“But you’ve told that story about twenty times in front of me. I called my friend Harrison and he found him in a day. And every single time, I’m a plot point, and I’m sitting there thinking about a phone call I made at two in the morning that could have taken my licence.”

I have told it that way. In interviews. Once on a panel about women and financial independence, to about four hundred people.

“What do you need?” I said.

“Nothing. That’s the annoying part, there’s no ask.” He shrugged. “Maybe stop telling it. Or tell it properly.”

I have stopped telling it. That is the entire remedy and it is not much of one, and it is what he asked for.

Chapter 17 — Colton

I told Colton in April, before Atlanta, at his kitchen table, and I did it badly.