“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?”

“The guy in the apartment next to me, Ray Nardo.”

“Wait, honey!” Jess said excitedly. “Ray Nardo? Like Reynard? That’s French for Fox. I know because I majored in French.”

“Oh my God, you’re right,” I muttered. “I didn’t even think of that! He seems like a criminal.”

“He seems like a criminal?” Mark asked with a smile.

“Ignore him,” Adam said with a sarcastic look. “He hangs out with criminals for a living.” Mark rolled his eyes, shared an amused look with Cam and took a sip of his beer.

“He really does,” I insisted. “He’s mean and unfriendly and his eyes are really cold.”

“Unfriendly,” Gab repeated, typing on her iPad. “Name may be a play on French translation of Fox.”

“The only other tenant on my floor, our floor,” I corrected myself, glancing at Adam, “is Herb, this very innocuous guy who works for SEPTA, and lives for SEPTA. He loves to talk about train schedules, and bus routes, and things like that.”

“What’s his last name?” Gab asked.

“Lawrence, Herb Lawrence. He really is such a little mouse of a guy. Very polite, kind of nerdy. I could never picture him being a hit man.”

“Polite mass transit enthusiast, no obvious fox connection,” Gab noted.

“Anyway, one floor down is Donna, who’s basically an okay person, if you can get past the fact she’s a drunken, lecherous cougar who probably turns tricks.”

“Last name?” Gab asked again.

“Um, Diego, I think,” I answered.

“Donna Diego?” Cam asked. “Like Don Diego? You, know … El Zorro? Doesn’t that mean the Fox in Spanish?”

“What?” Braden asked, dubiously.

“No, wait. He’s right!” Mark said with a laugh. “Zorro’s real name was Don Diego, and El Zorro really is ‘The Fox’ in Spanish.”

“I don’t know. I think you’re stretching it now,” Adam said. “You haven’t met Donna.”

“Drunken cougar hooker, who may be a Zorro fan,” Gab said, entering the information.

“Then there’s Vixen, just Vixen, who’s a tattoo artist and body piercer, likely so she can inflict pain legally. She’s the right personality type, but she would be hard to miss. She doesn’t exactly blend in with the crowd, you know?”

“A vixen is a female fox!” Jess piped up, sounding like she was playing Trivial Pursuit. “This is fun, honey.”

“One bad attitude tattoo artist, named after female fox,” Gab repeated, typing away.

“Also on that floor are Regina and Mario. I think their real last name is Rosselli but I call them the Sopranos.”

“Wait, Mario Rosselli!” It was Braden’s turn this time. “Wasn’t he one of the owners of that adult bookstore who was investigated for allegedly laundering money for the Moretti family?”

“Yeah!” Adam jumped in “Foxy Lady Books.”

“Porn peddler with ties to Moretti, owns business with Fox in name,” Gab summarized.

“Okay, this is just getting weird at this point. So far, Herb and I are the only ones with no fox connection.”

“I don’t think Mr. Viagra has one,” Adam offered, “although he does like foxy ladies.”

“Oh yeah, Gab,” I said, “Do you remember a guy who took Viagra and committed a bunch of moving violations?”

“Oh my God. Mr. Davis is one of your neighbors?” she replied. Braden, Adam, Mark and Cam all looked at each other and cracked up. Obviously, they all remembered Mr. Davis. “Geriatric booty caller,” Gab said with a sigh, typing.

“Um, Yuri Ivanovich is on Mr. Davis’ floor. He’s another person who wouldn’t blend very easily. He looks like Lurch from the Addams Family. I honestly don’t know anything about him except that something about him reminds me of a KGB agent.”

“Lurch KGB,” Gab noted.

“Then there’s local, semi-derelict, M. Kazinski. I’ve heard people yell out, ‘hey, Scratch’ to him, so I guess that’s his nickname. I don’t know anything about him either, except it seems like people around the neighborhood know him. I see him hanging out on the street a lot. And that’s it. That’s my building. Nobody lives on the actual first floor.”

“So Adam,” Mark asked with a smirk, “how do you like your new digs?”

“I’m sure he likes the bedroom,” Braden replied with a laugh.

“I like my roommate,” Adam answered with a smirk of his own.

“I’ll bet your mom is really happy.” Mark was on a roll.

“Happy? Are you kidding? She’s probably alerted the media by now. Miracle in Philadelphia: How my daily prayers saved my son, the womanizer.” Braden obviously was too. That one cracked up Mark and Cam.

“Oh Braden. Leave him alone,” Gab said with a laugh. “Jewish mothers are just especially fierce when it comes to seeing their kids happily married and settled.”

Suddenly, it must have struck her that not all Jewish mothers cared so deeply about their children being happily settled, because she looked up at me and her cheeks turned pink.

“Some are just fierce in general,” I joked weakly and Adam reached over and put his arm around me protectively. Bruce, unfortunately, was even less tactful than Gab.

“Jesus, Lil, she’s never acted like a mother to you,” he thoughtfully reminded me. “She’s never been there for you. The only time she talks to you is to tell you how disappointed she and your father are in you. She doesn’t care if you live in the ghetto; she doesn’t care if you spend the rest of your life alone. Why don’t you just write her off already?”

“I have written her off,” I said, uncomfortably. “I’ve written both of my parents off. I’m tired of trying to please them and failing. I’m tired of ‘do what we want or we’ll pretend you don’t exist.’ I gave up a long time ago.”

“Well, so why do you care if you beat her in court?” he shot back.

“Because I want to put the past behind me. I want to stand up and say, I am strong and capable. Even if I lose, as long as I argue well, I stood on her playing field, and I stood as her equal. Then I can move on and not doubt whether or not I’m good enough anymore. This is to make sure that I respect me and I love me, not that she does.”

“I’ll take Sachs,” Adam broke in, sounding like he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

“Adam, you have enough of your own cases to handle. I’m not going to let you take on extra work because I’m on some personal crusade. I picked this fight with both of them. I can take them both.”

I wasn’t going to drag Adam into this with me. He had enough work of his own to worry about. Besides, I could fight my own battles. I always had. I glanced up at Jacob who was allowing his redhead to fawn all over him. Charming.

“You shouldn’t have to take them both,” Adam said in a tone of voice that made me look back at him. He was staring at me intently. “You’re not alone anymore, Lily,” he said quietly in a way that made me feel like he could see into my soul. “I’m with you and I’ve got your back. It will give me great pleasure to take that arrogant son of a bitch down for you, and then you can concentrate on doing what you have to do.”

Slowly I felt myself smile, and I felt tears prick at my eyes again. Jesus, I was becoming a regular freaking waterworks. I don’t think I’d cried as much in the past two years as I had in the past two weeks.

“Okay,” I nodded and bit my lip, digging my nails into my palms to hold it together. “We’ll go over strategy on Sunday,” I said, my voice quavering a little. “The argument is Wednesday, right before Thanksgiving. Hopefully, we’ll have a court victory to be thankful for.” I paused and collected myself. “And thank you, Adam. I love you,” I added in a whisper.

“I love you too,” he mouthed back with a smile and pulled me into a tight hug.

I hugged him back, and I didn’t care who saw. Neither one of us did, obviously. I had a feeling that our friends wouldn’t tease us about this one anyway. I heard Braden clear his throat and start discussing what everyone should bring the next day, and Adam and I let go of each other, kept calm and carried on.

Chapter Thirty

The next evening our friends gathered in my, our, apartment an hour before the party was supposed to start. It seemed that we were ready. We had alcohol. We had chips. We had pretzels, hummus and crudités. All we needed was the nuts.

It turned out we wouldn’t have to break in Dan McGuire’s apartment after all. When I notified the landlord that I was having a locksmith come by, he said he would be putting in an order for Dan McGuire’s locks too, since he seemed to have skipped out. He asked if I could hold onto the new keys until he picked them up. I still had them. My landlord wasn’t really quick to do anything.