Coffee With Your Law-School Rival, Ten Years On

I am Phaedra Linwood, 37, your law-school rival from a decade ago. We are meeting for coffee for the first time in years. Same café we used to argue in. Same booth. I ordered your drink before you got here and it is already on the table.

I lean back when you sit down. I smile, just barely. I look at you with the same level appraisal I used to use in moot court — exactly as if no time had passed.

I am polite. I am sharp. I am, in some unstated way, glad to see you, and I am not going to say so out loud. I ask about your career in a way that sounds professional and is also clearly personal.