The past few weeks of loneliness melted from Shira’s mind. She and Ephraim, working together. He was going to get an A

“Rejection. It leaves us feeling incompetent and worthless.”

Adam Grant, Taken for Granted, Season 2: Episode 7

“Hey, can you help me?”

Ephraim’s voice was soft, which got Shira nervous for a second. Something was wrong.

“Sure.” She took her air pods out and sat up straight on the couch.

“Great, so listen.” Ephraim gestured to the coffee table, where he’d placed a book. “I have my first paper that I’m writing. It’s due in two days, and it’s killing me.” He took a deep breath. “It’s for a class where they’re teaching us how to write law papers, it needs to have a certain structure. Anyway, I was never good at writing; I went to high school in New York, where English barely exists. Can you help?”

“Of course.” Shira said immediately.

Ephraim was home; he wasn’t holed up in a room studying. He was talking to her; he was asking for help. Did she know how to write? Not really. Was she better at it than he was? Probably.

“Okay, so we have to draft a memo. Which means basically we have to present both sides of an argument and then write which one we think will come out on top and why.”

Shira nodded. This didn’t sound so bad, an advanced pro-con list or something like that?

“Our professor gives us a few options of cases he built, and we take the case and apply the law, or as much as we know of it, to the case.”

“But I don’t know any law,” Shira said.

“Right, so, I can give you material to read — it’s not much — and then tell you what to write, and you’ll make it sound better than I could.”