That’s not why.”

Then, after a while: “Because I’ve never once in two years been in a room where somebody wanted something from me and told me the whole reason. This is the closest anybody’s come and it still came with a memo.”

Then: “I’d like to still be the person who has dinner with you and Owen. I’d like that a lot. I just can’t be the fourth name on a list, even a good list, even yours.”

And then, at the end, in a voice Daniel had not heard from her since the hospital: “Because it’s the last thing I have that nobody’s used yet.”

She was on the phone another eleven minutes. When she came out her eyes were red and she said, “That was awful,” and got a glass of water and stood at the sink drinking it.

“What did she say?”