Pete's Pub

Things had been better then. Her father William was eager to prove to the world that he could succeed, and once out of school, he set out to tame it. It was a time of hope, of possibilities, after the struggles of making it through college while they lived only on his wife's waitressing job as she often worked 50 or 60 hours per week to keep food on the table. They had married young, William and Kate, and became parents not long after. With the help of family and friends, they stood together on the threshold of better days.

Only it never happened. William had the unfortunate bad luck to graduate with a degree in a time of national recession. Nobody was hiring in his field, and the few that were getting jobs had far more experience than he did. He ended up in a string of unsuccessful service-type jobs, not using the skills he had learned in college. His attitude became surly, which did not lend itself well to working for others. He started to get fired on a regular basis – in fact, the longest run of employment he had at one location was only six months.

It was also about this time when he began to abuse alcohol. He had enjoyed the party life in high school and college up until he got married. To his credit, after that point, he gave it up – well, mostly gave it up. He still would indulge on a weekend or so every month, hanging out with friends and watching games on TV. But with the bad luck in the job market and the frustrations with his employment record that followed, compounded by the challenges of supporting a young family, providing for their needs just became too much.

Kate did all that she could. She tried to help out with odd jobs here and there while still maintaining her new role as mother to Sarah. She tried to cheer William up, but most of the time there was little reason for cheer. She was basically trapped in her own little world of worry and fear – the fear of not knowing when there would be any reason to hope for a better life.

The first night William did not come home from work right away should have been the warning sign for Kate, but she preferred to believe things would get better. That first night, William stumbled in drunk after 9:00 p.m. and demanded to know why supper wasn't on the table. As Kate tried to explain that it had been when he was supposed to be home at his normal 6:00, he flew into a rage and hit her for the first time. Fortunately, Sarah had already been put into bed. It was something a 4-year-old child should never have to see.

Unfortunately, there were other opportunities for Sarah to witness the abuse, and to see her dad screaming terrible insults at her mom while she cowered in the corner, helpless to help her mom out. William never took his anger out physically on his daughter, but she bore a large part of the emotional pain he was dishing out on his wife. As Sarah distanced herself from her father, she and her mother became close, finding love in each other's arms as they huddled against the tirades that were becoming all too regular.

Finally it boiled over. It started out as a typical outburst from William, coming home drunk again. Needing less and less reasons to get upset, he burst into the kitchen where Kate was setting the table for supper. His anger did not cool, and eventually he knocked over the table, breaking a couple of glasses in the process. He picked up one of the shards of broken glass and moved over to where Kate had shrunk back into the corner of the room. He held it up to her neck, as if waiting for her to make a move to try and escape, but Kate stood still, and eventually William dropped the glass, turned and walked out of the house. That was the last time Kate would see him.

Sarah had seen this final attack, and after her dad left, she ran over and into her mother's arms. Together they cleaned up as best as they could. Kate called a friend and asked if she and Sarah could come and spend a couple of days with her while they sorted out their lives. They quickly packed their suitcases full of the few clothes they had and waited until her friend came to pick them up. From that point on, Kate and Sarah's new life had begun – without the fear of the abusive William, but with the knowledge that things would never be easy again.

They eventually ended up staying with Kate's parents for a couple of years, before putting together enough money to afford a deposit on a little two bedroom apartment close to both Kate's restaurant where she worked and Sarah's school. Kate was fortunate to get a day shift at the restaurant, working 7:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. 4 days per week. On those days, she would take Sarah with her and see that she got away to school from the restaurant by 7:45. After school she would walk back to the restaurant and sit at a little table in the kitchen doing homework until Kate got off work.

Kate also picked up a couple of part time jobs to work on the days she wasn't at the restaurant. She did very little for herself, preferring to make sure Sarah had the things she needed for school. It was about this time that Sarah realized how much hard work Kate was putting in for her, and Sarah vowed to do whatever it took so be successful on her own. She figured out her mom was in this position because she had sacrificed her own dreams for those of her husband, and was now paying a heavy price when his dreams crashed to the ground.

Sarah was always a good student in school, but by middle school, she made up her mind that being good wasn't good enough. She would stop with nothing more than the best. While other girls were enjoying the social aspects of teen living, Sarah was glued to a textbook, not wanting to miss even a single question on a test. Her hard work and dedication paid off. By the time she was set to graduate high school, she had earned a full academic scholarship from the state university nearby. With awards and grants from other sources, she was going to be able to be a four-year student free of charge – tuition, room and board and books all covered.

It wasn't that she couldn't attract the attention of boys. She had been blessed with some of her mom's natural beauty features, even though in a similar fashion, her mom never really brought those features out. Sarah had grown to 5'10" in height, and had a slim build with long auburn hair that when let down, flowed to mid-back level. But her hair was nearly always up, as a way of hiding her femininity from the young men who would try to pursue her as a potential love interest. She had no time for that. They would just get in the way of achieving her goals.

It was as a senior in high school that Sarah had set her sights on being a lawyer. Of course to her, the perfect scenario would be to work in the area of women's rights and concerns. But true to her nature, she wanted to attack the world of corporate law first. She applied for and was easily accepted into the prestigious Williams School of Law. It was there that she was handed the first disappointment of her academic career – finishing second in her graduating class, a mere percentage point behind the young man that had been her academic rival throughout her time at Williams. Despite her less than number one ranking, she had secured one of three available junior associate positions at the prestigious law firm of Banks, Howell and Howell. Known for their work in both foreign and domestic trade fields, Sarah had been hired to work on the domestic side of the firm, dealing primarily with contract and trade negotiation agreements. She would rarely see the inside of a courtroom, that job reserved for the senior associates and partners. But she hoped the experience she was gaining would be invaluable later on as she considered the options that would await her.

In all of her success, she prided herself that she had overcome the problems that life had handed her. She and her mother had an incredibly close bond, although even that bond had been somewhat strained lately, given the amount of time Sarah spent working. Sarah tried to assuage the guilt of spending so much time on her career by helping her mom out financially from time to time – not because her mom requested it, and not because Sarah felt obligated to send it. Sarah just remembered the times growing up that they did without the things other families had because of their financial limitations, and since she could help her mom out now, she did so because she deserved to have an easier life.

But the most pressing reason for Sarah's desire to succeed was aimed at the absence of her father in her life. Even before he left, it was like he wasn't there. When he wasn't out drinking, he pretty much kept to himself, never acting the role of father that Sarah so desperately wanted and needed. Sarah turned that absence – combined with the abuse when he was there – into a hatred that eventually clouded her opinion of most of the males she encountered. It wasn't her intention to be that way. But anytime she experienced what she felt to be gender discrimination – which wasn't all that uncommon throughout her rise to where she was today – served to deepen the disdain she had for the male species, to the point that even at B H&H, she inwardly held contempt over her male colleagues and supervisors.

At this point in her life, there was simply no place for men. She had no interest in a social life, and she felt her male colleagues were nothing more than obstacles to overcome on her way to the top. Her mom had told her many times that not all men were out to prevent her from achieving success, and even her own father at one time had been gentle and loving. But Sarah didn't want to hear those words, so her unrelenting drive to succeed continued to be fed by the disdain of the men with whom she grudgingly interacted.

******

Those thoughts were far from her mind as she took her seat on the 8:15. One of the benefits of waiting so late to go home was that the train was far less busy than three hours earlier. Sarah scanned the car quickly, seeing just 10-12 people on a car that normally would hold upwards of 50.

As the train pulled away from the station, she turned her head and took one last look at the pub where she had spent the past hour. If someone had been sitting across from her, they might have noticed a small smile escape Sarah's lips as she recalled the cozy atmosphere of the pub and the welcoming demeanor of its' owner and bartender. She smiled even more when she reminded herself of Pete's mind reading abilities when she had first sat down. She was all ready to lump him into the detested man category, but Pete's smile and his welcoming manner prevented her from doing that. Perhaps that smile and manner was a learned skill, so that patrons of the pub left feeling the way she did now. Perhaps away from the pub, Pete was no different than any other man who stood in the way of her success.

But she couldn't make herself believe that. He had given her no reason to believe otherwise, and for the moment, she was willing to accept that he seemed to be a gentleman whose purpose was to provide his customers with a warm and inviting establishment designed to lighten their mood from the clutter and chaos that often accompanied their real life adventures. Perhaps that's why, according to Pete, it was always the busiest in the late afternoon and early evening, when workers from around the area congregated in the pub after their dull and grueling jobs were completed for the day. Perhaps they were seeking what Sarah found – a respite from life's burdens.

And yet as she traveled now to her apartment, she also realized that normally on the train in the evening, she was reviewing the previous days' work, and already preparing for the next day, making a schedule in her mind as to what needed done when. She felt it was one of the most important parts of her day, since it was the link between what had been done and what needed to be done tomorrow. Never one to let even one free moment go to waste, the 20-minute train ride to the station close to her apartment allowed her to set her priorities for the next day, so that when she got to work early the next morning, she could get started right away on the important business of the day.

She tried to squelch her pub experience and focus on her normal daily review, but it wasn't working. The more she tried, the more she failed, and the more agitated she became with herself. She began thinking that the pub trip was a bad idea, if it stood in the way of her preparations for her next day at work. Just a few minutes before, she was thinking how much fun it had been to get to know Pete a little bit. Now she was trying to put him into the category of "men who stand in my way." The only problem is that it wasn't working very well.

So as the train stopped at her station and she de-boarded, she was caught up in an inner turmoil the likes she had never experienced. She only hoped she would resolve it soon, because she really didn't feel like she had time to address it.

******

The following morning at work, Sarah was still caught up in the turmoil of the previous evening when she was summoned to the office of one of the senior partners. This wasn't a new experience for her, but each time it happened, it still made her a little nervous. She gathered up a legal pad and headed into Robert Ward's office a little before 9:00 a.m.

Robert Ward was a diminutive man, probably only about 5'6" in height, and though he had added a little weight to his mid-section in his last few years, he wasn't out of shape by any means. Probably approaching 65, he could easily retire on the pension and benefits he had accrued throughout the years, and yet he kept coming in each day, doing the job he so dearly loved. Of all of the senior partners, Sarah could identify with Robert the most. He had overcome the lifelong taunts about his physical stature to rise to the top of one of the city's most respected law firms. He was the man Sarah most respected at BH&H. The respect was mutual, as Robert saw great potential from this particular junior associate. It was because of that potential that he had called Sarah to his office this morning.

"Good morning, Sarah. Thank you for coming. I want you to listen carefully, because I have a special assignment for you. This is bigger than anything you've worked on before, but I wouldn't have called you here if I didn't think you could handle it."

Sarah flashed a nervous smile. "Thank you, Mr. Ward. I promise whatever it is you want me to do, I can handle it."

Robert sat down in the chair behind his desk, and motioned Sarah to sit as well. "I believe you can, Sarah. The firm has been retained by a major international company to complete a series of agreements between them and another company, located in Hong Kong. This will be the first time these two companies have ever worked together. It is our job to negotiate the agreement between the two companies, and then draft the corresponding agreement for both companies to sign. It will not be easy, as each of these companies is used to doing things their own way.

"This will require a lot of communication with the representatives from both of these companies. You and your team will be working lots of non-traditional hours in order to visit with the reps in Hong Kong. You know that this firm prides itself in insisting that our associates try to balance their work and home life by working fewer hours than other firms, but I'm afraid for the next couple of weeks, that will be out the window.

"I don't think I have to tell you how important this is to the firm, Sarah. We've been trying to get some of this company's business for a long time, and now we are in the door. If you do the job of which I'm sure you are capable, the rewards for the firm and for you personally will be tremendous.

"I've hand-picked a team of two of our other top junior associates – Stacy Richardson and Gerald Mann - and two aides for you. While I have not met with them yet, they will understand that you will be the lead on this project. How well you lead them, and how well you create the agreement these companies seek, will be up to you. If you agree to take this assignment, I expect you to start working with your team this afternoon. I've also arranged to have your current work load assigned to other associates. This will be your sole focus."

Sarah pondered what Robert was telling her. She had been working extremely hard for three years to get to the point where she could be trusted with such an important project. This was her time to shine. If she thought she had been driven to success before, she was prepared to show them a new level!

"Mr. Ward, you picked the right person. I'm prepared to do this, and I won't let you or the firm down. Thank you for your faith in me!"

Robert Ward smiled. "Excellent! I'll spend the rest of the morning talking with your team members. Let's plan on all meeting together at 1:00 this afternoon to get started. I want to meet with your team every morning at 8:00 to go over the previous days' work and to see what plans are for the new day."

Sarah left the office on cloud nine. This was her chance to show the entire firm that she was ready for this type of responsibility! It was as if her whole life had been had been focused on this exact moment. She went back to her office and did some work on her current caseload in preparation for it to be handed to someone else. At noon, she picked through the salad she had delivered. She wasn't really feeling hunger at this point, as the anticipation of meeting her team and getting started on the project was overriding the physical needs of her body.

At 1:00 they were back in Robert Ward's office. Sarah looked at her team and was pleased to see Stacey and Gerald, two associates with whom she had worked in the past. Robert's choices underlined the importance of this project. After a couple of opening remarks, he repeated some of the same things to the team that he had discussed with Sarah earlier.

After that meeting, Sarah continued with her staff in a conference room. She made assignments to be completed before 8:00 the next morning, then dismissed her staff so they could get busy. The rest of the day was spent learning as much as possible about both companies – their primary manufacturing interests, previous mergers and cooperative agreements, as well as a list of positives and negatives that could arise in an agreement between the two companies. She also studied the financial standing of each company, and where logically one company could benefit the other, and vice versa.

In typical Sarah fashion, she threw everything she had into the project. She worked so hard, in fact, that she did not realize how late it had gotten the first time she looked at the clock on her office wall. When she saw that it was 10:00 that evening, she realized she had not left her chair in over eight hours. She chastised herself for not taking care of her personal needs. If she was going to be successful with this project, she could not allow her health to deteriorate.

She realized she was hungry and thirsty, but knew it was going to be difficult to find anything downtown that was open this late. Then she remembered Pete's. Hadn't he said they had food available there? She knew it would be open for a few hours still, so it seemed like a logical place to go and see if she could get something to eat.

At the same time, she remembered what happened last night after spending just 45 minutes there waiting on her train. It was an enjoyable time, but she let the fun invade her routine. Here she was, now in charge of a very large and important project at BH&H, and she couldn't let a few good times with Pete and the others interfere with her ability to work well at the law firm.