There is a kind of person who would have used that rescue for the rest of my life.

I know, because I was married to his opposite for eight years, and I had learned to recognize the shape of the man who saves you and then never lets you forget it — who holds the favor over you like a debt, who brings it up in every argument, who makes his kindness the down payment on your permanent obligation.

Victor did that with far smaller things than a rescue; he could make me feel indebted for a dinner reservation.

And so I came out of that marriage braced, without even knowing it, for the bill I assumed Marcus would eventually present.