* * *

After finishing up the planting herself, and frankly grateful for the respite, Jaya entered the house to find Keith at the kitchen table, poring over his phone, as he’d been doing obsessively the past few weeks. He looked up at her, a deep furrow between his brows. “They’re saying no bonuses this year. None, can you believe that? After busting my tail all year, they’re going to take away my bonus.”

“It’s just one year,” Jaya said.

“And what if it’s not? First Bear, then Lehman. Fuck!” Keith said. “What’s next? I mean, Brian had no idea what was coming down at Lehman until the last two weeks. No bonuses this year means we might be next. I might not even have a job next year.”

“Well, we can deal with that if it happens,” Jaya said, maneuvering around the stack of uncleared breakfast dishes in the kitchen sink to wash the dirt from her hands.

“I’m going to give Robbie a call. He might have something for me.”

“Robbie Weiss?” Jaya said, looking over her shoulder. “The guy who started that bucket shop?” She found a brush and began scrubbing the crusted maple syrup from the dishes.

Keith nodded. “He co-founded a small firm, Duncan Weiss. They focus on middle market. We’ve worked on a couple of deals together. He told me to call him anytime I was ready to jump ship. I might be able to get him to pay my bonus if I come over before the end of the year.”

“But you just said there are no bonuses,” Jaya said, raising her voice over the running water and the clatter of silverware in the sink.

“Dammit, Jaya, do you have to do that right now?” Keith barked. “Are you even listening?”

Jaya turned off the faucet and spun around to face him with the dish scrubber in hand. Who else is going to do it, and when? she wanted to say, but forced herself to stay calm. Keith had been a bundle of exposed nerves since the financial markets crashed a few weeks ago. It was like someone had snatched the man she knew and replaced him with an overanxious imposter. “What are you saying, Keith?” Her tone came out accusatory despite her efforts. “You want to leave your firm because of one bad year to go to a . . . crappy upstart? To work for a guy you called, I believe, ruthless?”

“I am trying to make a living and provide for my family,” Keith shouted. “The financial markets are in ruin and I’m trying to take care of you.”

“Well, I don’t need you to take care of me, not this way,” Jaya snapped.

“What other way is there? You know my bonus is 80 percent of my income. We can’t even cover the mortgage on my salary. And certainly not yours.”

“I can go full-time,” Jaya said. “We can get benefits through my job and cut back on our expenses until you find something—”