“The guy at the shop said he could do smaller barbells.” Wilder’s voice raises.

“At a higher expense,” I shout back.

Wilder’s face contorts into pure anger. “And I told you, I don’t care about the expense. There’s no price I wouldn’t pay for you to have that experience.”

Sanders holds up his hand. “Okay, we’re going to pause right here.” He lets out a deep breath. “I see there’s a lot of deep-seated animosity between the two of you, and that’s what today is about. Today’s about getting it all out there, not holding back anything that might be sitting on your chest. So I’d like you to get comfortable, because we’re about to get down to the nitty-gritty.”

I glance over at Wilder, facing off. Seems like he has no intention of keeping this tight and pulled together. So I slip my shoes off my feet, turn toward him completely, and sit cross-legged.

Let the games begin.

“It started when he stepped on Velcro,” I say.

“They were brand-new, expensive socks,” Wilder snaps. “The Velcro was going to tear them apart, and then what, I’m just going to flush fifteen dollars down the drain?”

“Maybe don’t buy the expensive socks,” I counter.

“Says the girl who has caveman feet. You know my feet are sensitive. You know if my socks touch me in a weird way, I can’t walk properly. That’s how I ended up with that lopsided gait.”

“You ended up with that lopsided gait because there was a rock in your shoe.”

“There was not a rock in my shoe. Stop saying that. You make me sound like a crazy man.”

“Because you are,” I shout. “You’re crazy. You ruined an entire day at the pumpkin farm because you stepped on Velcro. Velcro, Wilder! Who ruins a day over Velcro?”

“The people whose socks get destroyed from it!”

“You should have seen her,” Wilder says as he walks back and forth in front of the sliding glass window, tossing Sanders’s baseball. “The look of utter satisfaction on her face as I rummaged and rummaged and rummaged, looking for the lid. Sitting there, on her high perch, looking down at me as if I was her Tupperware peasant, and the entire time, she knew there was no matching lid. Fucking knew the whole time.”

I shrug my shoulders. “I told him he needed to organize the drawers. He needed to learn a lesson.”

“You got rid of it on purpose.” He points at me. “Vindictive, that’s what you are.”

“Lazy.” I point back at him. “Utterly lazy. You can’t do one thing when asked.”

“Oh really?” he says, stepping up. “So when you asked me to pick you up pads with wings, did I not deliver?”

My face falls flat. “You came back with pads…and buffalo wings.”