She said: Sara chose a good man.
She said: I know that. He is inside there.
She said: but you let the other version of yourself run the house this week.
He said: yes.
She said: don’t do that again.
She said it simply.
She said it with the specific authority of a seventy-year-old woman who has earned the right to say simple things and have them land.
He said: I won’t.
He said: I’m sorry, Helen.
She said: I know you are.
She said: now let’s have Patricia come back in so we can finish the conversation like adults.
She said it with the specific quality of someone who has spent the last hour not being the person who caused the problem and who is done waiting for it to be resolved.
