Riddles in the Dark

The spinach lay limp on her plate, a wilted witness to everything that had died between them tonight. Elena pushed the salad away, watching her husband across the candlelit table. David was avoiding her eyes, again, that familiar tightening of his jaw she'd come to recognize as his sphinx-like silence—the enigmatic withdrawal that posed riddles without ever offering answers.

'You're doing it again,' she said, her voice barely rising above the restaurant's ambient hum.

'Doing what?' He didn't look up from his wine.

'That thing. Where you become this... this impenetrable creature. Like I'm supposed to decipher what's wrong, but you've already decided I'll fail the test.'

David finally met her gaze. For a moment, something like pain flickered behind his eyes. Then it was gone, replaced by that practiced, neutral expression she'd grown to hate. 'I'm tired, El. That's all. Can't that be enough?'

'Can it?' She laughed softly, without humor. 'Seven years together, and I'm still swimming upstream to reach you. I'm exhausted from the effort.'

The waiter appeared, refilling David's glass, interrupting the moment. When he was gone, David leaned forward, his voice dropping to a whisper.

'What if I told you I met someone?'

The words hit her like physical blows. But what shocked her more was her own reaction—not devastation, exactly. Something closer to relief. The sphinx had finally spoken. The riddle had an answer.

'Are you asking for permission?' she asked quietly.

'I'm asking...' He faltered. 'I don't know what I'm asking.'

Elena looked at her uneaten spinach, at the candle burning low between them, at the man she'd loved for seven years who had become a stranger somewhere along the way. She thought about all the evenings like this one, all the silences, all the unanswered questions.

'I think,' she said, 'you're asking me to let you go.'

David's face crumbled. 'I never wanted to hurt you.'

'I know.' She reached for his hand across the table, their fingers touching for what might be the last time. 'But loving you has become an exercise in swimming against a current that's only getting stronger. Maybe it's time we both stopped fighting it.'

Outside, rain began to fall. The sphinx's riddle was solved, but the answer wasn't the one either of them had expected.