"If it's inappropriate—whatever that means—and you go ahead with it, you suffer. If you don't go ahead with it, you suffer anyway. You're fucked, man."
"Swell," Oliver said.
"Could be worse," Mark said.
"How?"
"You could be a zombie executive in suburbia."
"North Yarmouth is close," Oliver said. "Speaking of which—are you coming to the housewarming?"
"Saturday, right?"
"Yeah—middle of the day, anytime. Bring a friend."
"Friend? You think you got problems? Later, man." Mark rushed off.
Suffer? Was it the male condition? I guess women suffer, too, Oliver thought. The human condition, then? He resisted this. Why should we suffer? The "we" he had in mind, he realized, was mostly Suzanne. Jacky was in there somewhere, and Francesca, higher and in the distance. Jennifer wasn't there. Jennifer and he did not suffer. She was his partner. He admired her energy, respected her, loved her, even—in a general way. Wasn't that what marriage was all about?