Roman called Dante on a Wednesday afternoon.
He had been thinking about it since Monday. Since the two words arrived, he had put the phone in his pocket and gone back to work with the specific quality of someone who had received something that changed the shape of a day without requiring any immediate action. He had thought about it on Tuesday and had not called. He had thought about it again Wednesday morning and had waited until the afternoon, until the desk was clear and the Hartwell meeting was done, and he had no practical reason to delay except making sure, one more time, that he was doing this the right way.
He picked up the phone and called.
Dante answered in the third ring. The neutral professional register he used for calls that had not yet established a category.
"I want to
