He talked about the early days, and the office on Kettner with the leak, and the eleven days at my kitchen table doing the term sheet, and he said — twice — that we had been an incredible team.

He said he had changed.

He said he understood now.

He said that he had spent nine months thinking about it and that he had realized what he had thrown away.

And then he said: “We could rebuild.

You and me.

From nothing, like before.

I know I can’t ask you to — but you know what I’m capable of when somebody’s got my back.”