“We always do the Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve with my dad’s family in Jersey.”
“I’ve always wondered about those. Sometimes I feel cheated that we were raised Jewish and not Catholic.”
Were we still Charlie and Sam?
“Will you go home for Hanukkah?” I asked instead.
“My grandma will kill me if I’m not there to light the candles with her at least once.”
I smiled at the image of Charlie lighting the menorah for his grandma.
He turned to grab his phone from the windowsill. “I should probably head home to shower and get dressed.”
“What time is it?”
“Almost six.”
I groaned. “I really hope I’m wrong, but I have a feeling that this morning is the preview session for the all-attorney retreat next month.”
He clicked his tongue as he pulled up the calendar on his phone.
“Yup. Ten a.m.”
I realized I wasn’t even wearing underwear and pulled the covers tighter.
“Did you ever go to a retreat as a paralegal?”
“No, paralegals have their own shindig. Just not in glampy corporate retreat spots like the lawyers. I’ve been hearing about this ranch in Montana for years.”
“Something about one thousand lawyers converging on a ranch in the middle of January seems like a recipe for disaster.”
“Lena told me the alcohol budget for the firm-wide retreat tops a million.”
“Meaning every lawyer consumes a thousand dollars’ worth of alcohol over three days?”
“I don’t know how else you survive being stuck in the middle of nowhere with every lawyer at the firm.”
He sat up, looked around for his shirt, and spotted it on the floor next to the bed.
I looked away. “I’d get it, but I have on less than you do ...”
“I’m okay with you seeing me in my boxers,” he said, looking amused.
WasIokay seeing him in his boxers? On aMonday?
I pretended to check emails on my phone as he got dressed. The getting dressed part felt oddly intimate.
He came over and sat next to me on the edge of the bed. I propped myself up on the pillow and tucked the duvet under my arms.
He tousled my hair. “You okay?”
I nodded. “See you at the retreat preview?”
He grinned. “Or in our office first.”
He bent down and kissed my left cheekbone. He lingered for an extra second. I touched my hand to his beard.
“I’m okay,” I answered.
