Riddles by the Water
The orange sunset bled into the horizon as Elena sat on the edge of the infinity pool, her legs dangling in the cool water. Three days at this exclusive resort in Marbella, and she still couldn't remember why she'd agreed to come.
David was at the padel court again, playing with a group of strangers he'd met at breakfast. Always the charmer. Always running from anything that resembled stillness.
"You're overthinking," he'd told her that morning, already dressed in his tennis whites, racket in hand. "Just relax. That's what we're here for."
But Elena couldn't relax. Not with the promotion dangling at work—not with the way their conversations had devolved into silence and logistics over the past year. Not with the question she'd been carrying like a stone in her stomach for six months: Do I still love him?
She swirled her foot through the water, watching rplets distort her reflection. Beyond the pool, the resort's garden featured an alabaster sphinx, its wings spread in frozen flight, its face eternally asking questions it would never answer.
The metaphor wasn't lost on her.
Her phone buzzed on the lounge chair. Her boss: "Bull market's heating up. Need you back Monday. Don't make me regret this."
Work had been her bull—her charge, her conquest, the thing she'd spent the last decade riding through market crashes and triumphs. David called it obsession. She called it purpose.
"There you are," David's voice came from behind her, breathless and bright. "Come play. Mixed doubles."
He stood there, sweat on his forehead, that hopeful grin she'd fallen for twelve years ago. The man who could make anything feel like an adventure.
Elena pulled her legs from the water and stood. She watched a single orange leaf drift down from a nearby tree, landing softly on the surface of the pool, where it began its slow dissolve.
"David," she said, and something in her voice made his smile falter. "I need to tell you something."
The sphinx watched from the garden, its riddle finally ready to be spoken aloud.