"An advance, huh? I do like the sound of that," Cathy says, one thing that is, in spite of everything else, entirely true. For all that she had to gain in showing up here, no longer in the shadow of Jamie and his famous fucking book, even she has to admit that it's been a strange adjustment, going from the way things were in New York to the way they've been here, financially speaking. What work she's had has helped, but an advance will probably be much better, and worthy of a celebration in its own right.

Besides, latching on to that, at least in responding, prevents her from thinking that of course he has to go. That's the way this always is. There's always somewhere else he has to be, someone else he has to be there with, all of it more important than her.

"What do you have in mind?"