERINE DO TO YOU???
To: aidan.mcinerney@cvmslaw.com
From: valentine.brody@cvmslaw.com
Subject: caps lock!
Take off your caps lock! Catherine didn't do anything more than usual. I don't know why I did it. I'm tired of working here.
To: valentine.brody@cvmslaw.com
From: aidan.mcinerney@cvmslaw.com
Subject: OK, OK
when a man is tired of caswell and etc. he is tired of life. Look, Ma, no caps lock. :) You're a crazy sonofabitch, Valentine Brody. What are you going to do now? Are you still coming over Tues?
To: aidan.mcinerney@cvmslaw.com
From: valentine.brody@cvmslaw.com
Subject: OK, OK
I'm still coming over on Tuesday. :P Don't call me Valentine. I don't know what I'm going to do. I think I just screwed myself over. If you're going to make a joke about screwing, don't.
He started packing up his desk, figuring if this was his last day he should get his stuff together - he had no idea if security would escort him out, like they'd done when the partners fired one of the criminal lawyers after having discovered some particularly nasty and illegal things the guy had done, but he didn't want to risk it. It wasn't that Val had a lot of important things in his desk that he could take with him, but he didn't want to forget anything that was actually his or that he thought he might need in the future.
Five minutes later Chad showed up at his desk.
"What did you do?" Chad demanded.
"I quit?"
"Yeah, I heard that, but why? Catherine gave all your work to me. I hate you."
"Shit, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking."
"I know that. Jesus." Chad huffed an angry breath. Val really did feel bad for him, and he really was sorry, but he couldn't go back to HR and tell them he wanted his job back, and he couldn't quit because he didn't want Chad to be overworked.
"What did she say?"
"Catherine? Just that you quit at a critical juncture and she'd make sure you never worked for another law firm again."
"Really? Shit."
"She said if she'd known you were this unreliable, she never would've given you the opportunity to help her."
"It wasn't a great opportunity and she knows it. You know it too." Val wondered what he should do with the "interesting project" Ira had dropped off last week. He should probably return all the material Ira had left for him. "It's a lot of grunt work for no reward."
"Yeah, I know." Chad sighed. "Well, hell. Maybe I'll quit too. We can go on unemployment together."
"HR said I can't claim it, since I wasn't fired or let go or downsized or whatever they call it. I just quit on my own. I should probably go say goodbye to people. Theo, at least." Chad snickered. "Oh, shut up. I was doing some work for him too. Ugh, this sucks. What was I thinking?"
"I don't think you were thinking. Look, give me a call sometime, we'll go out for a beer or something. I'll bring a date, she can bring a friend. Or you can bring a friend." He grinned. "Maybe Aidan will go with you, now that you won't get to see him every day."
Val had absolutely no intention of telling Chad that he would in fact be seeing Aidan tomorrow night, and again at some unspecified time in the future when they were supposed to be going on an actual date. He briefly considered it, but no, Aidan still had to work here even if Val didn't, and Val wasn't going to do or say anything that would make it hard for him.
"Good luck, man," Chad said, holding out his hand. Val shook it. "Here's to better days with fewer lawyers."
He went off to do his thing and Val went to say goodbye to the few people he'd actually miss, as well as the lawyers he'd done any significant amount of work for. All he told people was that he was getting overworked and burned out, and he needed to do something else before he turned into a bitter, angry lawyer. It wasn't even really a lie.
Aidan caught up with him outside Theo's office, but all he said was "We'll see you tomorrow night" and "I don't think that was the stupidest thing you've ever done" and, very quietly, "Don't worry, everything will be fine".
A security guy showed up at Val's desk and escorted him out of the offices, and that was by far the weirdest thing that had happened to Val in months, weirder even than learning how Stella and Aidan really felt about him. It was weird and uncomfortable, because some people stared, and Val hated being stared at. He wasn't a criminal. He was just tired of being a law clerk, and he didn't think he wanted to be a lawyer any more.
But maybe quitting his job with no prior warning and no other plan wasn't a particularly smart way to demonstrate that.
words: 2370
total words: 30,413
