Page 12 of Love Is an Art
From: Ben Kim
Re: April 12
Brooke IS great. And I want to date Brooke for herself. Her career doesn’t define her. And I work all the time too.
Exactly.My career doesn’t define me.I find it weird when friends introduce me as a lawyer because I’m so much more than that.
Lakshmi sighs. “And here I thought that finance guys weren’t romantic.”
“He’s probably the exception. I wish I’d done some sort of litmus test on Wyatt before he dumped me for working too much.” To the right of my computer monitor hangs a framed picture of two kids hugging their grandparents and a handwritten letter thanking me for helping with their adoption. That was my pro bono case I was doing after hours instead of going on dates with Wyatt. I don’t regret it. What I regret is thathedumped me.
Not that I’m bitter.We dated for eight months and broke up about eighteen months ago. On November 1. The date of the New York City Ballet Gala, which I was unable to attend as his date because I got staffed on a hostile takeover case.
He said our relationship clearly wasn’t working for him anymore.
Because relationships should beworkingfor you.
What kills me is that there were red flags. I liked him, so I let my emotions cloud my rational judgment. So much for lawyers not being “emotionally open,” Mr. van der Zee. But maybe he has a point. I know how to protect my heart. But that’s not from being a lawyer.
“You should look at it as being a lawyer saved you from Wyatt,” Lakshmi says. “Now you can find someone who appreciates you for who you are.”
“A competitive, workaholic lawyer?” I ask.
“It looks like there’s a market for them. Ask Brooke if Ben has any friends.”
“Other than Zeger van der Zee.”
“Other than him.”
“That’s this bunch of emails. How’s your batch going?”
“Almost finished,” Lakshmi says.
“Anyway, I met someone last night.”
“You’ve been glowing all day. I was beginning to wonder. Did you hook up?”
“We exchanged numbers. But then he said he hated lawyers, so I got flustered and left. But before that, there was definitely chemistry.” I open up the folder of documents marked by my team as relevant to study them.
“That’s fabulous.” Lakshmi clicks on her mouse.
“Dangerous.”
“Much better than Wyatt, then. If I recall correctly, you weren’t sure you were attracted to him initially.”
“Your memory is correct as always, counselor,” I say. “I should search up this guy Zeger and see what he looks like.”
“You should focus on beating Stuffed Shirt first,” Lakshmi says.
I salute her and call the document review room to check how my team is doing. Almost done. I hang up as Stuffed Shirt—today’s sartorial selection is a blue, pinstripe suit with a crisply ironed, white shirt—knocks on the door and then sticks his head into our office.
“My team is almost done reviewing their half of the document production.” Tom aka Stuffed Shirt steps farther into our office and leans against the wall, one hand on his waist, surveying us. “I hope you’re not slowing us down.”
“It won’t be my team slowing us down,” I say. The smirk on his face makes me want to pour a bucket of cold water over his head.
“Did you hear that I won the City banking case?” he asks. “See if you can top that, Jackowski.”
“I heard.” My tone is purposefully flat. “Congratulations.”
