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The courthouse cafeteria had gone without Phoenix Wright’s presence for years. While most had not noticed this change to the dining hall’s population, despite him typically being accompanied by at least one unforgettable spirit medium whose cheery voice cut through the ambience, there was one man who quickly grew to miss seeing him across his usual table. That’s why the moment he spotted the disgraced former attorney walk through the doorway of said cafeteria, Winston Payne was the first to greet him.
“Mr. Wright!”
Phoenix had never heard that faintly familiar voice ever call him by name so enthusiastically.
“Hey, uh,” he chuckled to buy himself time, digging his hands into his hoodie’s pockets, “Mr., um…”
Despite Payne having the memory of Phoenix as a defendant just this past April, he didn’t hold the man’s lapse in memory against him.
“Winston Payne.” He held his hand out for a shake, patiently waiting for Phoenix to free a hand from his pocket for this redoing of introductions. “How’ve you been?”
“Oh, you know…” Phoenix’s gaze wandered. “Just… life, fatherhood, work.”
Payne felt like Phoenix’s standoffishness was due to his role as the prosecutor in the Shadi Smith case. While he knew that Phoenix likely understood it was just how trials worked with nothing personally against him, Payne could understand if he wanted to keep some distance.
“Right, you have a daughter now, don’t you?” Payne ran his fingers through the hair he was so proud of growing at this age despite the curse that is male pattern baldness. “You know, this isn’t the first time a defense attorney colleague of mine left and came back as a father. Must be something in the water here,” he joked, but immediately felt his foot enter his mouth as his words played back in his mind.
“I do, yeah, but she’s…”
“Adopted, I know,” Payne finished the correction, but once again feared that just made things more awkward. Desperate to save the conversation, he pulled out his wallet to show off a collection of photos. “Here’s my daughter. She’s in college now, but it feels like just yesterday she was taking her first steps.”
Phoenix leaned in to look at each photograph. His expression softened in understanding of a fellow father’s pride. He probably would not be in the mood to pour out everything he had been through in the past seven years, but he definitely seemed less closed-off.
“Kids really do grow up fast, don’t they?” His posture returned to his original slouched standing. “What’s her name?”
“Lorena!” Payne beamed.
“Hmm…” Phoenix stared off into the distance blankly.
“Is something wrong?”
Phoenix was silent for a while before shaking his head.
“No, no,” he finally said, “I was just wondering what the name Lorena Payne is supposed to be.”
“What do you mean? She’s named after my wife Connie’s grandmother who died just before we got married.”
“And Connie is short for Constance, right?”
“That’s absolutely correct,” Payne confirmed, “I’m so glad you remembered! Of course, Connie is quite hard to forget!”
“Winston Payne, ‘ winced in pain,’ and Constance Payne, ‘constant pain,” Phoenix broke down the names, “but I can’t figure out what Lorena Payne is supposed to sound like.” He watched Payne’s prideful smile turn into an offended grimace. “Don’t tell me nobody has pointed that out to you before.”
“Of course nobody has said anything like that to me! Probably because they had manners! ”
“So you didn’t pick your daughter’s name to go with Payne?”
“Why would we do something so… so cruel!? ”
“I just thought–”
“I’ve heard enough of how you think!” Payne huffed. “You’re lucky my brother Gaspen isn’t here to hear you say these… these awful things!”
Gaspen? Gaspen… Payne?
Phoenix had to wait until Payne had stormed away far enough before he could allow himself to laugh.