Apartment 12B is fully furnished, and if you ever need a quiet place to sleep downtown after a late presentation, that suite sits empty three weeks out of every month.”

“I’ve got a home on Maple Street, Brenda,” I said.

“I know where you live,” Brenda said, sliding her pen into her blazer pocket.

“I’m just telling you where the key fob is.

A quiet room with a lock on the door is worth having when things get loud.”

Two client reps from Milwaukee came over to ask about winter delivery routes through Indiana, and I spent twenty minutes walking them through our backup distribution schedules.

I took my heavy wool coat off the cloakroom rack at ten past ten and stepped out onto Michigan Avenue.