Market Correction

The trading floor was quiet at 7 PM, most of the analysts already gone. Elena sat at her desk, the blue light of her monitors casting shadows across her face. She'd stopped caring about the bull market months ago, back when Richard first promised her he'd leave his wife.

He'd compared their affair to a bull run—unstoppable, exponential, destined to break records. Instead, it had crashed like a bear market in 2008, leaving her holding worthless assets.

Her hand went to the back of her neck, fingers tangling in the hair she'd stopped bothering to style. Richard used to bury his face there, inhaling her perfume like she was the only thing grounding him in a world of volatility. Now the gesture just felt lonely.

The elevator chimed.

She didn't turn around. She knew his walk—the heavy, deliberate tread of a man who'd spent decades convincing himself he was the master of every room he entered.

"Elena."

She swiveled her chair. Richard stood in the doorway of her cubicle, his suit jacket slung over one shoulder, tie loosened. The fluorescent lights caught the silver in his hair, made him look more tired than the man who'd pressed her against this very desk six months ago, whispering that they were inevitable.

"The firm's offering buyouts," he said, not meeting her eyes. "I'm taking one."

Something in her chest unlatched. "And your wife?"

"Still my wife."

She laughed, the sound brittle in the empty office. "You really are full of shit, you know that?"

"It's not like that—"

"Save it." She stood, gathering her things. The stories she'd told herself—that they were star-crossed, that timing was the only enemy—collapsed under the weight of five years' worth of his lies. She wasn't some tragic figure in a novel. She was just another person who'd believed the market couldn't possibly go down forever.

At the door, she paused. "You know what they say about bears and bulls, Richard? In the end, they're both just animals. And eventually, they both get slaughtered."

She left him standing there in the blue light, another bad investment finally written off.