Rackets and Mirrors

David stood at the edge of the padel court, sweat dripping down his spine, watching his colleagues laugh and smash neon balls against the glass walls. At forty-five, he was the oldest one here, though the junior analysts moved with a careless energy that made his joints ache in sympathy. His iPhone buzzed in his pocket—his daughter, probably, finally responding after three weeks of silence. He didn't check.

He walked toward the infinity pool, where water cascated over the edge toward the Mediterranean, a glittering illusion of endlessness. A golden retriever paddled near the steps, retrieving a forgotten tennis ball. David's ex-wife had kept their dog in the divorce, along with the house and most of his dignity. This dog watched him with sad, knowing eyes, as if recognizing a fellow creature abandoned to the mercy of others.

"You're not going to play?" Elena appeared beside him, a glass of rosé in hand. She was twenty-eight, brilliant, and currently sleeping with the CFO. "Marc's team needs a fourth."

"Taking a break," David said, though he'd never really started. His phone buzzed again. Still he didn't look.

Beyond the resort's manicured grounds, a black bull stood motionless in a dusty pasture, its massive shoulders hunched against the heat. The Spaniards called them fighting bulls, but this one seemed resigned to its pasture, reduced from gladiator to curiosity. David felt a sudden, vicious kinship.

"You okay?" Elena asked, and for a moment she almost sounded like she meant it.

"Fine. Just hot." He finally checked his phone. A text from his daughter: "Can you send money for textbooks?" Not I miss you. Not How are you. Just transactional, like everything else now.

"David?" The dog swam to the pool's edge and shook itself, spraying water across David's expensive loafers. He didn't move to wipe them off.

"I'm fine," he said again. "Think I'll go for a swim."

He stripped to his boxers and dove in, letting the water close over his head. Below the surface, everything was muffled and blue and peaceful. He could stay down here forever, become just another thing that drowned in this beautiful, artificial place. But his lungs burned, and he broke the surface gasping, while above the padel court, his colleagues laughed like they'd never grow old, and somewhere far away, a bull lowed at the impossible blue sky.