My husband put himself in first class and me in row thirty-four on our twenty-fifth anniversary. Four hours into that flight the captain asked for me by name.

He bought two.

He sat in an airport lounge two days before our anniversary and moved his wife to row thirty-four and took the money back.

And then at a check-in desk he told a queue of twenty-five people that I should be grateful I was going at all.

PART 4 — THE REST OF THE FLIGHT

Ilan Ferris did not say any of that out loud.

He turned the printed sheet face down on the counter before Gideon got close enough to read it, which I did not notice at the time and which I have thought about every week since.

What he said, in a completely level voice, was: “Mrs. Halloway. There’s a seat for you in the first cabin. Would you come through.”

And then to my husband: “Sir, there isn’t a seat for you in that cabin. Please return to eleven-A.”

Gideon said something about paying for the ticket.