“Shira,” Ephraim cut in. “I literally just woke up. I need to go daven and then go to class. I don’t have a brain for this now.” He didn’t sound apologetic

“Most of the money they spend is essentially wasted.” — Barry Ritholtz, Freakonomics Ep297

DOyou have a few minutes tonight? Shira tapped out on her phone, then paused and drummed her fingers on the armrest of the wingback chair, then deleted what she’d just typed. She needed more than a few minutes.

That morning she’d made sure to be up and about when Ephraim was getting ready to leave for Shacharis.

As he waited for his Nespresso to drip, she tried to have a conversation with him. That was dumb.

“Could we talk about house-hunting?” she asked, her makeup already applied, her sheitel on.

Ephraim looked at her bleary-eyed and emitted something closer to a grunt than words. Shira took that as an indication to go ahead.

“So, like, based on what we’re seeing, it looks like there’s nothing move-in ready in the areas we’ve been looking at. West Rogers Park seems—”

“Shira,” Ephraim cut in. “I literally just woke up. I need to go daven and then go to class. I don’t have a brain for this now.” He didn’t sound apologetic.

“Oh,” Shira said. She waited for him to suggest a better time. He didn’t say anything. “So, later?”

“Yeah, later,” he said dismissively, rubbing his eyes and face the way a desperately stressed man with no way out might.