Cable Sunday at Padel

The orange ball bounced against the court wall, a rhythmic thud that echoed through Maria's skull like the headache she'd been nursing for three days. Sunday morning padel with David had become their ritual—the thing that held them together when everything else was fraying.

Her hair, once glossy and black, now hung in a ponytail that felt too heavy. She'd found a long strand on his pillow yesterday, copper-colored and definitively not hers. The cable news droned in the background of her mind—some analyst explaining market volatility, using words like "bull run" and "correction" while her marriage collapsed.

"You're distracted," David said, smacking another ball against the glass wall. His technique was perfect, as always. Everything about David was precise. His accounting firm. His affair. His timing.

She gripped her racquet tighter. "Just tired."

The padel court was enclosed in glass, like a fish tank where she was slowly running out of air. David's phone buzzed in his bag on the sidelines—again. Four times during their warm-up.

"Bullshit," she said, the word escaping before she could stop it.

He froze, mid-swing. "What?"

Maria walked to the net, her heart pounding harder than any match point. "The cable guy. The one who was supposedly fixing your office internet last Tuesday when you came home at midnight smelling like expensive whiskey and someone else's perfume."

David's face went pale beneath his tan. "Maria—"

"Her hair was red, David. I found it on your pillow. And don't tell me it's from that orange throw blanket you bought because I checked—you haven't even washed it yet." Her voice cracked. "I'm not an idiot. I'm your wife."

The padel ball rolled forgotten across the court as David's shoulders slumped. The glass walls reflected them back at themselves—two people who'd become strangers in a cage of their own making.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, but the words came too late, like an analyst predicting a market crash after it had already happened.

Maria picked up her bag, the orange ball still rolling slowly toward the wall. She didn't look back.