“Natalie, thank God. Where are you?”
“Still at the church.”
“Can we talk? Please?”
“We are talking.”
He sighed.
“Look, I’m sorry about how things happened.”
“How things happened?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Do I?”
“I’m trying here.”
I looked at Heather.
“Did you tell your sister you’d forgive yourself six thousand four hundred dollars by having me watch her children for a year?”
Silence.
Then:
“Heather told you about that?”
“Yes.”
He paused again.
“It’s not what it sounds like.”
“How many different ways can that arrangement sound?”
He spoke more quietly.
“I was trying to solve two problems at once.”
“Your debt and your sister’s daycare.”
“Right.”
“With my job.”
“I never said you had to quit forever.”
“You told Heather I’d already decided to quit.”
“I figured maybe you’d work something out with Dr. Bennett.”
“After promising someone else I’d be available fifty hours a week?”
