“Did it occur to you that this person you refer to as a ‘goat’ may have performed a great act of friendship by calling to say he wouldn’t be an obstacle to your spending a day with two old friends at the beach?   Do you get that maybe it was hard for him to do, that he was trying to be considerate and not irritating?  Isn’t it possible that you are the merciless, passive aggressive bastard and not him?”

“Yeah,” I said, leaving every muscle in my face exactly where it was before the question.