Goldfish in the Deep End

Margaret stood at the edge of the pool, the hotel's chlorine-heavy air stinging her eyes. At 47, with divorce papers freshly signed and a career that had plateaued into middle management, she was supposed to be at this conference "networking." Instead, she was watching a single orange goldfish — clearly someone's abandoned pet — dart between the tiles of the ornamental fountain pool, trapped in an artificial ecosystem it had never chosen.

A strand of hair escaped her bun and drifted into her eyes. She'd stopped coloring it six months ago. Let the grey show, she'd decided. Let everyone see exactly how tired she really was.

"There you are."

David's voice behind her. The senior VP from the Chicago office, married to someone else, with whom she'd shared exactly three drinks and one devastating kiss at last year's retreat.

"David." She didn't turn around. "I thought you had that keynote."

"Cancelled. Speaker came down with something." He moved beside her, close enough that she could smell his expensive cologne, overlapping with the pool's chemical scent. "I looked for you everywhere."

They both watched the goldfish rise to the surface, gulp at something invisible, sink again.

"Do you ever feel like him?" Margaret asked quietly. "Like you're swimming in circles, pretending this whole... everything is where you're supposed to be?"

David turned to her then, and something in his expression cracked. He reached out, touched the loose strand of her hair, tucked it behind her ear with such gentle familiarity it made her chest ache.

"I came back to this conference for one reason, Margaret." His voice dropped lower. "The keynote was always optional."

The goldfish leaped suddenly, breaking the surface, catching a sliver of sunlight before splashing back down. For a moment, it had seen beyond its own small world.

Margaret looked at David's hand still hovering near her face, at his wedding ring, at her own pale reflection in the dark pool water.

"Some things," she said, pulling away slowly, "are better left in the deep end."

The goldfish continued its circles, unaware it had almost been saved.