Market Corrections

The coaxial cable had been loose for months. Elena noticed it during her first week at Sterling & Hedges—a frayed thread dangling from the ceiling of her cubicle like a corporate noose. Every time someone walked by, the television mounted above the trading floor would flicker, and with it, the futures of everyone watching.

"Bear market," Thomas said, sliding into the chair beside her. He smelled like expensive scotch and bad decisions. "They're calling it a correction."

Elena kept her eyes on the screen. Red numbers cascaded down like digital blood. "They always call it that until it becomes a crash."

Thomas was forty-two, married to a woman who didn't understand him, and had been telling Elena about his impending divorce since last October. He was also her boss. The power dynamic made everything he said both terrifying and magnetic.

In the corner of the office, a goldfish swam endless circles in a bowl that hadn't been cleaned since the IPO. Elena had secretly named him Arthur, after her father. Arthur the goldfish had more freedom than she did—at least he could swim in three dimensions.

"The bulls are running scared," Thomas continued, his hand "accidentally" brushing her thigh. "But smart money? Smart money knows this is when you double down."

The cable snapped. The screen went dark, and the trading floor fell into a stunned silence. For the first time in three years, nobody knew what they were worth.

Thomas's phone rang. His wife. He let it go to voicemail.

"I'm thinking about leaving her," he said, his voice cracking. "This weekend. I mean it this time."

Elena looked at Arthur, who was pressing his nose against the glass, searching for an opening that wasn't there. She thought about her own apartment, the boxes she'd packed last night, the one-way ticket to somewhere that wasn't here tucked in her purse.

"The market's always correcting itself," she said, standing up. "Sometimes you have to let things crash before you can rebuild."

She walked out, past the flickering cable, past the men shouting into phones, past Thomas who looked like he wanted to be brave but wouldn't be. Outside, the real world was waiting—uncertain, terrifying, and finally hers.