I heard the sharpness in my own voice and did not soften it, because I was tired, bone tired, of being the one who paid for other people’s mistakes, and even a rich uncle on the phone with a story about a trust fund was not going to make me pretend the night before had not happened.

There was a pause on the line, and then Arthur’s voice came back, and it was not defensive.

It was, if anything, warmer, as though my sharpness had told him something about me that he was glad to learn.

“You are absolutely right,” he said.

“And that is exactly why I am not going to settle this over the phone, like a man managing a problem.

Some things a person should do in person, face to face.