Bull Market, Broken Heart

The office pool had reached seventeen thousand dollars. Seventeen thousand riding on whether Meredith would finally leave her husband.

Elena stood by the rooftop pool at the engagement party, swirling champagne she didn't want, watching Meredith laugh at something Richard said. Richard—that bull of a man who'd made his first million by thirty and lost his soul somewhere around the same time. He was all bullish confidence now, hand possessive on Meredith's lower back, marking territory he'd already won.

"You're staring," said Marcus, appearing beside her with two fresh glasses. "Careful. People will talk."

"Let them talk." Elena took the champagne. "They've been talking since Richard started 'mentoring' her three months ago."

"And now they're engaged." Marcus shrugged. "Happy ending. The pool pays out to the 'stays together' crowd."

Elena looked away. She'd bet five hundred on 'leaves before the wedding.' She'd been so certain.

The goldfish circled its bowl on the centerpiece table—endless loops in crystal-clear water, nowhere to go but around again. She felt like that fish sometimes. The same cycles, the same patterns, the same mistakes.

"I should have told her," Elena said quietly.

"Told her what? That Richard's a shark? She knows. That he cheated on his first two wives? She knows. That his last company dissolved under SEC investigation? She knows that too." Marcus finished his champagne. "Some people want to be devoured, Elena. They mistake being consumed for being cherished."

Elena watched Meredith kiss Richard, soft and practiced, like she'd been practicing for this her whole life. For the market access, the social positioning, the bull-market security he represented.

"You know what's funny?" Elena said. "Goldfish supposedly have three-second memories. Imagine that kind of freedom. No past to regret. No future to dread. Just now, over and over."

Marcus laughed softly. "Is that what you want? To be a fish?"

"I want..." Elena looked at the pool, lights rippling across dark water like stars drowning. "I want to stop being the person who watches other people make mistakes while I make my own quieter ones."

She set down her glass.

"Where are you going?"

"To collect on the pool," she said. "I lost. But at least I can admit it."