"it's always time for dinner once a day"

"I love how it's always time for dinner once a day," Jane said, "no matter what human tragedies are going on: even in places where sometimes there is no dinner, as Syl would point out, there's still that time in the evening when you hunker down with your fellow humans and try to keep warm."

Maxine managed to hold back, all at once, a sharp comment about the bromides of politically correct Syl, an affection-deflecting remark about how this hand-holding was too little, too late, and a self-deprecating joke and her own dinners, which were almost always solitary, totally devoid of warm fellow humans. Instead, she briefly tightened her hand around Jane's -- she hoped not too awkwardly -- and smiled -- she hoped warmly -- then got up to assemble the sandwiches.

~ from Something from Kate Christensen's The Great Man