She was pointing to a black-and-white shot in a silver frame. Stuart had taken it when Jacob was two. It was still my favorite picture of Jacob, capturing an impish smile that he has to this day.

“Indeed it is. Come, let’s visit the model.”

I knocked lightly on my son’s half-closed door. “Jacob? Sweetie, I want you to meet someone.”

I pushed the door open. Jacob was staring intently at his iPad. He didn’t look up.

“Please put your screen on pause and say hello to Mommy’s boss.”

He didn’t move. I felt a flush of embarrassment, prayed that he wouldn’t make me say it again. Or worse, require that I be the heavy and actually remove the iPad from his clutches in order to get his undivided attention. Thankfully, the wait was short. He put the device down.

“Jacob, this is Ms. Wright. She’s Mommy’s boss at work.”

“Hi,” he said, as disinterested as a four-year-old boy could be.

“What are you watching?” Lauren asked.

“Thomas the Tank.” Jacob decided that he’d had enough social interaction and returned to the iPad.

“Sorry,” I said to Lauren. “Little boys are not great conversationalists.”

“He’s so sweet,” she said.

At dinner, the candles flickered on my dining table, giving our guests a glow. Kate was talking about a play she had recently seen in a basement space in Bed-Stuy that accommodated an audience of fifteen—and in which the six actors onstage performed in the nude.

“Men or women?” Richard asked.

“Three of each. And the weird thing was that the nudity really had nothing to do with the plot. I mean, there was nothing sexual about the play at all. It’s like the characters, you know, went to work, came home, etcetera. But they were all naked. No one commented on it in the play. The playwright was apparently making some symbolic point about how we’re all naked or something.”

“Not very subtly, of course,” Ed added.

“Do you go to much theater, Lauren?” Kate asked.

“Not as much as I’d like. Richard isn’t a fan.”

“Maybe if the actresses were naked, I’d reconsider,” he said with a loud laugh.

The others all smiled, but Lauren’s grin appeared to be strained. You can tell an awful lot about a marriage by the silent expressions spouses share when they think no one is looking. Hers communicated that she was unhappy and had been for some time. She tried to mask it as best she could, and I wondered how much longer she could continue the charade. You might think that was a lot to glean from a single reaction, but it was one that I know all too well, since I wear it myself on a daily basis.