Billable Hours of a Broken Marriage

Eleanor Vance is the youngest senior partner at a prestigious New York law firm, and she bills her husband for every minute of her attention. Five hours of free personal time a year, itemized down to the second: dinners, visits home, even intimacy. He always believed it was simply her meticulous nature, until the firm's holiday party, when Lucas, the junior associate she mentors, asks how much time her husband has left. Seventeen minutes, she says. Lucas, she adds, is not on the clock.

A month later, his father dies of a heart attack, and he spends his last seventeen minutes asking Eleanor to stay while he signs the cremation forms. He breaks down and holds her an extra ten minutes. The next day brings an invoice for three thousand dollars. He pawns his wedding ring, pays it, and uses the remainder to enroll in a paralegal program overseas.

Then comes the ledger of his year, and the name the firm uses behind his back: Mr. Five Hours. His father once waited three hours in Eleanor's lobby with soup and never got past security. Eleanor offers to raise his allowance by one hour next year.