Lawyers and their wives

It was a Friday night. Celebrations were in order. David and George’s law firm had just won a huge case – their biggest ever, and it was going to mean great things for them. Normally these things were celebrated within the company, but since the previous month, when the four of them had gone out to dinner together and had such fun, it seemed like a more private celebration would be appreciated too. Most people would refer to these get-togethers as ‘end of the month’, but David and George preferred to think of them as ‘new month’ get-togethers. Always focused on the future, and what’s in store.

David and George had started their business together several years ago, after both finding themselves out of work. Their previous employer had wasted the entire company’s treasury on a three-week-long drink, drugs and sex binge in Mexico, before doing the only sensible thing in his adult life and putting a shotgun in his mouth.

Neither of them had really seen it coming. He had always been compulsive and a little wild, but with his sudden death, their existences had become inextricably linked. They picked up the company’s client base, set up their own company and a week later after a short debate over whose name should go first, Chapman&Newbury Legal Associates was born – an off the shelf, thriving and successful law firm. It was short on cash, but David and George were able to deal with that. A perfectly happy ending – for everyone except their old boss, and frankly, nobody gave a shit about him. That was possibly the saddest part of the whole affair.

That was 5 months ago and they had never looked back. They had worked hard, but not forgotten their wives, and these end-of-month-get-togethers had become a great time to relax together, keep close and talk about anything EXCEPT work. This evening’s dinner was being held at David and Jenny’s house, a comfortable detached property in the South of England, which they liked, but which David still wanted to sell and replace with something bigger in the countryside.

Arriving right on time, at 7.30, George and Rachel were let in, coats taken, cheeks kissed, hands politely shaken for the men, and sat down in the living room with a glass of wine each by 7.32. Rachel and Jenny began chatting immediately about their weeks, their gossip and their houses. David pointed out a few of the changes and repairs he had made around the living room – proud of his DIY skills which were no more than amateur in reality. George smiled as he noticed the slight imperfections in the paint line separating the ceilings pale off-white from the darker barley brown of the feature wall. David was taking home a 6 figure salary now… why couldn’t he just pay someone else to do these things?

Idle chat and pre-weekend winding down was the only item on their agenda, and they were just settling into a nice steady four way natter when the doorbell rang. David answered the door to Gregory. Gregory was a work contact, so knew David and George well. A friendly man, who runs an employment agency and helped them recruit two new legal secretaries and an office junior in the last few months.

“Don’t want to stop, or disturb you, just wanted to pop in…” David always smiled at Gregory’s inability to start a sentence with ‘I’ – just left it off. “Was driving past, saw that George was here too – couldn’t resist just saying hello really – haven’t spoken for a couple of weeks.

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