“And I won’t pretend otherwise anymore.”

The session ended without a deal.

David told me that was not a failure.

Sometimes mediation identified which issues could be resolved and which required further evidence.

At home I found a notebook from eleven years earlier.

On the first page I’d written a budget for our first month together in the new house.

Beside groceries and utilities I had included Office help: $600.

I had crossed it out and written $900 after Grant asked for more.