Andrew Price - Without A Hitch

“Notwithstanding your use, it’s ambiguous. Case in point, did I just say that it’s ambiguous whether you use it or not, or did I say it’s ambiguous except when you use it? Different people will interpret it differently. The word ‘may’ can do the same thing, so use ‘can’ or ‘must’ instead. When you choose your words, make sure you put them in the right order. There’s a huge difference between ‘I badly need to write’ and ‘I need to write badly.’”

“What about substance?” Theresa asked.

“Wilson speaks in buzzwords to hide his ignorance. Use words like ‘the mission,’ ‘goal oriented,’ ‘forward looking,’ and ‘paradigm’ as substitutes for real analysis. Just don’t use too many at once. He’ll probably want to tell a couple of jokes, nothing too offensive, but make sure the punch line leads into the point he’s making. I’d throw in some statistics to give the whole thing an air of thoroughness.”

“I should just give this to you to write.”

“I could be talked into that.”

Theresa tensed up. Her romantic interest in Corbin sometimes resulted in her ascribing particular meanings to otherwise innocent words and phrases. It often took Corbin a few moments to realize they were no longer talking about the same thing.

“What have you got in mind?” she asked, folding her arms tightly. Her leg shook nervously.

“What have you got?” Corbin asked, still unaware of the change in Theresa’s attitude.

“How about a beer at that bar of yours?” she suggested.

Before Corbin could respond, Molly appeared at the office door. Although she could not have missed Theresa’s presence, Molly initially acted as if she didn’t see Theresa. “Hey Corbin, I’m going for coffee, you want to-,” Molly stopped mid-sentence, having “now noticed” Theresa. “ T !” she exclaimed with a false smile. “I didn’t see you.”

Theresa shuddered. “Am I doomed to find you everywhere I go today?” she asked rhetorically, without turning to face Molly.

“You should be so lucky,” Molly responded.

Theresa and Molly kept running into each other all morning. After an initial exchange of pleasantries, each encounter became progressively more combative, with both doing their best to get under the other’s skin. Molly was winning, because Theresa misunderstood the game.

“What can we do for you, Molly?” Corbin asked.

“I just came to see if you wanted to get coffee with me. I know how much you enjoy our chats.” Molly replaced her usual sarcasm with a pleasant, if not downright affectionate manner. This made Corbin suspicious.

“No, it’s pretty close to lunch time.”

“Oh, lunch sounds like a good idea. Where are you going?”

“I’m not sure,” Corbin lied.

Molly walked over next to Corbin. Theresa, still sitting on Corbin’s desk, sat about a foot to Molly’s right. “That’s a fantastic tie,” Molly gushed, as she reached out and stroked the yellow geometric shapes on Corbin’s blue and silver tie. “Where did you get it?”

Corbin saw Molly sneak a peek at Theresa, which told him the reason for her overly-friendly behavior. Flirting didn’t come easily to Theresa. And while she was aggressive in her pursuit of Corbin, one thing she seemed unable to do was make physical contact. For Molly, however, touching was just part of flirting and flirting came easily to her, especially when she didn’t mean it. Rubbing her fingers along Corbin’s tie was intended to taunt Theresa.

“Nordstroms,” he said, retrieving the tie from her hand and leaning back out of her reach.

“It’s really nice. So, what were you saying about lunch?”

“He wasn’t,” Theresa spat out. She wrinkled her brow and folded her arms even tighter.

Molly let her jaw drop and covered her mouth with her hand. She wagged a finger back and forth between Corbin and Theresa. “Oh gosh, did you two. .? I’m sorry, I didn’t know you two already had plans.”

“Drop it!” Theresa warned.

“Drop what, T ? It’s not like everybody doesn’t know.”

“How dare you!”

Corbin jumped up before this could escalate and ushered them toward the door. “Come on, enough!” Corbin put his hands on Molly’s shoulders and guided her through the door first. As he did, behind him, he heard Theresa mumbling something about “big feet” and “limp hair.” In front of him, Molly turned and walked into her office, slamming the door. She was grinning from ear to ear. Corbin turned to eject Theresa, but she moved past him and stormed off down the hallway. Corbin stepped back into the office and closed the door.

With Molly and Theresa gone, Beckett turned on Corbin. Beckett was furious. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

“You’re gonna have to be more specific than that,” Corbin responded tartly.

“You told Theresa you were making fake documents!”

“So what? She didn’t believe me.”

“It’s a stupid risk!”

“She wasn’t even listening to me,” Corbin said, cavalierly dismissing Beckett’s concerns.

“That’s not the point. What if she believed you and turned us in to the cops. That was stupid!”

“Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?”

“It is not ridiculous!” Beckett punched Corbin’s desk. “You accuse me of taking risks, but you’re the one who’s playing around! You see this as some kind of game, a challenge to beat the system. Well, this is no game, and I’m not in this for the challenge! I don’t want fame. I don’t want satisfaction. I am not doing this to prove anything to myself. I’m in this for the money. That’s all I want, the money, and frankly, I’m not even sure that’s worth the price.”

“What price?”

“The moral price. We’re stealing and that’s wrong, no matter what we tell ourselves.”

Corbin shrugged his shoulders. “Hey, if you want to walk, you can walk. If you can’t go through with this, then you’re free to quit.”

“I’m going through with it,” Beckett insisted, “but you need to get serious!”

“‘Serious’?! You think I don’t know how serious this is?!”

“Then stop playing around! There’s no reason to toy with Theresa or Molly. Why tell them things that can come back to haunt us?” Beckett continued to yell.

“Stop overreacting. This is the first thing I’ve ever said to them that even hints at what we’re doing, and the only reason you think they can connect the dots is because you know everything we’ve been up to. They don’t. They don’t even know the dots exist.”

“They can’t connect them now , but what if you end up on trial and they call Theresa? Theresa might be a whacko, but she’s not stupid. What if the prosecutor shows her the fake documents and asks if you ever said anything about making fake documents? Do you think she won’t remember your comment? You may know the theory of the law, but you don’t know jack about how things really happen.”

Corbin threw his hands up. “Fine.” He turned his attention to his computer, but stopped mid-turn. A shadow darkened his face. “I won’t say another word, that’s fine. But let me tell you that you better calm down. I am sick of dealing with your nerves. You were a trial attorney. You’re supposed to be used to dealing with the unexpected, handling disasters, but you’re panicking every other day.” Corbin stood up and pointed directly at Beckett. “You need to get over your fear of what could go wrong and just focus on doing what needs to be done. You’re acting erratically around here and it needs to stop! Do you understand me? It needs to stop! I won’t have it anymore!”

Beckett froze. Corbin made an imposing figure when he was angry, something Beckett had never seen before. Normally, Corbin remained relatively emotionless around work. This was something new. Beckett swallowed hard. They stared at each other. Beckett buckled first.