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doctor.’
    ‘I’m a student, still sharing a place with my dad.’
    ‘From what you’ve told me,’ Hal had said, ‘Terri probably envies you that.’
    Now, in the busy South Beach café, their platter arrived and for a few minutes they busied themselves with their pita and dips, though Saul’s appetite had already pretty much
waned.
    ‘Please,’ he said after a while. ‘Don’t let’s have another fight.’
    ‘I don’t want to fight with you,’ she said.
    ‘Good,’ he said, relieved.
    ‘But I think you should talk with Sam.’
    He shook his head, exasperated. ‘I am not going to blow this tiny thing out of all proportion.’
    ‘Tiny thing,’ Terri repeated, coldly.
    ‘Oh, for God’s sake,’ Saul said.
    He left her at the door of her apartment, on the second floor of a drab mushroom coloured building on Washington Avenue between 14th and 15th Street, waited till she was
inside, then headed up Collins towards home, having decided that if the first floor lights were still on at Sam and Grace’s house, he would go in and tackle his brother.
    The lights were on. Grace was upstairs having a bath. Cathy was out. Sam and Woody had just returned from an evening stroll.
    ‘I’m here to lay this thing about you and Terri to rest,’ Saul said.
    Sam had been anxious for an instant, seeing him on the doorstep, then pleased to have a bonus visit from his little bro.
    Pleasure over.
    ‘I’d like to think,’ he said in the kitchen, having given Saul a decaf, himself the real thing, ‘that I’m not going to have to watch every word I say to Terri, any
more than I do with any of my family.’
    ‘So you don’t have to watch every word, but she does,’ Saul said accusatorily.
    Sam frowned. ‘This is because of the work questions, right?’
    ‘She was interested, so she asked a question.’ Saul had left his coffee on the table, was pacing back and forth. ‘Not such a big deal for you to have answered it,
surely?’
    Sam stirred brown sugar into his espresso.
    ‘Pretty big deal, as a matter of fact,’ he said. ‘Not her case.’
    ‘Not her business, you mean,’ Saul said.
    ‘Not her place to ask.’
    Saul sat down, picked up his cup, took a sip and put it down again. ‘I don’t like seeing her this upset.’
    ‘I can understand that.’
    ‘I especially don’t like the fact that it’s my own brother who’s upset her.’
    Sam took a moment. ‘There has to be more to this than a single question I wouldn’t answer last night.’
    ‘She thinks you dislike her.’
    ‘I do not dislike her,’ Sam said. ‘You know better than that.’
    ‘I’m not so sure.’ Saul stood up again.
    ‘Don’t fight with me,’ Sam said. ‘Especially not about something like this.’
    ‘This is important to me.’
    ‘Exactly,’ Sam said. ‘To me as well.’
    Saul looked down at him, saw the concern in his brother’s face, knew it was sincere and sat down again with a sigh.
    ‘She’s sensitive,’ he said, ‘about a lot of things.’
    ‘She comes from a troubled background,’ Sam said. ‘I didn’t know that until last night, and it’s her private business, no reason for us to know.’
    ‘Should it make a difference to the way you talk to her?’
    ‘Perhaps not,’ Sam answered, ‘but the more you get to know a person, particularly when she’s the woman your brother’s in love with, the more you can try to
understand.’
    ‘You make her sound like a case.’ Saul was riled again. ‘Like one of Grace’s patients. Terri’s a great person, Sam, she doesn’t need your
understanding.’
    ‘Stop being so damned prickly.’ Now Sam was growing exasperated. ‘We all went out of our way last night to make Terri feel welcome.’
    ‘Grace and Cathy certainly did,’ Saul said. ‘And Dad.’
    ‘But not me.’ Sam’s voice was quieter. ‘I disagree, Saul, but I’m sorry if you feel that way.’
    ‘I guess I don’t,’ Saul admitted. ‘Not really.’
    Sam stirred his coffee some more, then