The Goldfish on the Twenty-Seventh Floor

Maya watched the goldfish circle its bowl on the corner of her desk, its orange scales catching the fluorescent light. It had been a gift from Tom—'for relaxation,' he'd said during her third month of panic attacks. Now, six months later, the fish was still alive. Tom was not.

Her phone buzzed. Another message from him: *'Can we talk?'*

She'd disconnected the cable from her television three weeks ago, hoping to silence the noise that filled her apartment. But silence was louder. It amplified the hollow echo of her promotion, the empty seat across from her at dinner, the way she'd stopped calling her mother.

The goldfish bumped its nose against glass. Maya wondered if it remembered the larger tank at the pet store, or if this small world was all it had ever known. Memory was a cable that stretched and frayed. She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt something that wasn't filtered through three layers of irony or professional detachment.

Her phone lit up again. Tom was calling.

The hat rack by the door held Tom's old fedora, the one he'd worn to their first corporate holiday party. She'd threatened to throw it out a dozen times. Now it was the only thing keeping her anchored to the version of herself that believed in something bigger than quarterly reports and performance metrics.

She answered.

'I'm sorry,' Tom said. 'About everything.'

'Me too,' she replied, and realized she meant it.

The goldfish swam to the surface, waiting to be fed. Maya reached for the food container, then stopped. Some things needed to wait.

'Dinner?' she asked.

'Tonight?'

'Tonight.'

She hung up and reconnected the cable. The television flickered to life—some reality show she'd never watched. She turned it off again. Some noise wasn't worth the volume.

The fish watched her through curved glass. Maya picked up Tom's hat and placed it on her head. It was too large, slipping down over her eyes. She laughed for the first time in weeks.

Tomorrow, she would buy a larger tank. Tonight, she had a date to get ready for.