Cable to Nowhere

The installer's palm was rough against hers—calluses from years of stripping wires, making connections, threading copper through walls that would never really be anyone's home. Not anymore.

"You're the third one this month," Elena said, not moving from her spot on the balcony. Below them, the Miami skyline dissolved into humidity. "The third person who's come to fix something that can't be fixed."

"Just doing my job, ma'am." The cable guy—his nametag read MARCO—lifted his heavy equipment bag onto the teak table. "Your husband called in a service request. Said the internet's been cutting out during his board meetings."

Elena laughed, and it sounded like something breaking. "Richard's been dead for three weeks."

Marco's hand froze on the cable connector. His palm suspended inches from the wall jack, sweat beading at his hairline. The humid air pressed against the sliding glass door, where Richard's golden retriever—the dog Richard had bought to prove he was ready for children, the dog Elena had kept because she was too tired to make any more choices—slept with its nose pressed to the glass.

"Nobody told me," Marco said quietly.

"The billing department doesn't update the installation queue with obituaries." She gestured to the dog. "That's Buster. He's waiting for Richard to come back from his Singapore trip. The one Richard never took because he died of a heart attack in our downstairs bathroom while packing his suitcase."

Marco set down his tools with deliberate care. "I could pretend to fix this. Run a diagnostic, tell you it's resolved on the backend."

"Or you could actually fix it," she said, her voice catching. "So I can finally cancel the service and close this chapter."

He worked in silence. His palm guided the cable through the wall, testing the connection point by point. When the modem lights flickered to life, Elena pressed her own palm against the cold glass, inches from the dog's sleeping form.

"It's done," Marco said, gathering his tools.

"Thank you." She paused. "Would you like to buy a house? It's got excellent cable."

Marco smiled, the first genuine expression she'd seen all day. "My palm says I'm supposed to meet someone new today. I think this might be it."

"For the house," she clarified.

"Yeah," he said. "For the house."