SHORT STORY/FICTION

The File That Changed Everything

A life-changing day at home

Photo by Laika Notebooks on Unsplash

The morning light from the blinds felt different today. Laura carefully gathered the papers and placed them on the desk. Something about this morning felt unfamiliar, almost unknown to her to this point.

Laura intended to get to the bottom of whatever this feeling was. As she tapped her acrylic nails on the wooden desk and the smell of freshly brewed coffee drifted through the house, she pondered what life would look like after she finished this very important task.

She had pages of documents to review as the firm was allowing her to work from home today. Maybe that’s what this different feeling was. Perhaps it was the unfamiliarity of being at home during the day.

She didn’t have anyone at home to worry about. Her kids are all grown and off being functional adults. She had no partner in her life to speak of, as her work kept her super busy most days, and the father of her three beautiful adult children preferred to spend his time at the strip club instead of in any steady relationship. Her pets were at a friend’s house for the day so she could focus on this without distractions.

If she handled this file well, her life would no longer be the same. This file was much different than the ones she’d previously worked on, and she could feel that. On this day, Laura is working on a client file that would bring the firm millions of dollars and almost assuredly would seal her fate as the new partner.

She had been the senior attorney assigned to the file to ensure not only that all the financial details were locked down but that everything was legally binding and lucrative for all parties involved (including her own). The weight of the pressure started to feel familiar. Now she understood why today felt different.

Today felt like the first day of the rest of her new life as a partner at her law firm. She had always felt underappreciated and overworked. But recently, one of the senior partners announced their retirement, and there was an opening that was perfect for her. The moment she got the file for the biggest client the firm had ever worked with was when Laura realized her life was going to change forever.

This feeling definitely wasn’t doubt, but it was still a mystery. It was something she had never felt before. For the first time in her life, she felt that all of the long nights and incessant late-night phone calls from the office had culminated in this one singular moment.

Laura placed the papers down carefully on her desk, meeting her steady gaze this one last time. The contract. The financial details of the account. And other necessary pieces of information to start the new relationship with the large company that’d decided to do business with the law firm. She was being validated in a big way.

She didn’t dare move her coffee cup to the side of the paperwork, in case of Murphy’s Law, not with this being the only copy, before the deal is finalized. She wasn’t feeling the pressure, but she didn’t want anything to get in her way. She finally realized that this new chapter would feel a lot like this.

She could work from home more often, and she would have more money to travel the world, like she always wanted. It had been many years since her last trip to Europe with her ex-husband and kids, and most of that time was spent doing things everyone else wanted.

Now, if she wanted, she could fly first-class, go where she wanted to go, and decide whether she’d travel solo or not. This moment, these papers, this day at home, all focused her on getting the task done and ensuring that there are no more loose ends.

She sat there and completed the final details, finished her work slowly, yet efficiently, and submitted the final draft by the end of the day. By the time she was ready to relax and just lounge in her living room, she closed her computer and merely uttered, “I could get used to this.”