“It’s okay,” Maja said. “It’s true.” Maja was used to this. Of the couples that she and Ted were friends with, very few of the wives worked. They did charity boards, or they were working on a novel, or they were stay-at-home-moms-with-nannies. Or, like Aneeta, they dabbled in investing or real estate. But Maja had hung on to her job because she liked to keep her hand in the art scene—sometimes her job seemed like the last thread connecting her to her old life. But she had also hung on to it because it was easy. It may have been a little monotonous, but at least it was manageable. Unlike the banking and law jobs that many women she knew had given up, her job at the gallery had always allowed her plenty of time for other pursuits: painting, at first, and more lately the work that had gone into trying to get pregnant and building the house. Once they started trying for a family, she’d assumed that she’d work until she had a baby. But now she wasn’t sure if that would happen.

“I haven’t really decided yet,” Maja said. “It is a long commute.” For a moment, she debated whether to share with Aneeta the plan that she’d been hatching. “Don’t say anything in front of Ted,” she said, “but I’ve been talking to Louis about the possibility of opening an offshoot of the gallery in New Falls. There’s a lot of money down here, and most of the art galleries here are very . . . regional. I think we’d do really well. Louis isn’t totally on board, but I’m hoping that I can convince him. I thought that maybe he and I could go in on it together, as partners.”

“I love it,” Aneeta said. “It’s exactly what we need here. Ted doesn’t know?”

“He knows,” Maja said. “He just doesn’t like it. He thinks we already have our hands full. You know, the house, his job . . .”

“Kids?” Aneeta added with a wink.

“Maybe,” Maja said. She saw the men coming up from the dock, the kids by their sides. She watched as Ted plucked the baseball cap off the older boy’s head, holding it up playfully as the boy jumped for it. Maja felt an ache. They should have this, she thought. She should be able to give this to Ted. The taste of champagne in her mouth was suddenly sour.

She turned away so that Aneeta wouldn’t see the tears that had sprung to her eyes, but Aneeta was focused on the boys. “Come on!” she called to them. “Special treat tonight. You get to picnic in front of the TV.” She looked at Maja over her shoulder as she led the boys inside. “They’ll be happier watching a movie than listening to us talk. You sit and I’ll be right back out.”