He smiled at me kindly, as he answered his wife’s question about whether mom and dad were the unfortunate couple he’d told her about one morning in mid-February several years ago, who’d met an accident when a truck had slammed into them during a snowy winter’s night.

He didn’t tell them the particulars and maybe he didn’t know them. Mom and Dad had stopped to help a stranded motorist, a single mom and her infant, and mom was helping dad retrieve some cables or something from the boot of the car, when the truck came seemingly out of nowhere and crushed them as it veered out of control in the heavily snowed-in, slippery road. The single mom and her infant had escaped unscathed, and so had the truck driver, but mom and dad had died instantly.

Philip wasn’t describing details, but he’d told Daisy, and the rest of the table the gist of what had happened. The others around the table were looking at me sympathetically, murmuring, “Sorry to hear that, Aerin,” in one form or another.

After I drank from the water glass again, to settle my thoughts, Daisy said charitably, to relieve the attention away from me, “Well, we just wanted to tell you, Annie, that we were heading home.” She looked over to the group of people they’d dined with, comprised of other couples, who were standing up and heading towards the restaurant door. “We’ll leave you and your friends to enjoy the rest of your evening, ok?”

She suddenly bent and whispered into my ear, “while you’re here in LA, feel free to call us if you need anything, alright dear?” I nodded, blinking back tears again, as she gave me a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Harley, honey, do take care of Aerin, would you?” she told Harley, looking across the table at her with a warm, motherly smile.   She blew Harley a kiss and faux-whispered to me, “Harley’s my favorite, Aerin. Amongst Annie’s friends. I’ve been urging Philip here to make her a partner already in the firm, or he might lose her to another firm.”

Philip had caught the last part of that, and answered my questioning look, “Yes. Harley’s a senior associate in our law firm, and, yes, dear, I am working behind the scenes to make her partner.”