"What?" she said.
"Nothing."
"You have that look."
"What look?"
"The one where you've already decided I'm guilty of something."
The irony was so complete that I almost smiled.
Instead, I took off my jacket and hung it beside the door.
"Are you planning to invest money in his company?"
Claire turned toward me fully.
That was the first moment I saw real fear.
It lasted less than a second before annoyance replaced it.
"Where did that come from?"
"You've talked about helping with his business. I'm asking whether that includes money."
"Maybe eventually. Why?"
"Because you've moved almost sixteen thousand dollars out of our savings in three months."
She crossed her arms. "I told you what that was for."
"Reimbursable work expenses."
"Yes."
"Have they been reimbursed?"
"Some have."
"Where did the reimbursements go?"
"Nathan, I am not doing a financial interrogation with you in the kitchen."
"It's our money."
"And I contribute to it."
"That isn't the question."
She stepped around the island and turned off the stove harder than necessary.
"This is exactly what I mean. Every part of my life becomes something I have to justify to you. My friends. My work. My money."
"Our money."
"There. Again."
"Claire, if I moved sixteen thousand dollars and couldn't tell you where the reimbursements went, you would ask."
"You don't have the kind of job where you front expenses."
"Then show me the reimbursements."
She stared at me.
I waited.
Her face changed in stages. First irritation. Then calculation. Then something like hurt, carefully assembled.
"I cannot believe you don't trust me."
There are sentences that work only as long as you answer the accusation inside them. Three months earlier I would have rushed to reassure her. I would have said I did trust her, that I was only confused, that I hated what suspicion was doing to us.
That night I heard the sentence differently.
"I asked where sixteen thousand dollars went," I said.
"And I told you."
"No. You gave me categories."
"I am not doing this."
She walked upstairs.
I did not follow.
An hour later, she returned wearing workout clothes and announced that she was going to the gym.
"At nine-thirty?"
"Yes."