I was livid.

I want to be honest about that, because I spent so much of my working life swallowing things, being gracious, being invisible, and in that moment something in me came very close to breaking through all of it.

Because Julian did not understand, could not understand, what four hundred dollars was to me.

To him it was a line item, a rounding error, a small unpleasantness to be disposed of in the most convenient way.

To me it was the electric bill.