I have to admit, I’m both surprised and relieved. Part of me worried that Matt had already gone behind my back and was waiting for the perfect moment to reveal his treachery. “It’s been days. Since when are you so patient?”
“It was a long drive home from the Poconos.”
“And what? You sat in quiet introspection during rush-hour traffic?”
He snorts. “Not quite.” He reaches for another ball, but I shut the drawer before he can touch it.
“I have an offer you won’t want to refuse.”
“And there it is.” Matt grins, white teeth gleaming with arrogance. He reminds me of Iceman from Top Gun.
Good grief. Cricket really has infected me with her love of mainstream media.
“There’s what?” I ask.
“The reason I didn’t rat you out.” Matt perches on the corner of my desk, still grinning. “Sometimes the predator has to wait for his prey.”
“Am I the prey in this scenario?”
His shoulders lift. “If the glue trap fits. Let’s hear your offer, Thorpe.”
His response takes me aback. “I don’t get it. Why not swoop in with the smoking gun and present it to Riggieri yourself? You get crowned partner, and I look incompetent. A win-win for you.” I have no doubt he took a screenshot of the lien document for safekeeping.
“Maybe I’m curious to see how good of a lawyer you really are.”
“I’m not buying it.”
He heaves a sigh. “Fine. The truth is that, for reasons I’ll never understand, people here like you. They want you to succeed.”
“If that were true, then they wouldn’t have pitted us against each other for partnership. They would’ve just given it to me.”
Matt shakes his head. “This firm doesn’t operate on vibes, you know that. The partners in your corner still need to justify their decision.”
“If you help LandStar get what they want, I think the partners will feel justified promoting you over me.”
“Except if I’m the one who shows them the lien, they’ll ask how I found it.”
“Telling them you found it under my mattress doesn’t exactly make me a shining star.”
“You can explain it away. You were getting ready to take a screenshot when one of the campers knocked on your door. Whatever. There’s no way I can explain my role without coming off as a dick.”
I’m confused. “Since when do you care about that?”
“Like I said, it was a long drive back from the Poconos. I had time to think. Remember Bryan Fitzroy?”
“Of course.” Fitzroy was a partner who died a few years ago. Everybody hated him, including the other partners. People would check his calendar with his assistant and then deliberately schedule parties and other special occasions when they knew he’d be unavailable.
“I like parties,” Matt says simply.
It hasn’t occurred to me that Matt’s actions have been a misguided effort to belong, but I see it now. And, more importantly, I get it.
“You know, one surefire way to not look like the bad guy is to stop acting like one.”
“Which is why I haven’t shared your precious document.” He snaps his fingers in my face. “Keep up, Chuck.”
“How about that? You’re not the Lando I thought you were,” I say. Having watched the entire Star Wars saga from start to finish as part of my penance, I now understand all Lando references.
Matt draws a blank. “The what?”
