“Ah. In other words, same old thing over and over?”

“That’s not what I meant.” He rattled his ice and stared off across the room, pulling his thick black eyebrows together. Jane tapped her glass, waiting for the qualification. “Although, to be honest, I have wondered how much longer you’re planning to stay with it.”

Here we go, she thought. “Funny, I wouldn’t have imagined you spend a lot of time thinking about my career plans.”

“I’ve always been interested in your career, you know that.”

When they first met, Jane had been on the staff of a local weekly, writing news and features. Dale had been the one who encouraged her to get into TV and even provided the connection that got her her first job. (Harvard was basically a four-year networking seminar.) She’d earned her current position through hard work, but she knew she hadn’t been aggressive enough about developing another project, something of her own, something that moved her career forward a few notches before Dinner Conversation was finally euthanatized. She resented Dale for bringing it up, almost as much as she resented Thomas for not taking her career worries more seriously. But she couldn’t let him wound her so easily.

“I’ve been working on a big project for a while now,” she said. “I don’t know if anything’s going to come of it, but it’s looking good.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” He stirred his ice cubes, an excuse to draw attention to an expensive wristwatch. “What are the details?”

She wanted to think he was pumping her for information so he could catch her in a lie, but the way he asked, the way he leaned almost imperceptibly toward her across the tiny table, made her think it wasn’t that at all, it was much worse: it was genuine interest. Any entrepreneurial endeavor got his blood pounding and he’d always encouraged her to be imaginative.