“It’s wonderful,” I said, and I smiled at Julian, and he kissed my cheek and told me I was a natural.

I gathered the pages into their folder and held it against my chest.

Arthur walked us to the conference room door and shook my hand, which he had not done in ten years of Sunday dinners.

“Friday,” he said.

“We will be finished before summer.”

The hallway was long and carpeted and lined with framed licenses.

Julian kept his hand at my back.

“You see how fast that was?” he said.