Chapter Text
“All I’m saying is that I don’t think we’ve made the right decision,” Carla Connor said, frowning at the new sign being put up outside the law firm she was a partner at.
Her business partner was stood beside her. She handed her a coffee from their favourite, local café, Roy’s Rolls.
“What? Saving our business?” Diana ‘Dee Dee’ Bailey asked.
Carla frowned at her, accepting the drink. She sipped it.
“There were other options,” Carla said.
“Not with her expertise, experience and cash,” Dee Dee pointed out.
“Or abrasive personality. Don’t forget that!”
“She wasn’t that bad,” Dee Dee said. “And she was probably nervous!”
“She didn’t seem nervous,” Carla frowned. “She seemed arrogant. Rude, even.”
“Really rude.”
Carla jumped out of her skin at the new voice. She coloured as their newest recruit came to stand beside them, also watching the sign being attached above the front of their office: Connor, Bailey & Swain.
“Shit! I didn’t hear you…” Carla tried.
“Sorry,” Lisa Swain apologised. “I’ll make a noise next time so you can stop bitching about me before I get within earshot.”
“I wasn’t…”
Carla looked helplessly at Dee Dee who shrugged and shook her head.
“Thanks for the help,” she snapped at her friend and colleague.
She turned back to their new partner.
“I apologise,” she said to Lisa. “I just didn’t feel like we got off to the best start.”
“Shame you got yourself into so much shit you had to take me on then,” Lisa replied, striding into the office.
Carla gestured her frustration to Dee Dee.
“I mean, you did ask for that,” her friend replied. “Maybe try and play nicely for the rest of the day?”
“I’m not making any promises!”
She followed Lisa inside, as did Dee Dee.
Dee Dee had had to take a phone call from the nursery about her daughter, Laila, which had left a begrudging Carla to show Lisa round their office.
“So, this is my office,” Carla said, striding from room to room. “Dee Dee’s. This’ll be yours.”
She pushed open the door, which still held the name of their former partner, Paula Martin on the door.
“We’ll get that changed,” she said. “We’ve ordered the name plate. Should be here in the next few days.”
“I mean, don’t go overboard,” Lisa said.
Carla glared at her, leading her through to an open plan area, littered with desks.
“The rest of the team work in here,” Carla said.
“And if they need privacy?” Lisa asked.
“Then there’s a room they can take themselves to,” Carla replied. “Or we give them our offices.”
She strode towards a door. Lisa followed.
“The room,” she said,
“Delightful,” Lisa quipped.
“Me or the room?”
“The room. Definitely the room.”
Easing past her, she led Lisa into a large lounge.
“We used this for our morning meeting. And it acts as staffroom too, for people to chill in on their breaks.”
Last, was a small but functional kitchen.
“Kettle. Microwave. Toaster. Oven. Dishwasher.”
“I’m aware of what all these things are,” Lisa pointed out.
“Great, well, feel free to help yourself to a cuppa tea,” Carla told her. “I’ve got things to do.”
Lisa watched her go. Carla turned back at the door.
“We’ve got a team meeting at nine,” she told her. “You can meet everyone properly.”
“Can’t wait,” Lisa muttered. “Especially if they’re all like you.”
Carla ignored her and headed to her office. Lisa busied herself with making a coffee, rummaging in cupboards to find out where they kept everything.
Carla sat at her desk, sipping the coffee Dee Dee had brought her. She flicked her laptop on in order to go through her emails while the rest of the team filed in.
“Being your friendly self then?” Dee Dee remarked from the doorway.
“I mean, it was me being… friendly, that got us into this mess,” Carla pointed out.
Dee Dee snorted. She moved further into the room and sat in the chair across from Carla’s desk.
“That’s very true,” she said. “Hey, the new girl’s pretty, isn’t she?”
Carla glanced up to check that Lisa wasn’t lurking.
“Kind of, I suppose,” she said without commitment.
“Oh, come off it, Carla! She’s gorgeous!”
“Who’s the lesbian here, me or you?” Carla replied with a laugh.
“You! So, just make sure you keep it in your pants this time,” Dee Dee smirked, standing up. “Once is an accident. Twice is a pattern.”
“Yeah, I don’t see any chance of that happening, don’t worry,” Carla said. “I don’t even like her! And besides, that’s not what happened!”
From the entrance to her room next door, Lisa chuckled to herself. Shaking her head, she moved to sit behind her new desk. A laptop sat on the desk with a charger. She opened it, keen to get it all set up and usable before the team meeting. She didn’t like Carla any more than Carla liked her. Even if she was gorgeous. And they apparently played for the same team.
She wondered what the rest of the staff were like. She had been glad to leave her old firm. She and her ex-wife both worked there and being that Becky had cheated on her, their divorce had been acrimonious to say the least. Now, she only had to speak to her to discuss their thirteen year old daughter, Betsy, whose week was split between the two of them.
Half an hour later, Dee Dee knocked on Lisa’s open door.
“Team meeting’s in five,” she said. “Did you want a tea or anything?”
“I just had a coffee,” Lisa replied, closing her laptop. “Thank you. Do I need to bring this?”
“No, you’re fine,” Dee Dee said. “We’ve got admin staff who take the minutes so we only bring our laptops if we need to share something from them.”
“Great,” Lisa said, standing up.
She followed Dee Dee through the open plan office, to the lounge at the back of the building. Carla was already sat in an armchair with a notepad. Dee Dee sat beside her. Lisa deliberately chose the chair on the other side of Dee Dee instead of Carla. She watched with interest as other members of staff filed in, taking their seats. Lisa worried for a moment that she might have taken someone’s chair but if that was the case then nobody said anything.
“Right, everyone,” Carla said, calling the meeting to order. “As you’ll have noticed, we’ve got a new member of the team here today. Everyone, this is our new Partner, Lisa Swain.”
Everyone said hello. Carla introduced Lisa to everyone one by one.
“This is Adam Barlow,” she said. “Alya Nazir. Joel Deering. Daniel Osbourne. Sarah Platt. Kit Green. And this is our Admins, Sally Metcalfe, Hayley Cropper, Nick Tisley and Toyah Battersby. Sally’s your new PA.”
“Please to meet you all,” Lisa said to them.
They all returned the sentiment.
“Right,” Carla said brightly. “Let’s look at this agenda, shall we? Now we’ve got that out of the way.”
Next time... Carla shows Lisa the ropes...