# THOMPSON-HAYES: THE INSIDE OUT
## Chapter Twenty-One — Nathan's Compromise
They had the real conversation on a Sunday.
Not the argument — that had happened Saturday morning and they had both said what they needed to say and left it in the place where said things live. The real conversation was the one that came after, the one where you take the argument and find what's actually inside it.
Nathan was on her couch at noon with the charter expansion financial model on his laptop when she came out of the bathroom and sat beside him and said: "Tell me what you actually need from me."
He looked at her.
"Not what you're afraid of," she said. "What you need."
He was quiet for a moment.
"I need to be useful," he said. "In the Cross situation. Whatever comes next — I need to not be the per
