The Drowning Pool

The orange slice floated in her martini like a stubborn sun refusing to set. Elena sat at the edge of the resort pool, watching her husband Marcus float on his back, eyes closed, pretending everything was fine.

They'd come to Cabo to save their marriage. Instead, she'd spent three days watching him take vitamin supplements with religious precision—a daily ritual that somehow proved his commitment to being better while refusing to acknowledge the whiskey bottles he hid in his suitcase.

"You're staring again," he said without opening his eyes.

"I'm thinking."

"About what?"

About the cat. The one they'd adopted seven years ago, when they still made each other laugh. Buster had died two months ago, and Marcus had cried harder than she'd ever seen him. She'd held him on the bathroom floor, feeling his ribs against hers, and realized it was the most intimate they'd been in years.

Now she watched Marcus's chest rise and fall in the chlorinated water and wondered if grief was the only thing that could bring them close anymore.

A dog barked nearby—some rich family's golden retriever, well-fed and happy. Marcus opened his eyes, smiled.

"Remember when we talked about getting a dog?"

"We talked about a lot of things."

He swam to the edge, water dripping from his hair. "El, can we please just enjoy this? We're in paradise."

"Paradise is a lot of things." She finished her drink. "But it's mostly just expensive water and people pretending."

He flinched. The orange slice sank to the bottom of her glass.

"Is this about the promotion?" Marcus asked quietly.

"It's not about the promotion."

"Then what?"

Elena looked at her husband—really looked at him—and saw the years of unsaid things piling up between them like debris against a fence. She thought about Buster, their cat, who'd never judged them for their silence. She thought about the vitamins Marcus took to stay healthy for a future they weren't building together.

"I'm not sure I remember how to want this anymore," she said.

The dog barked again. Children screamed somewhere. In the distance, service staff prepared another round of drinks for people who would rather be anywhere but here.

Marcus's face crumpled. "That's not fair."

"No," Elena agreed, standing up. "It's not."

She walked back to their room alone, leaving him in the pool, floating in that expensive blue water, pretending not to notice she'd stopped swimming alongside him.