“I’ll see what I can do.”

“Oh!” She jumps excitedly. “Do you remember Tara from my office?”

“That the one with all the cats and the gamer boyfriend?” I ask, feeding her another bite.

“Mm-hmm.” She swallows it down. “She caught him cheating on her with his sister.”

My eyes narrow. “Come again…”

“Turns out, his sister visiting from Denver is actually his ex-girlfriend from Queens.” She laughs.

“Holy shit,” I say.

“Yeah. What a douche.”

“Is she okay?” I load another bite onto my spoon.

“Thrilled. She’s been trying to kick him out for weeks. Free-loading cheater.” She rolls her eyes, opening her mouth as I feed her another bite. “Mmm, so good. Anything awesome happened to you today?”

“Hayden and I went to that old Gianetti’s building on Fourth and Castle. He’s thinking of buying it.”

“Buying a restaurant?” She tilts her head. “What would he do with a restaurant? Is he not busy enough with the firm?”

“He wants to buy it for our mom.”

She gasps. “Oh my god, Aleck, Midge would love that.”

“It needs some serious renovations, but it’s always been a dream of hers to have something like that on the side. She’s been bored after retiring from designing. He’d have to hire a management staff to make sure the business runs smoothly, so it doesn’t all fall on her, but I think it’s a great idea.”

“Oh, me too.” Her smile stretches, showing her beautiful teeth. “I really do. Hayden truly has been better, hasn’t he?”

“He’s still a dick.” I laugh, then dump another spoonful of Phish Food into my mouth. “His assistant quit. That’s the third one in two months. I keep telling him he’s too much of an asshole, but… you know Hayden.”

“Yeah, well, he’s only half human,” she teases. “Give him some credit.”

“Hester Latham is bringing his daughter in at the firm and until he finds a suitable position for her, he’s instructed Hayden to give her tasks to help him until he finds a new assistant. Needless to say, Hayden’s not taking it well.”

“Why? Doesn’t he need the help?”

“Yeah, but he doesn’t want her help.”

She laughs, crinkling her cute little nose. “Why? What’s wrong with her?”

“Nothing. Pippa’s great. We grew up with the Latham family. Spent every summer at their beach house in Nantucket, hearing my dad and Hess tell story after story about their Harvard legacy and days in college. They spent winters at our cabin in Aspen skiing and sipping hot toddies, overlooking the snow-capped mountains… It was great. Me, Hayden, and Pippa were the only kids in a room full of stuffy old people…” I laugh, remembering Hayden stealing bottles of rum and champagne so we could drink down by the water, or in the den while our parents and their friends thought we were playing video games and drinking too much soda.

“Actually, when I think about it, that was the only time Hayden and I got along. It’s like, his discomfort around Pippa forced him to accept me. Pippa is four years younger than us. He always said he didn’t want the baby tagging along, but she barely made a fuss. She was cute and kind of funny, looked up to us, you know? Hayden just always had a thing for her and I don’t mean in a good way.”