He did not answer it.

He never answered it.

He told me, instead, that I was jealous, and dramatic, and that I needed to learn to control my temper — the three-word verdict that had ended every disagreement of our brief marriage, delivered so smoothly that I understood he had said it, in some form, to every woman who had ever asked him a hard question and expected an answer.

Chapter 5 — Learn Your Lesson

The next morning he picked up the leather travel binder that held our passports and our boarding passes, and at the terminal he handed me my passport, and kept my boarding pass.

“When you fix your attitude,” he said, easily, “I’ll give it to you.”