Chapter Twenty-Nine
Friday evening, after work, Adam and I sat at a table at O’Malley’s talking to our friends, while Ho Hey by The Lumineers played in the background, and Jacob, accompanied by his table full of friends, and an attractive redhead this time, continued to occasionally send an uncomfortably flirty look my way. At the moment, my courtroom style was the topic of our conversation.
“I think that Adam and Lily are becoming the same person,” Braden noted, beginning the discussion.
“I agree. Lily, you’ve become the female him, in court,” Jess said, gesturing at Adam. “You’re all sarcasm and swagger these days.”
“Oh no! Lily!” Gabrielle said, sounding aghast.
“What?” I asked defensively. “I’m just doing my job. It’s not my fault that their clients aren’t exactly rocket scientists.” Adam and I shared a smile.
“It’s like they’ve become Borg,” Cam noted.
“Lily has been assimilated,” Mark joked.
“They’re such a cute couple, aren’t they?” Braden asked with a grin that showed me how much Adam must have tortured him about Gabrielle.
“Adorable,” Cam agreed. “Mr. and Mrs. Cocky Prosecutor.”
“When’s the wedding, incidentally?” Braden went on.
“Why, you looking for somebody to BBQ with you and the Mrs., Mr. Family Guy?” Adam shot back.
“We’re looking for somebody to work with us at the practice we want to start,” Gab jumped in. “Now that Lily’s a real live lawyer, and the two of you are a team, maybe you two should both think coming to work with us. Actually, it would be great if all of you would think about it. We’re going to take on interesting cases. We’re also fun.” She smiled at Braden, who gave her a look that said he thought she was lots of fun.
“How are you going to afford to hire all of us?” Mark asked. “Oh, wait, you’re both rich.”
“In fact, we can afford to pay you more than you’re making now,” Braden volunteered. “Well, not Cam there, since he’s in private practice, but the rest of you civil servants.”
“And you would have more flexible hours,” Gab jumped in. “You could write and practice, Lily. And Cam, even if you didn’t want to leave your firm, you could shift your pro bono work to us since we’ll be a non-profit.”
“You’re serious,” I said.
“Yes, we’re serious,” Gab replied. “We want to take our friends with us.”
“Where?” a voice to our left broke it. Bruce stood there looking depressed.
“To the new practice we’re starting,” Gab replied. “We could use someone to be in charge of research and our in-house library,” she suggested with a smile. “That is if you don’t want to take the job with Judge Channing. I heard they offered it to you.”
“They did, but he’s retiring in a few months. Besides, he’s a curmudgeon.”
“So are you,” I pointed out.
“But when he retired I might be out of work.”
“Not if you come work for us, and we could pay you more than a county employee,” Gab put in. “You would be the boss of your department. Not that you would be supervising anybody at first.”
“That doesn’t matter,” I said with a laugh. “Bruce would sell his soul for money and even the promise of future power.”
“She’s right. I would,” he agreed. “Where do I sign and when do I start?”
“Actually, you could probably start in a couple of months. We would want you to make the acquisitions for the in-house library and set up the legal databases,” Braden said, “We have plenty of top quality office space, right here in Center City.”
“Really? That’s wonderful,” Bruce said, pulling up a chair. “Jason will be so excited. He’s almost done with his residency and he’s going to accept an offer with Jefferson Hospital, so it looks like Philly will be our permanent home. By the way, Lil. I have some big news.” He held up his hand to show me a ring. “We’re making it official. If you’ll be my maid of honor, I’ll be yours someday.” He smiled at Adam suggestively.
“Oh my God! That’s wonderful! Jason’s finally going to make an honest man of you huh?” I asked, coming over to give him a hug. Despite our teasing and bickering, Bruce and I really were close. In fact, it seemed like I teased and bickered with a lot of the people I was closest to. I promised that we would do lunch soon to discuss wedding plans.
“We need to discuss plans for your party tomorrow night,” Gab chimed in.
“You’re having a party and you didn’t invite me?” Bruce pouted, looking slighted.
“It’s not a real party. It’s a party for my crazy neighbors. We want to figure out who the Fox is. And we thought this might be a safe way to do it.”
“Well, you can’t have any party without me. Even a party for your hovel mates.”
“Fine, you want to come to our party? Come. Mingle. You’ll just love Vixen.”
“Honey, go through the cast of characters again,” Jess requested. “I can’t remember one wacko from the other. They all start to blend, just like my clients.” She sighed.
“I only know some of them by the initials and last names on their mailboxes. Hmm, let’s see. I’ll start with the guy who lives across the hall from me, U. Hu.”
“That’s really his name?” Cam broke in.
“It’s U like the letter and Hu like in an Asian surname.”
“Doesn’t that mean fox in Chinese?” Mark put in.
“What?” I asked, stunned. Adam and I glanced at each other.
“I remember reading it in some mythology class I took in college, the huli jin, the fox spirits.” He took out his iPhone and punched something in. “Yeah, right here, Hu, fox in Mandarin.” He held it out to show us.
“Well, he is strange,” I noted. “He’s always dressed in black and I find him lurking everywhere and rushing by quickly from place to place. One day I saw him climb in the fourth floor window. There’s no fire escape by that window!”
“So, he lurks, darts, dresses weird, and might be able to scale buildings. Maybe he’s Spiderman,” Bruce suggested, signaling the barmaid and ordering ‘something fruity.’
“And his name means Fox in Chinese!” Gab pointed out. She was over there taking notes. “Who’s next?”