Audrey: That could mean she slept over, he made scrumptious breakfast, and she left because she had other plans.

Eve: If you’ve just slept with Jake, you cancel those plans.

Audrey: I’ll keep that advice in mind. Doubt I’ll need it.

Eve: Conservative lawyers = dating slump. Still on for movie tonight?

Audrey: Think so.

She almost typed yes, she was so sure she’d make it, but she had learned not to make that promise.

Audrey continued working. She ate a sandwich she’d brought from home for dinner. She hadn’t wanted to go out and waste that time.

When it was almost seven and time to leave, her phone rang. As she picked it up, Malaburn’s raspy voice said, “Thanks for the updated memo. I have some separate ideas to research for the pitch slide deck. I’ll send that to you to work on.” She quickly wrote down his thoughts as he rattled them off.

She slumped deep into her chair after he hung up. That would take her a few more hours. She would have to cancel on her friends, again. It was so like Malaburn to call on a Sunday night too. She could feel her blood boiling. She focused on a poster of a Rothko blue painting she had hung on her wall, trying to let its deep hues relax her. It was just a movie. She could catch up with her friends another time. She called Eve to tell her she couldn’t go. Luckily, Eve was going with Pete and Max, so she wasn’t stranded, but she sounded disappointed. Disappointed with her, her unreliable best friend. Audrey sighed and turned to research the new points.

Her phone beeped. The car service was waiting downstairs. Law firms paid for a car service on weekends after a certain number of hours worked and on weekdays if you worked past 8 p.m. She’d forgotten she’d arranged for it. She’d finish this at home. Her footsteps were hushed on the plush carpet as she passed by the closed doors of the other offices and waved good night to the cleaning lady. Leaving the building, she entered a waiting black sedan that smelled of peppermint air freshener. She opened the window. This was her chance to feel the warm night breeze on her skin.

As the black sedan sped up Madison Avenue, she looked up from her iPhone out the car window. The shops were closed, but their brightly-lit windows beckoned. The restaurants were packed, the tables spilling out onto the sidewalk, with couples sitting and chatting over candlelit dinners, enjoying the balmy night. She wondered what they did for a living. Most of her friends worked similar hours to hers.