“You sure?” I said, because I ordered a rib-eye steak and I wanted to enjoy it. The waiter took our menus and I tried to focus.

“And just last week, Cally asked me what I thought about the name Nell.” Ruth made a quizzical face. “Why would she do that? She knows we having naming rights.” Ruth bit into a piece of plain bread, not interested in butter.

“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. These signs were not good.

“She knows we’re leaning toward Elizabeth.” Ruth took a long drink of water.

“What’s your point?”

“My point is, we need to lock it down.” Ruth looked around the restaurant as if there were a chorus of strangers who understood more about this than I did. The place was not busy on a Monday night, so there was no ready audience. “Make sure we get our child,” she said, her eyes sad.

“We can’t force her, you realize that.” I sipped my wine.

“But she agreed. We have the contract,” said Ruth, fidgeting with her silverware, and in this moment I was glad she only had a soup spoon and not a steak knife. “I’m just saying maybe we should speed up the transfer date.”

“We can’t do that,” I said, wiping the crumbs off the thick white tablecloth.

“Yes, we can.” She looked in the breadbasket, but it was empty.

“All right,” I said, clarifying, “we shouldn’t do that.”

“We shouldn’t? Why not?”

“For enforceability,” I said in a tone of finality. I’d tried to explain enforceability to Ruth time and time again. She said she understood it, but she didn’t agree.

“I guess I’ll have to take your word for it,” she said, motioning for the waiter to bring us more bread.

And now, as we sat in the conference room waiting for the director of patient relations to return, Ruth was on the same sorrowful wavelength. I tried to comfort her. “This isn’t anyone’s fault,” I said, but I knew that if this deal went sour, I would certainly be the first one she’d blame.

The director knocked on the conference room door and walked in.

“Any news?” I asked, hopeful for a diversion.

The director clasped her hands. “I don’t have anything specific just yet. But I have confirmed that we had security cameras on the areas that may have been involved.”

“Good,” said Ruth, standing up. “I want to see the footage.”

“And I anticipated that request,” said the director. “Our team is reviewing the footage in order to prepare it for viewing. It’s protocol.”

“How long will that take?” I asked.

“Not long,” said the director. “I should have an answer for you by late afternoon or this evening. It’s a Saturday, so we’re reaching out to our various department heads and stakeholders.”

“We understand,” I said, hoping I could speak for us both.