"Your mama is a wise woman, and call me Nathan," Mr. Maguire said
as he extended his hand to Jes.
"Now what would your colleagues think if they saw you talking to
me?" Jes asked as she shook his hand.
"Frankly, I don't really care what they would think. It's my name that
adorns the top of this building."
Jes sat up in her chair with a surprised look on her face.
"I guess you have a point," Jes concluded.
"Look at me," Mr. Maguire said, "forgetting the reason that I came
over here."
"Yes, what was your reason for coming over her?"
"First, I need to have you clean out Mr. Edgewater's office. He will no
longer be with us. Secondly, I wanted to know if you would like to have
dinner with me when I return from New York next week."
Jes looked puzzled.
"If you don't mind me asking, why is Mr. Edgewater no longer with the
company?" Jes asked nervously, hoping that Mr. Maguire wasn't asking
her out because he had heard something about she and Marvin.
"No I don't mind you asking," Mr. Maguire said as sat in the empty
chair next to Jes.
"Mr. Edgewater is having some personal health issues
and he felt that it would be in the best interest of the firm if he took a
permanent leave of absence."
"So he wasn't fired?"
"Marvin, hell no," Mr. Maguire chuckled, "he's the best lawyer in this
firm. It would take a whole lot for me to fire him."
"Yeah," Jes began getting irritated, "I guess you have to protect your
investment right?"
"I wouldn't say that. But enough about Marvin are you going to have
dinner with me when I return from New York?
"Nathan, that sounds like fun, but let me get back to you with a more
thought through answer when you return OK."
"That's fine, but don't keep me waiting too long," Mr. Maguire said
with a serious look on his face.
"I won't," Jes said as Mr. Maguire walked away.
Upon the departure of Mr. Maguire, Jes immediately began thinking
about the condition of Marvin. She wondered what the personal health
problem was that would make him request a leave of absence. She
thought that maybe he had been asthmatic or that he had seizures or
even tuberculosis. She thought that maybe he had liver or kidney
failure, but ruled them both out because she knew either of those meant
death.
She thought about him having a heart condition, a weak bladder,
brain damage, a loss of sight or maybe him going deaf. She thought of
him having AIDS, Syphilis, Herpes and all the other sexually transmitted
diseases. She thought that maybe he had Mono-Nucleosis or Spinal
Meningitis. She thought of every illness that she could think of until her
head began to pound. Jes reached for her bag and a compact package of
Tylenol to try and minimized the pounding in her head, when Tanya
walked in from an earlier meeting.