"Not unduly," he says, and thinks to himself that Ginsberg seems like the kind of guy who is often stressed about one thing or another. Ned knows he is the same, but for the most part it has nothing to do with his career. His sources of stress are entirely different, and entirely off-limits for conversation. "Things were a bit hard when I first opened up, but after a few months everything fell into place. Not a whole lot of decisions that need to be made, running a pie shop. Besides, when I'm stressed, I deal with it by baking pies, so it's a win-win situation."

Ned notices with a faint moment of alarm that Ginsberg's nearly finished his drink, and he's barely sipped his. He ought to try to catch up, drinks a few gulps before he goes on, "I like it. I've never been great at working with other people, so it's ideal. It's not like I do everything on my own. I tried to do the budget and the taxes at first and that was a complete disaster, so I got an accountant. And there's a waitress - she wasn't in today, but she's there most of the time, and that makes things easier."

When he sees that Ginsberg's glass is empty he - with a moment of hesitation and a questioning raise of his eyebrows, takes it and his own and heads up the bar to get another of the same. He returns with them and a question at the ready. "So from what you tell me, your job consists of... writing slogans for products, sometimes morally questionable, getting sent on blind dates by coworkers with questionable intentions, and getting yelled at by, what, ten bosses?"