JULIAN

The call was Thomas.

Thomas needed nothing important.

I want to be precise about this because the precision is the thing, the specific and particular quality of what Thomas needed, which was a confirmation of a meeting time that Nate could have confirmed, that his assistant could have confirmed, that did not require the specific and immediate answering of a phone on a terrace in November by a man who had been one centimeter from a woman's face with his hand on a ladder and her name still in the air.

Thomas needed a meeting time.

I confirmed the meeting time.

I stood on the terrace for six more...