“Out of your league,” he says.
“Is that right?”
“He’s right,” the woman says. “And I have a name. It’s Jennifer.”
“Nice to meet you,” I pantomime tipping my invisible hat to her, and she chuckles before giving Zack his beer. Then she heads off to make more drinks. She glides quickly when she moves, and it’s almost like she’s floating. How does she do that?
“How was your day?” Zack asks, sipping his drink.
“About as well as can be expected.” Zack and I work in the same building, on the same floor, but our work rarely intersects these days. We’re still close and we still meet for lunch on occasion, but we’re both so wrapped up in our own cases that we’ve taken to scheduling time together.
“Nasty cases this week?”
“You don’t want to know,” I roll my eyes, but then I tell him anyway. “The thing is, if people just continued to treat each other the way they did at the beginning of the relationship, they’d never end up divorced. You know why people walk through my office doors, Zack?”
“Tell me,” he looks amused.
“Because they get lazy, and they get stagnant, and they don’t fucking communicate with each other.”
Fuck.
I shouldn’t let it get to me this week. It’s just another week. These are not my relationships. I am not a counselor. My job isn’t to save a failing marriage; it’s to get the best deal for my client.
“You sound bitter.”
“I am. I’ve seen some women this week who had no clue their husbands were cheating, no idea they were so unhappy. I had a guy who didn’t know his wife of eight years had secret
ly been stashing away cash so she could leave him. He didn’t want a damn thing in the divorce, Zack. He just told me he wants her to be happy.”
“Damn.”
“He didn’t want anything. He gave her more than half of what he had in the bank. He gave her stocks. He gave her the house. He gave her everything. You know what he told me?”
Zack sighs. “Tell me.”
“He said he can make the money back. It’s just money. That’s what he told me. He said he knows it isn’t going to buy her happiness, but he’s going to do anything in his power to make sure she lives a good, happy life, even if it’s not with him.”
“That’s heavy.”
“I don’t know how long I can keep doing this, man.”
“You thinking of making a switch?”
“I don’t know. Part of me wants to.”
Zack doesn’t react. He might work in property law, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t damn great at what he does. Like me, he’s perfected his poker face. He needs it when he’s dealing with clients, when he’s dealing with other attorneys, when he’s dealing with people in general.
“How long have you been thinking about this?” Zack asks casually.
“Awhile.”
We sit in silence for a few minutes, staring at the television screen behind the bar. There’s a game on, but neither one of us is really paying attention. The screen blurs in a series of colors, and I have no idea who is winning, who is playing, or what sport we’re watching.
All I know is that I’m very, very unhappy, and I need something new, something different.
I need something fresh.
“Maybe you just need to get laid,” Zack says helpfully.