He has never paid for anything at that club.

The room was paid for by a committee out of ticket sales at eighty-five dollars a head.

“The bar’s covered.” It was not.

The open bar was a package in contract 4471, paid for in advance out of the same ticket sales, and the moment he said that sentence, a hundred and eighty-four people believed something about their own money that was not true, and the club’s banquet manager spent the last hour of the evening being asked about it.

“My firm acquired this club.” His firm did not acquire anything.