Bearing the Storm

The lightning struck somewhere beyond the hills, illuminating the bedroom for a fractured second—long enough for Elena to see the empty space beside her where David should have been. She counted to ten, waiting for thunder, but it never came. The storm was moving away, like everything else in her life these days.

She found him on the back porch at 3 AM, running his hands over a bottle of vitamin D supplements—the ones his doctor had prescribed after his last blood work showed deficiencies he'd laughed off as 'middle-aged bullshit.' He was twisting the cap open and closed, a nervous tic she'd never noticed until this month.

'Can't sleep?' she asked, and he jumped like she'd slapped him.

'The bear market is eating me alive, El.' His voice cracked. 'Yesterday I lost forty thousand dollars in an hour. Today I'll probably lose more.'

She sat beside him on the swing they'd bought together seven years ago, back when forty thousand was more money than either of them had ever seen in one place. 'You keep running these numbers, David. You're running yourself into the ground.'

'I have to. I'm bearing the weight of everything—our mortgage, your mother's care facility, Max's tuition.' He finally opened the vitamin bottle and dry-swallowed two pills. 'I thought if I worked harder, smarter, it would turn around. But I'm just digging deeper.'

Elena took his hand. His palms were always cold now, circulation problems from the stress. 'Remember what you told me when we met? That you'd rather be poor and happy than rich and miserable?'

'That was before I knew what being poor actually felt like.' But he softened, leaning into her touch. 'I'm sorry I've been absent. I thought I was protecting us by fixing everything alone.'

Another flash of lightning, closer this time. The thunder followed, rattling the porch boards.

'The storm's coming back,' he said.

'Good,' Elena replied, pulling him closer. 'Maybe it will wash everything clean and we can start over. Just us.'

David let out a breath he'd been holding for months. 'Yeah. Just us.'