That would have made it a performance, and you’ve had enough performances from me to last a lifetime.”

“Then why tell me now?”

“Because just now, you admitted at last you’re afraid I’ll walk away,” he said, and took a breath.

“And I needed you to know that this time — for the first time in my life — I made the structural choices before I made the promises.

I didn’t tell you I would stay and then hope I could arrange it.

I arranged it, ahead of time, so that staying was already a fact before I ever asked you to believe it.”