Page 26 of Someone Just Like You

Nicole:It’s a miracle! Eddie and I will review this information and get back to you.

Jude grunted. “Your sister.”

“The same sister you crushed on hard in junior high.” Jude would call me a troll while simultaneously drooling over Nicole, who looked exactly like me aside from being two inches shorter with a slightly rounder face.

“Don’t project your crush on my brother with my imaginary crush on your sister.”

After he said the words, I watched as a film of red crept up his neck onto his cheeks and he pressed a fist to his lips in the inception of laughter.Uh oh.Where was he going with this?

“You told everyone that Eddie was your brother…” His shoulders shook. “Andhow much you wanted to kiss him.” He wiped his eyes.

“Andyoutold everyone I had a fetish for incest.” Jude was always there to take my most embarrassing moments to the next level.

Jude howled. “I totally forgot about that.”

I mumbled, “That makes one of us.” I was donereminiscingwith Jude but wasn’t about to leave an unfinished drink on the bar. While he watched the game, I scrolled through Instagram. It was the usual content—pictures of my friends’ pets and lunches, celebrity selfies, and witty/uplifting quotes/memes. And, of course, advertisements from Etsy, Friendship Cottage Cheese, and Ceiling Crashers. Wait. What was Ceiling Crashers? I froze with my thumb on the screen then did something I almost never did with ads: I clicked “Learn More.”

“Mole!”

I jolted. “What?”

“I was talking to you. What has you so mesmerized?” Jude held up a hand. “Never mind. If it’s a dick pic, I don’t want to know.”

I screwed up my face. “It’s not a dick pic. It’s nothing.”

“Bullshit.” He removed the phone from my hand and looked at the screen. “Ceiling Crashers. Never heard of them before.”

“Until I was today years old, I hadn’t either. They’re a career counseling and coaching company for women.”

“And you find them fascinating, why exactly?”

“When did I say I found them fascinating?” I said, even as my fingers itched to regain possession of the phone because I was…well, fascinated.

Jude studied me intently.

I frowned. “Do I have something on my face?”

His eyes moved from my forehead down to my chin and back up again. “Two eyes—check, nose—check, mouth—check, mole—check.”

My hand flew to my cheek. Then it sank in. “When will I ever learn?”

Jude flashed a crooked grin. “If history is any indication, never.” His face turned serious. “Why did you really quit the law?” He coughed. “Thepracticeof law?”

Not this again. “Why do you care so much?” I gestured toward the television. “The game is on.”

Ignoring the game, he said, “I don’t care. It’s just…” He shrugged. “You studied so hard in high school. I assume that same work ethic followed you to college and law school. You had all theseplans.”

I squirmed, still not quite comfortable with the reality that the calculated course of my professional life had changed so drastically. Jude didn’t need to know this. “Sometimes plans are forced to change based on the circumstances. You of all people know that.” I was fairly certainhisplans had involved studying baseball strategy, not wine and food pairings, until that option was taken away. I stared down at my feet.And whose fault was that?But he’d said so himself: no regrets.

“We’re not talking about me.”

I considered his question. Answering honestly was the least I could do to make up for putting my foot in my mouth. “The law firm environment was too hostile for me. Between the pressure of billable hours from the firm and unreasonable expectations from clients, I woke up sick every morning.” I took a sip of my beer. “And I had an abusive client.”

Jude’s eyebrows pinched together. “Abusive how?”

I swallowed hard, not sure I wanted to dredge up the bad memories and share them with Jude of all people. What if he sided with Maxine and accused me of being a crybaby? But there was no twinkle in his eye or any indication he was itching for material to use against me. “So many things. She regularly questioned or criticized my work in front of my supervising attorneys, even when they weren’t already on the email string. She refused to let our paralegals touch her work, then complained my billing rate was too high. The next day, she’d charge me with an assignment so beyond my experience level, because she didn’t want to pay for a senior associate or junior partner’s work, then complain when I didn’t finish it in ten minutes.”

Jude made a sound from the back of his throat. “Damn.”

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