“Because if you are—”

The phone rang. I grabbed the receiver. “Hello?” I said.

“Hey, Dad.”

“Angie!” I said, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically. “Hey, we were just talking about you.”

“Who?”

“Paul and I. We were just saying you were probably in a class.”

“That’s right, Dad. That’s what I do. I’m at college.” Still a bit frosty.

“I know, I know. We were just thinking about you, that’s all.”

“Is Mom there by any chance?”

“No, hon, she’s at work. What can I do for you?”

There was a hint of a sigh. She would have to deal with me. “Would I be able to have the car tonight? Because I’ve got a bunch of things to do, and I need to go to the mall, and then I have to do some research for this essay, and—”

“Guess what. I bought a car today.”

A hesitation. “Oh my God, are you serious? Like, not to replace the Camry, but a second car?”

“That’s right.”

“That’s so awesome! What did you get?”

“Listen, why don’t I drive down and show it to you? I’ll give you a lift home.”

“Sure, I guess.”

“Now, I have to warn you, you may not like it. The car has not been unanimously endorsed by members of this household.” I glared at Paul, who had reached into the fridge, grabbed a beer bottle, and was miming the act of opening it, looking at me for approval. I shook my head.

“Oh well, as long as it’s got wheels,” she said, and told me to pick her up in front of Galloway Hall at 5:30 P.M., when her last tutorial of the day would be over.

I hung up the phone and barely had time to tell Paul to put the beer back into the fridge when the phone rang again. It was Sarah.

“This retreat thing starts early tomorrow morning,” Sarah said. “So the paper’s paying for a room at the conference center so we can go tonight, be ready to start fresh in the morning, instead of having to get up before dawn and driving an hour and a half.”

“Great,” I said.

“So I’m getting out of here now, gonna come home and throw some stuff in a bag, have a quick bite to eat, and then Bev, you know her? The foreign editor?”

“Yeah.”

“Bev’s being sent to this thing, too, so she’s going to pick me up around six and we’re going to head up.” It was already a little past four.

“If you’re here by five,” I said, “I’ll see you, but I’ve promised Angie I’d pick her up at five-thirty. I’ll get some dinner started.”

I had some pork tenderloin in a mushroom gravy going when Sarah got home at four forty-five. She dropped herself into one of the kitchen chairs.