Maybe he’d gotten caught up at the office. But if that was it, there’d be no reason not to call. Her second, clichéd thought was that he was having an affair. Had she missed it somehow? She’d been preoccupied with finishing the house and trying to get pregnant. If she was honest with herself, she’d been so involved with her own stuff the past year that she hadn’t been paying much attention to what he was doing.

But Ted just didn’t seem like the type. Is that what all wives thought? She took a deep breath. It was probably just work. And she had said that she would give him space to deal with it. She sat on the couch with a magazine to wait, but she couldn’t concentrate. Whatever was going on between them, they had to figure it out. She grabbed her jacket and her keys and headed out the door.

She saw him in the very first place she looked: Reilly’s Pub, on the corner of their block. He was pulled up at the bar with his back to her. There was a woman with long red hair and a skirt suit sitting to his right. Maja was still, watching them, but in the next moment, the woman leaned over and spoke with a man on her other side. Ted was alone. For a minute, Maja just stood there, her heart beating hard. Is this what men did when they were planning to leave their wives? Drink beer alone in pubs? But maybe he did this all the time. She often worked evenings at the gallery. Was this totally normal for him? Besides, if he was sneaking around, he wouldn’t have come to their regular spot.

“Hiya, Maja,” the bartender called out in his usual singsong greeting, and Ted turned around. He didn’t look surprised to see her.

“What are you doing here?” she asked him. “You said you’d be home hours ago. I made dinner.” She wasn’t sure what she hated more right now: the nagging way her voice sounded, or the fact that he’d put her in this position.

“I’m sorry, babe,” he said. “I should have called you.”

“Ted,” she said apprehensively. “You have to tell me what’s going on. I’m worried. Is it work? Or . . . is it me? I honestly don’t know what to think. You’re scaring me.”

“It’s not you,” he said. “I love you. It’s . . .” He paused for a long moment, as if he was thinking something over.

Maja wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear what Ted was about to say or not.

“You know how hard I’ve been working,” he started, and Maja sighed with relief.