The Aquarium of Goodbyes

Margot stood before the bathroom mirror at 2 AM, the orange prescription bottle in her hand like a small accusation. The vitamin D supplement—her doctor's orders after the divorce, when sunlight had become something she experienced mostly through windows. She dry-swallowed it, the pill catching in her throat like a secret.

In the living room, the cat—a Siamese her ex-husband had named Chairman Meao—pawed at the glass bowl on the side table. Inside, the goldfish floated with what Margot had convinced herself was philosophical detachment. She'd won him at a carnival three weeks ago, a pathetic attempt to fill the silence that had settled over the apartment like radioactive dust.

"He's not eating," her friend Elena had said over wine that evening, her tone thick with unspoken things. "Maybe he's lonely. Maybe you should get him a friend."

Margot had laughed, the sound brittle in her throat. "A fish friend, Elena? Really?"

But the words had stuck. That night, she found herself scrolling through pet store websites at 1 AM, reading reviews about fish companionship and social needs, projecting her own isolation onto a creature with a seven-second memory.

The cat meowed, jumping onto the table and staring at the bowl with predator's contemplation. Margot waved him away. "Not tonight, Chairman. Not him too."

Her phone buzzed—Elena again, probably drunk-texting from some bar where people still believed in possibility. Margot ignored it. Instead, she dropped a second pinch of flakes into the bowl, watching the goldfish stir, his orange scales catching the lamp light like small miracles.

"We're both just swimming in circles," she whispered to the glass. "But at least one of us is supposed to be here."

The vitamin sat heavy in her stomach, a small counterfeit health in a body that felt increasingly like a rented room. Somewhere downstairs, a car door slammed. Somewhere, someone was coming home to someone who hadn't left them for a younger colleague with better bone structure.

The goldfish rose to the surface, opened and closed his mouth once, then drifted back down. Margot watched him until her eyes burned, until the 2 AM silence settled again, thick and suffocating and absolutely, utterly hers.