Many if not most circles of friends have that one couple in the group that always seems to be fighting about something or nothing or everything. They pick at each other’s habits at a dinner party. They mock each other’s comments at a backyard barbecue. They chastise each other a little bit too loudly in the restaurant or at the kids’ soccer game or on holidays or weddings. They’re EXHAUSTING to be around.
Meet Toby and Rachel Fleishman. The tension between them is so palpable, so thick, so toxic, you wonder why they’ve stayed together so long and why they won’t stop torturing themselves, their children and everyone around them. Yet when they do finally split up, it has a huge ripple effect and it’s terribly sad and it feels like a death in the family. After all, there really was a time when Toby and Rachel were young and in love and quite wonderful together, when they seemed like the perfect Manhattan power couple, when their future was so bright, their duplex needed extra-heavy shades.
