Cate thinks she was last here maybe a month ago. Ricky moves fast and efficiently when she wants something done. This is part of what makes her successful in her job.

“What’s up with dinner?” Cate says. “Where are the simmering pots, the homey aromas?” This is a joke. Cate has to go back at least a decade to come up with a holiday dinner actually prepared in this kitchen.

“We got it from Stella Brown this year. Her menus are always interesting. Your Caesar, that can be our traditional element. I’m too beat from the Christmas ramp-up at the store. Nothing is going right, plus I think they’re trying to edge me out, or at least over. There’s a kid they’ve brought in from New York, from the flagship. Haydn. Right. So anyway, with the catering, I just have to warm up everything. It’ll be fine. And then we’ll be done and we will have gotten through another holiday.”

“Well, when you put it that way, it sounds memorable. Moving, even.”

“Why don’t you go in the den and let Jason know you’re here? He’s only reading. Some giant book on tree grafting. He’d probably welcome an interruption. So he can rest his wrists.”

“I’ll wait until dinner.” She never knows what to say to Jason. Although he is only a couple of years older than Cate, they inhabit different galaxies. He is her mother’s third husband, a River North florist Ricky uses for special functions at the store. Although Cate is mildly creeped out by the two of them being together, she also understands that objectively, their pairing probably isn’t all that ridiculous. Her mother, in her mid-sixties, is still attractive in a slightly sharpened way. And still powerful in the world of retail design. If she wants a new man, she can still pluck one from a moderately deep pond. Jason is the latest koi. Except for encyclopedic knowledge about flowers and plants, he is vapor. Even his vices are recessive. He’s vaguely alcoholic. Nothing showy or embarrassing, just that he always has a drink at hand and, as an evening wears on, recedes farther and farther into a quiet, comfortable niche. He is kind of hypnotic to watch. His eyes are heavily lidded. His hair is a pale color that’s neither gray nor blond, and it’s thick, cut short like a scrub brush. He has a calibrated amount of stubble. He’s small, maybe even a little smaller than Ricky.