Five - Lunch

A chill went down Tom's spine. He fought every instinct he had to steal a look at Stacy. 

"Leaving?" Doug asked, incredulously.

"Yeah, I know it's a bit of a surprise..." Will started.

"You're Goddamn right it's a surprise." Doug said. "Have you thought this through?"

"I have. When Melanie and I decided to get married we had a serious conversation about the future and we decided that we didn't want to start our family in DC, so I started looking for jobs in Chicago."

Tom was conflicted. On on hand, his best friend was leaving; on the other hand, this would make him the most senior Senior Associate on the team; and on the other hand, his rivalry with Stacy just moved to a whole different level. He didn't know what to think, especially since that gave him three hands, which was never a good thing.

Four - Oversight

Tom had successfully avoided Stacy since their argument.  He was a little embarrassed by the way he had acted and a little because Stacy's criticism hit a little too close to home.  He did feel threatened by her, but not without good cause.  While he had not gotten the call to HR that he expected, Stacy had also not backed off of her 'comfortable' attitude with Doug.  If anything, she seemed to be pushing it even further.  It seemed to Tom that she was perpetually in Doug's office, using any pretense to stop and chat with him.

Tom decided to keep his head down and just do his job.  He had always hated office politics, believing that it was mostly a waste of time and that hard work would always pay off more than brown-nosing and scheming.  But it irritated him that Stacy seemed to so blatently get away with it.

Three - Fire Drill

Tom was focused on updating his monthly report when the alarm rudely interrupted his thoughts.  It took him a second to realize what was happening and then suddenly everything made sense.  It was the first Wednesday of the month - that's why Will and Doug were "offsite" this morning: it was the monthly fire drill.  Everyone knew that the drill happened on the first Wednesday of every month at 10:00 a.m. and everyone capable found a way to be away from the office during that time so they could avoid being herded like sheep into a parking lot about a half mile away from the building.  Tom was late in finishing his monthly report, which caused him to forget about the monthly drill.

He also realized that the only other people that would be in the building were the new associates and Stacy.