“Kate. Of course I don’t want you to return to the staff attorney’s office. I have the best law clerks in the whole world.” The judge had instantly become Pollyanna, leaving Kate defenseless.

“Um. OK, Judge,” Kate muttered, removing her fat self from sight.

“Sheera. She’s weird,” the judge said, pointing to the back as she put on her sunglasses. “Paranoid, that one. You heard the whole thing. Did I say anything that would inspire such threats on her part?” Kate threatened to live in the suburbs her whole life. She didn’t threaten people.

“I don’t know, Judge.”

“This is my lesson. I’ll never hire another staff attorney. They’re not that smart. At all events, I’m off to do a little shopping. Need new sneaks. I’ll be back later.” She was getting new Reeboks and I hadn’t had a chance to put on a bra.

Kate left about five minutes after the judge, leaving me, Matthew, and the security guard downstairs as the lone inhabitants of the courthouse.

“Do you realize that I just walked three miles through a blizzard to get here?” Matthew said, pulling up a chair by my cubicle. “And the bitch just leaves? What are we supposed to do all day?”

“Well, we can eat this,” I suggested, handing him the ramen. Matthew didn’t crack a smile.

“Between the judge and Heidi, I’m seriously considering giving up women altogether. Remind me to ask Kevin whether men are any better.”

“Whoa—what happened with Heidi?” I asked, a tad buoyant.

“Ugh.” Matthew shook his head. “You know how my sister flew out this past weekend from Idaho—well, Heidi was supposed to come up on Friday night to hang out with us, mind you the first and only weekend I’ve asked her to come to Philadelphia rather than my traveling to New York. Anyway, at the last second, she called and said that she wasn’t feeling well and didn’t come. She must have made a miraculous recovery because she ended up going to some concert that night at Webster Hall.”

“So, she didn’t come up at all during the weekend? She didn’t come see your sister at all?”

“No. And I just don’t know what to do—we’ve been together for four years, Sheila. What am I supposed to do? I mean, can I just break up with her because she chose a stupid boy band over my family?”

“Well, is it just the boy band?”

“No, it’s not,” he said, turning his head to look at me directly. “I don’t know, I’ve just felt differently about her since starting this clerkship.”

“Well, what do you—” The phone rang.

It was the judge. “Has anyone called?”

“No, Judge, nobody has called.” She hung up.

“Well, what are you going to do?” I asked, returning to Heidi.