She started laughing all over again. “Honestly, it might be exactly what I needed. Stop apologizing. I’m just glad my mascara’s not running.”
“I really wanted today to go smoothly.Fuck,” I moaned, covering my face.
She tossed the towels and straightened her pencil skirt, then grabbed my hand. “Today is going to go however it goes. What matters is the work you put into getting Eddie ready for this meeting. Did you hear him in there?”
I smiled faintly. “He was really channelingMy Cousin Vinny.”
She swung open the door decisively. “Let’s do this. I’ve already forgotten about you trying to drown me in seltzer.”
I planned to go home to change before meeting Connor and Emilie for dinner at Empellón on West Fourth Street, but by five o’clock, I was more than ready for the biggest margarita they had. I texted to say they could find me at the bar.
They got there half an hour later, dragging me to a corner table where Connor immediately announced he’d rented us a house upstate for the weekend.
“I’m sorry, why would you think I could just pick up and go away for the weekend?” I asked, taking the last sip of the Don Julio margarita I’d ordered while I was waiting.
“Sam. Comeon. It’s barely forty-eight hours. We’re picking up the car in Midtown on Friday. You can jump in the back seat with your laptop and work the whole way. The house is fully stocked. The views are stunning. And we’ll have you back by Sunday night.”
I looked at Emilie, who just shrugged. “I know, neither of us does nature well. But he promised to never bring up again how we forgot his birthday.”
“Your birthday was aweekbefore the bar—which you weren’t even taking,” I objected. For Connor, law school had always been just another thing to add to his résumé.
He grinned. “You are so right, Sam. Anyway, Emilie is in. Gillian is in. And—”
“Wait, the girl from yoga?” I gave Emilie adid you know that was still a thing?look.
“Thewomanfrom yoga,” he corrected me. “We also do SoulCycle now. But you should both know before this weekend that Gillian from yoga and SoulCycle is now my girlfriend,” Connor said proudly.
“As in, you’re not sleeping with anyone else?” I said doubtfully.
He looked crestfallen. “Do you both have such low opinions of me?”
Emilie coughed. “Lower, probably.”
“Ladies, please come to the Catskills. Observe me over the course of a weekend. I’ve changed.”
I shook my head as Connor held up his hand. “Observe me over ashortweekend. Em, tell her you’re in so she’ll go.”
Emilie gave a resigned nod. “I have so much work that at this point, I’m just hoping self-sabotage will save me.”
I knew what she meant. “Ugh. Fine. But only if there’s Wi-Fi at the house, and you don’t force me to play a single board game.”
Connor smiled triumphantly. “Drinking games only.”
Chapter Eighteen
On Friday morning, we received another set of emails from Andie, so I posted up in the back seat of the giant black Suburban Connor had rented from the Hertz on Forty-Eighth Street and powered up my hotspot so I could review them on the drive upstate.
We’d barely hit the George Washington Bridge when I got to an email that I realized was directly supportive of one of our thinner defense arguments.
“Holy shit,” I muttered, immediately forwarding it to Eddie with a declarative “We need to talk to this Emerson person. He’s in LA.”
Eddie responded two minutes later that he was still in Los Angeles and I should plan to fly out Monday.
“Fuck,” I groaned loudly.
Connor was driving as if we weren’t in the middle of Friday rush hour in New York City.
Gillian turned around. “If you want to sit up front, I’ll switch with you,” she offered sweetly.
