Riddles in the Rain

The first lightning strike illuminated the apartment just as Maya's iPhone buzzed with another missed call from him. Outside, thunder rattled the windowpane like a demanding fist.

"He's not coming," David said from the sofa, their old golden retriever curled against his side. The dog, Samson, lifted his head at the tension in her voice.

"You don't know that."

"Maya." David's tone was gentle, the kind of gentleness that cuts deeper than anger. "It's been three hours. His phone goes straight to voicemail. He's not coming."

She sank into the armchair, phone clutched like a lifeline. The truth pressed against her throat—she'd been David's friend for six years, his lover for eight months, and she still couldn't make herself believe she was enough.

"Maybe something happened."

"Maybe." David stood up, Samson following with a soft whine. "Or maybe he's exactly where he always is when things get real: somewhere else."

Another flash of lightning, closer this time. The storm had moved in off the lake an hour ago, relentless as the questions she'd been avoiding all evening. Why had she agreed to tonight? Why had she let David convince her to give Jason one more chance, to host this dinner that would finally—what? Make Jason see what was standing right in front of him?

"I feel like the sphinx," she whispered.

"What?"

"Trapped with riddles I can't solve. Sitting out in the desert, watching people walk away because they can't figure out the answer." She looked up at David. "The problem is, I don't even know the question anymore."

David knelt beside her chair, took the phone from her hand. "Then stop trying to solve it. Some riddles don't have answers—they just have endings."

"And some endings are also beginnings?" The old cliché felt heavy on her tongue.

He smiled then, the smile she'd seen across a thousand coffee cups and morning beds. "That's the thing about sphinxes, Maya. Eventually, someone always realizes they can just walk away."

Outside, the rain intensified, drowning out her phone's final buzz against the table.