The Aisle of Goodbye

Maya stood in the produce section of Whole Foods, her cart half-filled with organic lettuce and the kind of expensive bread her ex-husband used to mock. That was before David moved to Seattle with his assistant—a woman named Brianna who, according to mutual friends, had never eaten a carb in her life.

The papaya sat waxed and alien on the display, something Maya had only bought once, during that month in 2019 when she'd convinced herself she could reinvent her body into something David would finally want to touch again. She'd blended it into smoothies every morning, forced down the vitamin supplements her Instagram therapist swore would fix her libido, her mood, her fundamental unlovability. David had barely noticed. He was too busy falling in love with someone else.

"Maya?"

She turned to find Ethan from Marketing standing beside her, holding an orange as if it were evidence. He'd been at the company holiday party where she'd cried in the bathroom after too much spiked eggnog, the night before she finally asked David to leave.

"Hey." She shifted her weight, feeling the old shame crawl up her throat. "Shopping for... dinner."

"Me too." Ethan smiled, and something about it made her chest ache. It wasn't pity. It was recognition. "My wife left in February. Said I was like a room she'd already furnished and couldn't figure out how to redecorate."

The words settled between them like smoke. Maya blinked.

"I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too. About David. Everyone heard." He weighed the orange in his palm. "You know what's fucked up? I keep swimming laps at the gym at 6am because that was our time together. Even though she's gone, I still show up. Like the ritual matters more than the person."

Maya felt tears prick her eyes. "I still buy his favorite yogurt."

"Exactly."

They stood there in the fluorescent glow, two people choosing themselves in the most mundane way possible. Maya looked at the papaya again, then at Ethan.

"Want to get coffee?"

"I'd like that."

She abandoned her cart. The yoga mat and organic bread could wait. Whatever came next, she wanted to be awake for it.