Poolside at the Pyramid

The corporate retreat had been Elena's idea—something about team building and breaking down silos. Now Marcus stood at the edge of the infinity pool, nursing a whiskey that had gone watery, watching his colleagues float like bloated corpses in the chlorinated water. The pyramid-shaped hotel loomed above them, a monument to excess that charged seventeen dollars for a goddamn mai tai.

He'd been running from something for years, he realized. Not toward anything, just away—from his first marriage, from the mortgage he couldn't afford, from the gnawing suspicion that he'd sold his soul for a corner office and a LinkedIn profile that sounded like it was written by a particularly ambitious chatbot.

"You look like someone who just realized he's trapped in a pyramid scheme," a voice said beside him.

Marcus turned. The woman from marketing—Sarah, or maybe Sandra. She held a glass of white wine, her eyes sharp with recognition. They'd slept together at last year's holiday party, a drunken mistake they'd never discussed. The memory flooded back: her pressed against him in the supply closet, the smell of her perfume, the way she'd whispered his name like it meant something.

"I was just thinking about how we're all climbing over each other to reach the top," he said. "And the people at the top are just as miserable as the rest of us."

She laughed, but her eyes remained distant. "You know what my daughter asked me yesterday? She wanted to know why foxes eat rabbits. Why there's so much cruelty in nature."

Marcus watched the pool's reflection ripple across her face. "What did you tell her?"

"I told her that's how the world works. That someone has to be the rabbit." She set down her wine glass. "But sometimes I wonder if I'm just teaching her to be good prey."

A group of executives erupted in laughter from the cabana nearby, raising glasses to another quarter of exceptional growth. Marcus felt something hollow open in his chest.

"I'm leaving," he said suddenly. "The firm. Tonight."

She didn't look surprised. "I know. That's why you came to find me."

He hadn't, he realized. Or maybe he had.

"Come with me," he said, before he could think about how pathetic it sounded.

Sarah studied him for a long moment, weighing possibilities. Then she shook her head. "No. But I'll help you pack."

They walked away from the pool together, leaving the pyramid behind them, not running toward anything but finally, finally, moving.