“It’s just a lunch table.”

“It’s a lunch table today.” The burner lit with a soft thump.

“Next it’s a write-up in your file, and after that it’s my name in somebody’s mouth at a school levy meeting.”

“Megan already threatened me with a write-up.”

He went quiet the way a man does when he’s been handed something he would rather not hold.

“I’m not asking you to like him,” he said.

“Nobody likes him.