Supplements & Storms

Elena stared at her open palm, tracing the lifeline that seemed shorter than she remembered. At 47, she'd stopped believing in palmistry, but the会议室 felt suffocating enough that she'd entertain any superstition.

"We're restructuring," Marcus said, his finger tapping the conference table.

Her cat, Bast, would be more direct. Bast simply knocked things over when displeased.

Elena's colleague Sarah sat beside her, her perfect blonde hair catching the fluorescent light. Sarah, who'd been mentoring Marcus's protégé. Sarah, whose LinkedIn profile had been mysteriously updated last week.

Outside, lightning fractured the sky—an ugly, jagged tear that made the windows rattle. The storm had been building all afternoon, much like the knot in Elena's stomach. She'd suspected something was shifting. The late-night emails between Marcus and that fresh-faced MBA graduate. The closed-door meetings. The way Sarah's eyes now avoided hers across the boardroom table.

"We value your tenure, Elena," Marcus added, which everyone in the room knew was corporate speak for 'you're expensive and we can hire two of you for the same price.'

She thought of the vitamin D supplements on her bathroom counter—her doctor's recommendation for someone who spent too much time indoors, too much time giving pieces of herself to buildings and stock options instead of anything that mattered. At 47, with no partner, no children, just Bast and a condo she'd finally paid off, she'd built her identity around this company.

Now they'd dismantle it with a severance package and a cheerful speech about "exciting new directions."

"Alright," Elena said, closing her palm into a fist. She stood up.

"Elena? We're not finished."

"I am." She grabbed her laptop. "Send the paperwork to my personal email."

Lightning struck again, closer this time, and the office lights flickered. In that momentary darkness, something crystallized. She wasn't losing anything. She was being given something she'd forgotten how to want: time.

Bast would be pleased. More hours for sleeping in sunbeams. And maybe Elena would finally learn to do the same.