Service Fault in Paradise

Maria lined up the vitamin supplements on the kitchen counter — D3 for bone health, magnesium for sleep, B-complex for energy her husband kept promising she'd have again. Outside, the palm trees swayed in the humidity, their fronds like tired fingers beckoning toward something they couldn't quite reach.

"You coming?" Carlos called from the driveway. He held his padel racquet like it was a weapon he'd forgotten how to use.

She grabbed her water bottle, the condensation slick against her palm. They'd joined the club three months ago, back when they thought new hobbies might save what was already gone. The padel court became their battlefield — every serve a question, every volley an accusation.

The ball bounced between them, a yellow punctuation mark in a sentence neither could finish. Maria missed another shot. "Dammit."

"Your form," Carlos said, not unkindly. "You're overthinking it."

Like everything. Like the vitamins. Like the marriage counselor they'd stopped seeing after the fourth session, when she'd told them some things don't have fixes, only accommodations.

"I'm tired," Maria said. The ball rolled to a stop at her feet.

Carlos leaned against the fence, his shirt stained through with sweat. "Me too."

The sun beat down on the court. In the distance, someone splashed into a pool. Water, she thought, always water — tears, sweat, the ocean they'd honeymooned beside, the way he looked at her across the dinner table like she was drowning and he'd forgotten how to swim.

"I stopped taking the vitamins," she said suddenly.

Carlos looked at her, really looked at her, for the first time in months. "Why?"

"Because I'd rather feel whatever this is than pretend it's fixable."

He nodded, something shifting in his face like tectonic plates moving beneath the earth's crust. "Yeah," he said. "Me too."

They stood there as the sun set, palm leaves casting shadows across the court like dark omens, or maybe just shadows. The padel racquet felt heavy in her hand. Not a weapon anymore. Just a thing.

"Want to get a drink?" he asked.

"Just water?"

"Sure. Just water."

They walked off the court together, leaving the ball where it lay.