I said it kept my mind sharp, that the quarterly reports for the state audit were due the next month.

“Your mind is sharp enough,” he said, and crossed the room and took the journal out of my hand, and dropped it onto the side table on top of a glossy magazine of wedding venues.

“A real estate developer’s wife does not need to spend her evenings balancing other people’s books.”

I waited until he walked to the far end of the room to adjust the thermostat, and then, with a quick and silent movement I was not proud of needing, I slipped my other ledger from my bag and hid it under the silk cushion beside me.

That one did not hold other people’s books.