And I said, “You don’t belong to nobody.”

And Walter said: “That’s a lovely thing to say.

It stops being true the second there’s paperwork.”

Part Five: Why I Said Yes

I did not say yes on the pavement.

I want that in, because the version that gets told back to me has me saying yes in about ninety seconds and I did not.

I said, “Let me think about it,” and then I went to work and did a fixed-asset reconciliation for four hours and did not think about anything else for one second.

I said yes the following morning.