he imagined the confrontation so many times that it began to seem like something that might actually have happened.

“There’s the question of the new Panamax vessels,” Miranda said. There was a collective sigh. The company had commissioned two new ships back in the lost paradise of 2005, when the demand had seemed endless and they were struggling to keep up, and the ships—under contract, paid for, two and a half years into the building process, and now

companies are like nation-states. They all have their own cultures.”

There was a cold wind on his face, and he knew this was a voyage of no more than fifteen minutes, but he had an absurd sense of embarking on an adventure.

Perhaps she should have followed her sister Monica to law school. She felt she could do a better job than this guy was doing.

she applied bright lipstick and tied a silk scarf over her hair for added fortitude.

was always going to be a last painting, but if she wasn’t a painter, what was she? It was a troubling question.

Ten years of traveling far beyond the borders of the corporate world, wishing uselessly to be allowed back in.

If you’ve never been without, then you won’t understand the profundity of this, how absolutely this changes your life.