But as the days passed, and he heard nothing about any openings in New Jersey, he began to feel a growing sense of desperation. The credit card bills were piling up beyond the point of no return and even hints of a divorce had been made. This was the only reason he considered Corbin’s suggestion. . well, that and he knew if anyone could pull something like this off, it was Corbin. Corbin was one of those rare people who could do anything he set his mind to doing.

Corbin waited silently, but didn’t break his gaze from Beckett’s eyes.

“How do you know so much about credit cards?” Beckett asked.

“When I worked for my uncle’s law practice during law school, I helped him represent a credit card executive who was wrongfully terminated. He laid out all their tricks and tactics, every strength, every weakness, every motivation.”

Beckett returned his eyes to his empty plate for some time. “I’m going to wait for my promotion,” he finally said, though without the certainty with which he usually spoke.

“Fair enough.”

After a quick walk through driving sleet, Corbin and Beckett found themselves back at the office, where they discovered yearly evaluation forms sitting on their chairs. Beckett’s desk sat closest to the door, facing the wall. Corbin’s desk sat behind Beckett, facing Beckett’s back. Both had brown leather chairs with high backs, as did each of the attorneys in the office. Next to each desk sat wooden chairs with padded cloth seats which matched the gray commercial carpet. Filing cabinets lined the wall by the door. A large window spanned the office, looking out over a parking garage several floors below. Sleet struck the window.

Corbin picked up his evaluation form from his seat. Their boss, George Kak, intensely disliked dealing with employees face to face. Hence, he tended to drop off work and things like the evaluations when the employees were out of the office. He also used the time to search desks. These particular forms were blank as Kak always made the employees fill them out themselves before he reviewed them.