You set them up, Derek said, and the anger had drained out of the words and left something smaller and more frightened underneath, a man beginning to understand that the ground had moved.

You let them order all of that on purpose.

And this was the accusation I had been waiting for, because it was the one I most needed to answer cleanly, for him and for myself, so there would be no confusion later about what I had and had not done.

I did not order the lobster towers, Derek, I said.

I did not order the ribeye or the king crab or the fifty-year port or the two hundred dollar wine.