“That’s the opposite of a compliment in France.”
“If you say so.”
I was out of lines. I finished the coffee and freshened up in the bathroom. When I came back, he was sitting in a corner chair next to the window, readingThe New Yorkerin a bathrobe and slippers.
“I should get home,” I said.
He smiled. “Thank you for a lovely evening.”
I suddenly felt shy again. “Well. It was nice meeting you.”
He snorted. “Oh, no. Please—don’t say that.”
He set down the magazine and I held up my hand. “Don’t get up. You’re a picture of the perfect Saturday morning right now.”
“If you insist.”
I bent down and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“Thanks for helping me find some fun last night.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
I was eating a salad at my desk on Wednesday when Charlie and his suitcase rolled into the office from yet another Texas deposition.
“Did you come back just for the Fordham recruiting event?” I asked.
“You bet. You’re still going, right?”
“You think I’d miss the chance to help the firm recruit the next Charlie Bronstein?”
He looked at my bandaged left wrist, which I’d self-wrapped to avoid taking time to go to the doctor. It still hurt like hell four days later.
“Shit, what happened to you?”
“I’m fine. I tripped over a pair of shoes in the middle of the night. It’s just a sprain.”
There was no way to explain ripping a towel holder out of a wall without sounding like a deranged drunk.
“Did you get an X-ray?”
“I’m just icing it.”
He looked suspicious. “You tripped, huh?”
I nodded. “You can add ‘clumsy’ to the list of adjectives when you introduce me to all the awkward law students tonight. The worst part is I’m a leftie, so I can’t write, and I’m typing like a five-year-old.”
At six, we packed up our laptops and took a cab to Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus. The security guard pointed us toward abanquet hall filled with black suits. We found our name tags and stood awkwardly off to the side.
“Drink?”
I shook my head. “I’m going to try doing this without alcohol. I want to see if I can win people over with my unaltered personality.”
“Seems a little unfair to the firm. We’re here to recruit the best and brightest.”
“Thenyoucan bait them with your personality, and I’ll swoop in and talk about how magical the work is.”
“Just don’t forget to tell them you’re consulting for a famous screenwriter. It’s the only reason I invited you.”
