The Last Call from Catalina

The orange sun dipped below the horizon as Maria sat by the hotel pool, her iPhone vibrating for the third time in ten minutes. She didn't need to look at the screen to know it was him. David had been calling since she'd walked out of their apartment three days ago.

She traced the condensation on her cocktail glass, watching the pool's blue surface ripple in the evening breeze. Above her, palm fronds swayed like skeletal fingers against the darkening sky. This was supposed to be their anniversary trip — booked six months ago, when they still believed in forever.

A stray cat jumped onto the adjacent lounge chair, eyeing her with the calculated indifference of someone who'd seen too many tourists cry alone by pools. Maria tossed it a piece of the marigold garnish from her drink.

"You're better off single," she told the cat. "No one to disappoint you."

Her phone lit up again with a text: *I found the sweater you borrowed from your sister. The one she made you promise never to lend anyone.*

Maria's laugh came out as a sob. That sweater — that ridiculous, ugly orange monstrosity — had been the final straw. She'd lent it to David's ex-girlfriend during a party, a casual betrayal that had revealed everything about how little he respected her boundaries.

The cat approached, purring now, and rubbed against her ankle. Maria picked it up, burying her face in its soft fur. The animal didn't care about her failed marriage, her tentative career change, or the fact she was thirty-five and starting over.

She deleted David's unread messages. Not blocked — that felt too final, too dramatic — but archived. Gone from the immediate, moved to the digital graveyard of things that no longer required attention.

The cat jumped down and padded away toward the hotel gardens, its tail held high. Maria watched it go, then finished her drink in one swallow. The night air smelled of chlorine and possibility, and somewhere in the distance, she could hear music playing.

She stood up, leaving her phone on the table, and walked toward the sound.