“You didn’t have to sneak around.”

“I’ve requested it through counsel too.”

He studied me.

The conversation was not going as neatly as he wanted.

“I’ve been harsh,” he said finally.

“Business pressure.

It was wrong to take it out on you.”

For a moment, I heard the man I had met three years earlier, the man who had asked what I wanted instead of explaining why what I wanted was impractical.