Riddles in the Deep End
Elena stood at the edge of Marcus's infinity pool, clutching her wine glass like a lifeline. Below her, the water reflected theć‰ć›˛ silhouette of his backyard statue—a replica sphinx he'd shipped from Egypt after his second divorce.
"You've been staring at it for twenty minutes," Marcus said, appearing beside her with fresh glasses. "The sphinx doesn't have answers, El. Just riddles."
"I'm not looking for answers," she said, though she was. At thirty-seven, with her marriage collapsing like a poorly constructed soufflé, she'd started searching for meaning everywhere—in tarot cards, in old journals, in the bottom of wine bottles. Tonight she'd found herself examining a statue's stone face as if it might reveal why she'd stopped loving her husband, or why she'd started in the first place.
Marcus's cat, a haughty Russian Blue named Cleopatra, wound between their legs. Elena had always hated cats—too much like her mother, emotionally withholding yet demanding attention—but this one had been staring at her all evening with unsettling intelligence.
"Dinner's ready," Marcus said. "I made that spinach salad you like."
The spinach was wilting already, dressing congealing in the summer heat. They ate in silence broken only by the cat's sudden leap onto the table, knocking over Elena's wine. Glass shattered, red spreading across the white tablecloth like violence.
"Jesus, Cleo." Marcus laughed, but Elena couldn't. She saw her marriage in that spreading stain—something beautiful ruined by carelessness, by too many moments of looking away.
"I'm leaving David," she said suddenly. The words felt foreign, sharp as glass.
Marcus stopped laughing. The sphinx seemed to lean forward, stone eyes knowing.
"Finally?" he asked softly.
She dove into the pool fully clothed, surfacing gasping as water filled her mouth. When Marcus jumped in after her, fully dressed too, they floated on their backs staring up at the stars, the sphinx watching from above, and for the first time in years, Elena didn't feel like she was drowning.