“I didn’t mean to, I thought she didn’t mind. I’ll send down Martin and let her come back. She just needs to brief Martin. I’ll ask him to go on Monday and they can talk today. She wrote me she was enjoying the food,” Alex said.

“When did she write that?”

“Now that I think about it, when she first got down there,” Alex said. “Thanks for telling me, Audrey. I wasn’t paying attention. I’ve been so busy on this other case.”

Audrey nodded. She walked back to her office. Alex was a nice guy, just really dedicated—so much so that he wouldn’t mind being away on a document production for three weeks. When she was a younger associate, she’d liked long business trips—all meals accounted for, and usually just the one case to worry about. Often there’d even been time to work out at night because client’s offices closed at 5 p.m. But unlike Winnie, she didn’t have a boyfriend back home.

Winnie: Alex called. Going home tomorrow. THANK YOU!

Audrey spent the next few hours trying to find a case contradicting the case Colette cited. She’d read one, and if it referred to a former case, hinting at similar facts to the Rothman case, she’d pull it up and consider if the law or the facts helped—and keep searching for the perfect case. Just one more, she’d tell herself. Then she’d read yet another, lured by its potential and the thrill of finding the one that could win the case for her client. Finally, she found exactly what she was looking for. Still, it may not be enough. But it gave them something to argue. She shut down her laptop and called the car service to go home.

She wrote an email to her mom on the way home, asking her what was happening with next year’s schedule. She used to call her mom during these taxi rides home late at night to catch up, but she couldn’t now with the time difference. She wrote her that she was on a case with Malaburn, but it was okay. She was drafting a motion to dismiss, and if they won the motion, she’d be done working with him.

Arriving at her apartment, she picked up an Amazon package addressed to her left on the landing outside her door. Please, let it be from Jake.

She shut the door of her apartment, dropped her bag, and sliced open the box with a pair scissors. It was from him! She smiled as she pulled out a pink and yellow book, Love in the Cookie Bakery. Ooh, love in the title. With a note:

Friday

Dear Audrey,

Thanks again for helping me with Luna and Thomas. The label meeting seemed pretty smooth compared to persuading Luna to wear a pink unicorn shirt.