Page 94 of Goodbye Girl

“When I say I have the solution, it’s a proposal, Jack. Not a mandate.”

“The ‘solution’ depends on how you define the ‘problem.’ I’m just not sure the clash between our careers is the only thing we need to sort out.”

“What do you mean?”

She seemed genuinely confused, which wasn’t the reaction he’d expected. He was testing the waters, to see if she’d been feeling the same “fog” he was feeling. Apparently not. Jack wished he hadn’t raised it.

“Never mind. I like your approach better. Tonight should be about what’s right between us.”

Andie arched an eyebrow. “Never mind?” she said, having none of his tap dance. “If there’s something else wrong, I want to know.”

“There’s nothing.”

“There must be something, or you wouldn’t have said it.”

Her point was irrefutable, and it put Jack in backpedaling mode. He wasn’t prepared to discuss amorphous feelings—or loss of feelings—he couldn’t explain, especially if he alone was experiencing them and, now that he’d brought it up, Andie was not going to let it go. He dug deep for a “problem” that wasn’t real, just to have something to say.

“I just want to make sure none of this has anything to do with the stunt Imani pulled in the courtroom.”

“Imani? Please,” she said, groaning. “Like I’m threatened by the ultimate pick-me girl.”

“You know that term—‘pick-me girl’?”

“Well, yeah. The hashtag has over two billion hits on TikTok. At least that’s what the online-bullying bulletin from Righley’s school said.”

Jack was starting to feel like a social media dinosaur, but he was happy to take the conversation in a different direction. “It’s weird you call her that. Imani says my opposing counsel is a pick-me girl.”

“If Imani is calling anyone a pick-me girl, all I can say is that it takes one to know one.”

“Imani is a pick-me girl?”

“Oh, my God, Jack. Do you know anything at all about your client?”

“Apparently not.”

“She was married to Shaky Nichols.”

“Well, I know that much.”

“Shaky was almost as bad as Harvey Weinstein. He was so gross, and she not only defended him, but she married him. All to advance her career. ‘Pick me, Shaky, pick me.’”

“If she was trying to advance her career, it backfired. He screwed her over on the master recordings contract.”

“Of course he did. I love Imani’s music, and she’s an amazing performer. But no one ever said being a pick-me girl was a smart move.”

Andie’s cellphone vibrated on the table. She glanced at it, and then her eyes met Jack’s.

“Go ahead,” said Jack. “It’s a weeknight.”

She took the phone and stepped away from the table. Jack’s gaze drifted across the club toward the bar, where Theo should have been. Then his thoughts turned to Shaky, the Harvey Weinstein of the music industry. He tried to fight it off, but he was on the slippery slope back into work mode.

Andie returned, and the glow of her earlier visit to the ladies’ room had evaporated.

“I’m so sorry, Jack. I have to go to the field office.”

He didn’t ask what for. He knew better.

“It’s okay. I can Uber. This was fun.”

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