The Last Game Before the Flood

The rain had been falling for three days when Elena showed up at the padel court. David recognized her immediately—the way she moved, the particular tilt of her head when she missed a return. They hadn't spoken since the divorce, not really. Just logistics and lawyers and the careful partitioning of twelve years together.

"Your sister called," she said, not bothering with greetings. "She's worried about you."

David bounced the ball against the court surface. Thwack. Thwack. The waterlogged surface absorbed more sound than usual. "I'm fine."

"You're playing padel alone in a hurricane."

"It's just rain."

Elena walked to the baseline. She still had her old racquet, the one he'd given her for their tenth anniversary. "Play?"

They played in silence at first, an easy rhythm returning like muscle memory. The storm intensified. Water began pooling in the corners of the court. Neither suggested stopping.

"I saw your cat," Elena said between points. "He was at the shelter. They said you surrendered him."

"I couldn't keep him. The apartment—"

"You loved him."

"I can't keep anything anymore."

The ball sailed long. Elena didn't chase it. She stood there, water dripping from her hair, watching him with that terrible gentleness she'd always used when he was lying to himself.

"You're not fine, David."

He served again. The ball hit the net and dropped into the gathering water. "I'm trying to be."

"The flood's coming," she said. "They're evacuating the river district. Your building's on the list."

He looked up. The sky was a bruised purple, the kind that swallowed light. "I know."

"What are you still doing here?"

David thought of the apartment upstairs, the boxes he'd never finished unpacking, the cat carrier sitting empty by the door. He thought of everything he'd let wash away in the past six months, everything he'd surrendered without a fight.

"I'm waiting," he said, "to see if I'll save myself this time."

Elena came to the net. She extended her hand across the flood line forming at center court. "Play one more point. Winner decides."

The game took twenty minutes. By the end, they were soaked to the bone, laughing like idiots, sliding through puddles, neither keeping score anymore. When the sirens finally wailed in the distance, neither moved.

"Call it a draw?" Elena asked.

"Yeah," David said. "But I think you won."

She squeezed his hand. "Come home with me. The cat too. We'll figure out the rest after the water recedes."