Still Waters

The betting pool at work had reached fourteen thousand dollars. Not that anyone would admit to participating. Sarah's name was at the top of the list, odds of her leaving by Friday at 3:1. She'd seen the spreadsheet on Morrison's computer during their weekly padel match.

"You're getting predictable," she'd said, smashing the ball into the corner. Morrison had missed, his expensive wristband glittering under the court lights. He was sleeping with the new marketing director. Sarah was sleeping with Morrison. The betting pool was about which of them would find out first.

Instead of going home, Sarah drove to the pet store. She'd been keeping three goldfish in a bowl on her desk—Wish, Hope, and Change. Their names made people laugh. Yesterday, Wish had gone belly-up. Today, Hope was listless, drifting near the surface.

She carried the bowl to the building's rooftop pool. No one used it. The water was still, a mirror reflecting the city skyline and Sarah's exhausted face.

"You're better off this way," she told Change, watching the tiny orange fish pulse in the darkness. Corporate life was just swimming in circles until you forgot you were in a bowl. She'd been doing it for twelve years.

The pool's surface reflected the yellow windows of the office where Morrison was probably still working, or maybe in his office with the door locked. The betting pool didn't matter. The promotion didn't matter. None of them had noticed she'd taken home boxes of files over the past six months.

Sarah poured Change into the pool. The fish flickered once, then disappeared into the dark water.

Her phone buzzed. Morrison: "Where are you? Padel tomorrow?"

Sarah dropped her phone into her purse. She walked toward the elevator, heels clicking on the concrete. Change was somewhere in that massive pool now, finally swimming in something that wasn't a circle.

The betting pool would have new odds tomorrow. Morrison would open his computer and find the investigation files gone. The goldfish would be free. And Sarah would finally learn to swim.