Evie's Job

Epilogue 6: Evie [The End]

There were more redundancies at work, as Natalie had warned, although neither as sudden nor as widespread as the first ones had been. Even so, a gloom settled over the firm. Everyone seemed nervous, and quiet, and worried.

People were scared, Evie supposed. She was a little scared. The firm was no longer the place it had been when she began working there, and it wasn’t a good kind of change. The floor Evie' had first worked on had been closed and put up for lease, and the survivors were packed into the floor above, without it even being a squeeze. The finance people suddenly cared a lot more about little things, like wasted printer paper and lights being left on and what could and couldn’t be claimed as a tax deduction. There seemed to be more memos sent around about saving money than there were about clients or the law, which Evie didn’t think was a very good sign. From Natalie, Evie had the sense that things were getting ruthless with the other partners. They were all fighting for their lives, and doing so pretty cold-bloodedly, but when Evie asked if Natalie was all right, she just shrugged and said she did corporate tax, and her department was a significant earner, like Evie’s was, so she’d be fine. Evie found that reassuring.

Life went on. Work was tense, and unsettled, but Evie did her best, and she was happy at home, which was really what mattered. Life went on, and Evie was happy, and she thought Natalie was too. She was happy until, quite suddenly, all the chaos around her became very personal. Far more personal than she had ever expected.

One afternoon, Evie picked up her ringing desk phone, and Meredith said, “Evie, it’s Meredith.”

Evie sat there for a moment. “What the fuck do you want?”

“I know we don’t get along…”

“Then don’t call me, I’d have thought,” Evie said. “And actually, how did you get my number?”

“I didn’t. I asked the receptionist to put me through.”

“She shouldn’t have.”

“Of course she should have. I’m a barrister. I might have wanted you brief me.”

“I still…”

“Evie, stop it. This isn’t the time.”

There was something in Meredith’s tone that made Evie stop. “Fine,” Evie said. “What do you want?”

“Calm down a little, I need to tell you something.”

“I’m calm. What is it?”

“Are you sure?”

“Just fucking tell me,” Evie said sharply.

“Natalie’s being let go. It’s happening right now, so I wasn’t able to warn her, but I thought you should know because she might not take it well.”

“Oh,” Evie said. “Fuck. How do you know?”

“I know.”

Evie thought for a moment, looking at the wall. “You’re not messing with me somehow?”

“Don’t be an idiot. I wanted to warn you.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s all.”

For some odd reason Evie believed it. Because Meredith still cared about Natalie in her own odd way, she supposed. “Okay,” Evie said. “Well, thank you.”

She hung up, and then phoned Natalie’s office, but Natalie’s assistant said she was in with the other partners. It was too late, as Evie had expected, but she’d still had to try. She put down the phone, and sat there a little longer, wondering what to do. She wanted to talk to Natalie, to try and help, and be there for her, but she didn’t want to do it here, at work, with everyone around. She didn’t know how Natalie would react, and what she might need, but she didn’t want to do something public and embarrassing and wrong by dashing upstairs right away.