[ His smile doesn't change. There's no visible reorientation away from the conversation he wants to have—the conversation he always wants to have, lately, about the details, a plan, something they can do, something other than ideals—and back to the one they're actually having. ]

Upstairs at the Narrows, every other Thursday give or take. [ Slightly less awkward than inviting her to their house. ] It is two-thirds posturing and bickering, but the other third is good. You don't have to say anything unless you want to,

[ is half a lie, but the people who will pry and elbow are easily fended off, ]

but I think if we have learned nothing else from this war, we have to learn that no one else is coming. There is no one more intelligent coming to figure it out for us. We're it.