Spinach in His Teeth

The spinach leaf wedged between Marcus's incisors had been there for twenty minutes. Through three appetizers, two cocktails, and an increasingly desperate monologue about his startup's pivot strategy. Elena watched it with a kind of horrified fascination, that vibrant green flap shouting everything his polished confidence tried to deny.

"Baseball metaphor," he was saying, palm slapping the table for emphasis. "We're swinging for the fences. Disruptive tech, you know?" He laughed, and she watched the spinach dance.

She should tell him. She was his mentor, technically. Senior VP to his junior associate. Three years his senior, infinitely more experienced, and apparently incapable of saying, "Hey Marcus, you have spinach in your teeth." Instead she swirled her wine and thought about how they'd ended up here — at this overpriced bistro, on what he clearly thought was a date, while she calculated the minimum number of minutes before she could legitimately claim an early morning.

The truth was, Marcus was like a bull in a china shop of her own making. She'd been the one to suggest drinks after work. The one to laugh a little too loudly at his terrible jokes. The one to somehow transform "let's discuss that quarterly report" into whatever this was — whatever he thought this was. And now she was trapped, watching green debris mock her cowardice.

"You're quiet," he said, suddenly.

She looked up. His eyes were soft, concerned. The spinach was still there, grotesque and intimate, like she was seeing something she shouldn't.

"Just thinking about the market," she lied. "It's been a long week."

He nodded, understanding. "Yeah. Markets are tough. But we've got this, Elena. I really believe in what we're building." His hand moved toward hers, tentative. "What we're building."

She saw it then — the moment where everything would change, where she'd have to either pull away or let herself want this. The spinach was still there. The check was coming. The terrible, glorious possibility of being seen by someone who believed in her.

"Marcus," she said, reaching across the table. "You have something in your teeth."