I bit back a grin. It really did. “We’re half an hour into this drive, and we’ve only gotten through four questions becauseyou’ve questioned me about every answer, including this one,” I shot back. “I’ve never met anyone who needed to talk so much.”
“We’re getting to know each other better, since we’re beingfriendly.” Goodman crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t care so much about what shape you want your sandwich cut into, I care aboutwhy.”
“And you keep correcting me.”
“Only when you’re wrong,” he shot back. “I want you to lead a fulfilling life, Knox. I’m a giver that way. And to hear you say that you’ve been eating your sandwiches in rectangles all these years and decades and you can’t even tell mewhy…” He sighed, then bent down and rustled in the backpack at his feet, pulled out the largest bag of Twizzlers I’d ever seen, and shoved them in his mouth four at a time. “Vuh unezzamined wife iv noh worf wivving.”
“Thank you, Socrates. How do you eat that junk?”
Goodman swallowed and glanced over at me. “Happily.” He grinned. “You know, Knox, I feel like I’m saving you in a way. Becauseweawwy—” He paused to ingest more strawberry plastic and swallow. “—really, this is how evil geniuses are born.”
I blinked. “Watching you eating Twizzlers? I concur.”
“No, by failing to consider the tiny changes you could make to become happier, like the triangular sandwich. Because if you live your life long enough wondering why other people seem so much happier than you, then eventually yousnap. You build a freeze ray on top of an abandoned paint factory and start filling a vat with stingrays you’ve armed with throwing knives.”
I shook my head sadly. “You make it sound so easy, but sourcing an army of trained stingrays is harder than you think.”
He threw back his head and laughed in delight, which made my stomach clench pleasantly.
“You know, it’s funny to me that a man can get so pissed off when I suggest empirically proven methods for efficient dishwashing?—”
“Efficient,” he snorted.
“—yet can have such nonsensical opinions about sandwich shapes.”
“They’re not nonsensical. It’s about the ratio of bread to filling to crust, combined with the shapely aesthetic magnificence of the right triangle.” He sketched a triangle in the air with a Twizzler, like maybe I’d forgotten what triangles looked like. “The secret to happiness has been sitting right in front of you all this time.”
I shook my head. “It’s clear that our parents named the wrong one of us after philosophers, Goodman.”
“Maybe so.” Goodman grinned. “But I’m stillway coolerthan you,” he said in an Aiden-voice. “So, what time’s your appointment tomorrow?”
I blinked at this topic change. “Uh… I dunno. Probably early, but we haven’t set a time yet.”
He nodded. “Oh, so not like a doctor,then.”
“No.” My occasional calls with Dr. Travers were plenty, thank you. “An appointment with a… colleague. Why do you want to know?”
I worked hard not to sound guilty.
Apparently, I failed.
Goodman laughed. “Oh my God, why are you so squirrelly? Are you and your colleague robbing a bank? Murdering someone? Soliciting a prostitute?”
“Please,” I scoffed. “I’m stopping by my office, and we’re going to grab coffee whenever he can squeeze me in, okay, Nancy Drew?”
“Yeah, I have no idea who that is,” he said with a happy grin, and I couldn’t tell whether he was lying. “You mean yourformeroffice, right? The investment place?”
“Obviously. Yes. My former office.” The lie tasted like sawdust. “Bormon Klein Jacovic.”
Goodman nodded. “Do you miss it?”
“Can we go back to talking about sandwiches?”
“Nope. We’re getting to know each other. It’s this or the BuzzFeed quiz.”
I rubbed my neck. “That’s… a big question,” I deflected, but when he stayed silent—because of course,thatwas the one moment Goodman didn’t have a million thoughts and opinions to share—I found myself saying, “There are parts about it that I miss. Lots of parts. I started working there fifteen years ago, and I’m really good at what I do. I turned my position into what it is today,” I said proudly. “I literally wrote the training manual the company uses. I supervise a whole team of auditors, and I’m responsible for some really crucial, high-level decisions. So.”
“Sounds boring, but okay.”
