The Corporate Wake

The invitation said 'Team Celebration' but everyone knew what it really was—a corporate wake. Maria stood by the pool at the Desert Springs Resort, nursing her third mocktail and watching the ripples distort the reflection of palm trees swaying in the evening breeze. HR had orchestrated this whole charade: open bar, buffet, swimming pool, all to soften the blow of eliminating forty percent of the department.

'You look like a zombie,' David said, appearing beside her with two fresh drinks. His tie was already undone, his usually pristine shirt wrinkled. 'Join the club.'

Maria accepted the drink, their fingers brushing. The contact sent an unexpected jolt through her—she and David had been dancing around each other for months, sharing coffee breaks and inside jokes about incompetent management, never crossing the line. Now, with the axe finally fallen, something about the artificial urgency made everything feel both meaningless and desperately important.

'We're just walking dead anyway,' she said, dark humor coating her words like the condensation on her glass. 'Showing up, grinding through spreadsheets, pretending any of this matters. Today they just made it official.' She gestured toward the hotel entrance, where their remaining colleagues were filtering out, some visibly drunk, others carrying the emotional weight of watching friends pack boxes. 'Look at them. That's a zombie horde if I've ever seen one.'

David laughed, surprising himself. 'So what do we do? Eat brains?'

'No.' Maria set her drink on the table and turned to him, something shifting behind her eyes— resignation giving way to something else, something reckless and alive. 'We stop acting like ones.' She reached out, her palm warm against his cheek. 'Let's get out of here. I don't want to spend what might be my last weekend in this desert pretending everything's fine.'