Dead in the Water

The pool glowed with that artificial turquoise light that only exists at expensive hotels between midnight and 3 AM. Maya sat on the edge, legs dangling in the chemically-treated water, watching Daniel float on his back like something abandoned.

"You're like a zombie," she said, not unkindly. "Just drifting."

Daniel didn't open his eyes. "There's worse things to be."

They'd been best friends since college, but somewhere along the way, friendship had curdled into something messier. Not quite romance, not quite nothing. A decade of almosts and not-quites. Maya was tired of swimming in this particular pool of ambiguity.

"Your wife called me again," she said.

Daniel's eyes snapped open. He stopped floating. "What did she want?"

"To ask if you're here. To ask if we're..." Maya let the sentence drown between them. "She knows, Daniel. She's always known."

The pool's surface rippled around his waist. He treaded water now, suddenly incapable of stillness.

"She thinks we're having an affair."

"Aren't we?" Maya's voice was quiet. "Not the sex part. Maybe that would be easier. But emotionally? We've been cheating on your marriage for years."

Daniel swam to the edge and pulled himself up, water streaming off him like he was being baptized in reverse. He sat beside her, dripping onto the concrete. Their shoulders didn't touch, but Maya could feel the heat radiating off his skin.

"I never meant to hurt anyone," he said.

"No one ever does. That's the problem."

A hotel room light flickered on above them. Somewhere, a couple laughed. The world continued with its indifference.

"What do I do?" Daniel asked, and for the first time, he sounded genuinely lost.

Maya stood up. Her dress clung to her wet legs. "Fix your marriage, Daniel. Or end it. But stop acting like a zombie. Choose something. Anything."

"And us?"

She looked at him — really looked at him — and saw all the years they'd wasted being safe. "We had our chance. We keep choosing not to take it."

Maya walked back to the hotel alone. Behind her, she could hear Daniel slip back into the pool, still choosing not to choose, still swimming in circles in water that was slowly, steadily going cold.