I tune back in to his monologue in time to hear the crux of his new idea: “. . . and I’m thinking, ‘There’s a tennis-themed dating site. What about a hockey-themed one?’ It would be part of the Sweet Nothings family, hosted under the same umbrella of services, and we’d be the in-house counsel, so to speak. We could call our ghostwriting services ‘Assists.’ Like in hockey, right? And there’d be a discount to anyone if you use our hockey messaging app. Instead of serves and lobs and aces and what have you, we’d have Cherry Picking, Clearing the Puck, and Off-Sides. For abusive behavior.”

“Do you intend to attract abusive users?” Aisha asks, sounding perplexed.

“Not on purpose,” he says happily, then turns his wide, hopeful eyes on me. “What do you think?”

“It’s interesting,” I say. “An interesting thought.”

What I don’t say: Cherry Picking sounds like a human trafficking site where people bid on virgins.

“Cool. Cool. Thanks for your honesty. I’m going to take the temp of the room, see what’s shaking.”

“He just admitted he’s going to rip off Game, Set, Match by changing nothing but the sports slang,” Aisha guffaws once he’s out of earshot.

“He really, really did. Should we, like, report this? And to whom?”

“It’s exactly what he did to Leanne. One of these days, someone’s going to sue his ass and win.”

“I believe it,” I reply.

We return to our previous table and finish our drinks.

“What’s it like working for Leanne?” I ask.

“It’s . . . smoother. Less ‘kill or be killed’ and more ‘we’re all in this together.’ I mean, don’t get me wrong. There are times when I can definitely see why she and Clifford were together for so long. But Leanne’s more . . . subversive with her business tactics.”

We both look over at Clifford, who is now cheering on two freelancers funneling beer through his hockey mask. “I guess it’d be hard to be less subversive,” I point out.

Aisha laughs. “I think Leanne’s full up on ghostwriters, but if that changes, I could let you know,” she offers.

“Would you? Thanks a lot.”

“And hey, if Clifford’s serious about creating a new dating platform, maybe he’ll throw some extra work your way to help write the profile questions.”

“If I could design a questionnaire, I’d eliminate all the cliché questions. No more ‘Which three albums would you bring to a desert island’ crap. I think there should be a section in their profiles about misremembered or misheard lyrics.”

“Yesss. I thought ‘Living on a Prayer’ by Bon Jovi was ‘Living on a Prairie’ for years,” Aisha replies, her eyes sparkling. “And I need to know how someone would react to that before I can entertain the notion of dating them.”

I really, really want us to be friends.