Spinach at Midnight

The alarm rang at 6:00 AM, and Sarah dragged herself out of bed. Another day at the firm, another day of becoming what she called a "zombie" — though the joke had worn thin around year seven. Her skin had that gray cast of fluorescent light deprivation, and she'd caught herself staring blankly at spreadsheets for minutes at a time.

On the counter sat the vitamin regimen her mother had started sending after the divorce. B-complex for stress, D for the windowless office. Sarah swallowed them dry, a morning prayer to gods she didn't believe in.

The spinach in her crisper had been there two weeks, a testament to failure. She'd bought it during optimism about becoming someone who ate greens with intention. Now it blackened at the edges.

Her phone buzzed. Tom. "Dinner tonight?"

Tom was sweet, attentive. But lately she'd been looking at him and feeling nothing — just a hollow echo where excitement should be. Was this what growing up meant?

"Can't," she typed. "Work late."

At the office, Marcus found her by the coffee machine. They'd been dancing around something for months — late nights, drinks that became dinners. He was married. She was lonely.

"You look like hell," he said.

"Zombie hours," she replied, heart beating strangely fast. "These vitamins are supposed to help. They're not helping."

Marcus laughed. "My wife takes vitamins too. For balance or some bullshit. I think she wants something to control."

The resentment in his voice left a door slightly ajar.

"I have spinach at home," she heard herself say. "Want to come help me decide if it's gone bad?"

It wasn't an invitation. It was a test.

Marcus looked at her. "I have to get home."

But he didn't move. "Sarah."

"Don't."

At home, she threw out the spinach. Then poured the vitamins into the trash, each a choice she hadn't made. The phone buzzed — Tom, Marcus, her mother.

Sarah turned it off and sat in the quiet kitchen, feeling hunger for the first time in years. Real hunger, sharp and terrifying and entirely her own.

For dinner, she ordered a pizza with extra spinach.

It was a start.