Flinch Factor, The by Michael Kahn Page B

skirt.
    She sniffed the air. “Barbecue?”
    â€œSnoots and tips,” Benny said. “Grab a chair, Sexy.”
    â€œMaybe a few nibbles,” she said. “I’ve got a dinner date tonight.”
    â€œFreddy?” I asked.
    She took a seat and nodded. “Freddy.”
    Judge Fred Epstein was Jacki’s latest beau. They were an odd couple, since he was fifteen years older, eight inches shorter, and a hundred pounds lighter than his lady love. He told me it was love at first sight the day Jacki appeared before him in family court on a motion for protective order in a nasty divorce case. Indeed, the only downside to their relationship was that Judge Epstein was one of the better judges for divorce cases. Because Jacki specialized in divorce cases, their relationship meant that she could have him in the bedroom or the courtroom but not both. Except for the one time a case of hers got reassigned to Judge Flinch, she’d never regretted the tradeoff.
    Benny gave her a Groucho Marx leer. “Freddy’s in for a treat tonight. You are looking quite voluptuous, Ms. Brand.”
    She blushed. “If I didn’t know you better, Benny, I’d think you were flirting.”
    â€œI am flirting. What do you mean ‘know me better’?”
    â€œShe means,” I said, “that she might think you were flirting if she didn’t know that you prefer girls who might ask you to their senior prom.”
    â€œOh, very funny, Rachel Gold. Ho, ho, ho. Such a clever girl.”
    He took a swig of beer.
    â€œYou know what your problem is?” he said. “Actually, both of your problems?”
    I winked at Jacki and turned to Benny. “Enlighten us, Professor.”
    â€œYou can’t deal with consistency in a man.”
    â€œIs that so?” I said. “Please explain, Ralph Waldo.”
    â€œBy the time I turned twenty-five, I had discovered that I preferred girls who were around that age.”
    â€œHardly a unique discovery.”
    â€œAh, but I didn’t realize then that my tastes had fully matured.”
    â€œMeaning?” I asked.
    â€œMeaning that I still prefer girls around that age, and probably always will.”
    â€œFully matured?” Jacki chuckled.
    I said, “It’s not worth it, Jacki. We know the man is a total pig, but he brought you snoots and he brought me ribs and he brought both of us beer. As I’ve learned, he’s much more fun to eat with than argue with.”
    She eyed the basket of snoots and nodded. “Good advice.”
    She turned to Benny, pressed her hands together in front of her chest, and bowed toward him. “I thank you and your mature tastes.”
    He pried the cap off a bottle of beer and handed it to her.
    â€œUp yours, Hot Stuff. Have some snoots.”
    I smiled as I watched them banter.
    Jacki Brand and I met nearly a decade ago when she was still a Granite City steelworker named Jack Brand. When St. Louis University Law School accepted his application to the night program, Jack Brand decided to quit his steelworker job and pursue both of this dreams: to become a lawyer and to become a woman.
    I hired him as my legal assistant at the front end of those pursuits, when he had just started attending law classes and taking hormone shots and wearing dresses and wigs. The new Jacki Brand helped keep my law practice organized, and I helped teach her to be a woman. The week after she received her law school diploma, she underwent the final surgical procedure that lopped off the last dangling evidence of her original gender.
    When she passed the bar exam six years ago, I changed the title of my firm from the Law Offices of Rachel Gold to Rachel Gold & Associates, Attorneys at Law . A year ago, I made her my law partner. I kept it a secret until the new signs and business cards were ready. She left for court that morning from the offices of Rachel Gold & Associates and returned that afternoon to Gold