“What are you thinking about?” he asked in a tired voice.

“Just a work thing,” I answered. He sighed and shook his head.

Chad left me soon after that over another one of my insensitivities. He moved to Washington State, sells solar panels, has kids. I stayed in Cincinnati and opened my own company. It’s been ten years, and I love it. I love the chemical smell of new carpeting in our offices, and the sound of my heels on the marble floors of the lobby. I love coming home at night after dinner with friends, or a date, or a work thing, turning on the lights so they’re still a little dim, taking off my shoes and putting my feet on the coffee table. My living room has a wall of glass; I sit on my couch and watch the whole of downtown glittering. Sometimes I look around my apartment and wonder at this perfect place, all of which I paid for.

I’ve kept the receipts.

THE CHEKHOVIANS

The sunlight was strained through the window sashes, landing in great, trembling, buttery squares that carved up Alex’s childhood living room so that her angular body, as she passed through the grand and airy space, was intermittently striped by spindly blue shadows, then blasted by yellow light, then again painted by shadow. This was her first time on the Vineyard since she had gotten engaged, and she was surprised by how unreal it felt, as though she were standing on a set for a play. The enormous, handmade, feather-filled white couches faced each other like albino bison, quiet in the green field of plush carpet. The overstuffed chairs leaned back fatuously; the gleaming grand piano, mute since she and her brothers had given up lessons, sat stranded in the corner. And the flowers! There were always flowers, bushels of roses, their stems bundled and crowded into white vases. Occasional orchids, leaching their heady scent, perched on sills and shelves, their papery white blossoms atop long stems like pretty girls’ heads peering around to see who was watching them. She found herself blushing, observing the room through Mac’s eyes. He had arrived late the night before, and had seen only the kitchen, devoid of servants, thank God. When he came down for breakfast, though, the cheerful opulence of the Palacio household would be revealed to him.