I left Lauren’s office without the slightest indication of whether she liked me or not. Then I didn’t hear from her for two weeks and assumed that was that. The call came on a Friday at 6:30.

“Is this a test?” I asked, throwing caution to the wind. “I mean calling on a Friday after working hours to see if I’m still here.”

“No. If you hadn’t answered, I was going to leave the job offer on your voice mail. Welcome aboard, partner.”

29.

29.

A month into my deputyship, Stuart suggested we host a dinner party and invite Lauren and her husband over. He said he wanted to get to know the woman I spoke about all the time. I did not think it was a good idea.

“I want her to think that I’m a superstar,” I explained to him. “She’s going to come here and see that I can barely boil water.”

He dismissed my concerns out of hand. “You are a superstar. You can do anything, even host a dinner party for your boss. Trust me. It’s going to be a huge success.”

I took comfort in the idea that there’d be others present to serve as buffers. I also invited my closest friend, Kate, and her husband, Ed. They’re the smartest, most interesting people I know, and very New York City. Kate and I met at college. She was a vegan even then—she introduced me to the term. She teaches feminist political theory at Sarah Lawrence and is the kind of intellectual who probably hasn’t seen a movie without subtitles in a decade. I’m not entirely sure what Ed does for a living, even though he and Kate have been married for more than ten years. I know it has something to do with economics—the subject of one of the two PhDs he holds from the University of Chicago—and that he could make ten times as much money if he did whatever it is that he does in the private sector. They have no children, but two dogs. Needless to say, they live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

I cooked a lamb roast. Much to my surprise, it turned out perfectly. For my vegan guests, I added pretty much every vegetable I could find at the farmers’ market. The result of my culinary efforts was displayed atop the buffet in our dining room—platters containing roasted root vegetables, cauliflower sautéed with mushrooms, a pasta primavera, and a potato recipe that I’d tried for the first time. It contained a ton of chili powder.