The Geometry of Leaving

The goldfish circled its bowl in the corner of Marcus's office, orange scales catching the afternoon light through floor-to-ceiling windows. Forty-two floors above Manhattan, this was the closest either of them got to nature anymore.

"They have three-second memories," Elena said, not looking up from her iPhone. Her thumb moved rhythmically, scrolling through something that wasn't him.

"That's a myth."

"Isn't it poetic though? Imagine living in perpetual first moments. Imagine forgetting everything that hurt."

Marcus turned from the window where he'd been watching the Charging **Bull** statue far below on Broadway—its massive bronze form a monument to aggression he'd once worshipped. Now it just looked tired. He'd made partner last month. The corner office. The view. All of it.

"I'm not happy, El."

The scrolling stopped. She finally looked at him, really looked at him, for the first time in weeks. "You just got everything you wanted."

"That's the problem."

He gestured to the bull downstairs, to the city they'd conquered together. "We spent ten years becoming people who can afford fish that get flown in from Japan. When did we become them?"

Elena set down her phone. The screen went dark, and in the reflection, Marcus saw himself—graying at the temples, tailored suit, exhausted. A stranger wearing his life.

"Remember that apartment in Queens?" she asked softly. "When we couldn't afford heat? We slept under every coat we owned."

"We were so hungry then. For everything."

"We're still hungry, Marcus. We just forgot what for." She stood, walked to the fishbowl. The goldfish pressed its mouth to the glass, opening and closing. "Maybe they're the lucky ones. Maybe the three-second memory isn't a defect. Maybe it's mercy."

"What would you forget?"

"Everything except the feeling of wanting something I haven't found yet."

Marcus crossed to her, wrapped his arms around her waist. Below them, the bull stood frozen in permanent charge, while somewhere in the bowl, a fish completed another circle, starting fresh, again and again.