The Last Resort

Elena couldn't remember when she'd stopped swimming. The corporate retreat had seemed like a good idea three margaritas ago—white sand, turquoise water, team-building exercises that mostly involved avoiding her coworkers. Now she stood waist-deep in the ocean, watching from behind oversized sunglasses as Greg from accounting sprinted down the beach, his pale flesh jiggling in the tropical sun.

He was running toward her, arms flailing like a man possessed. She'd seen that look before. It was the same expression her husband had worn five months ago when he told her he was leaving her for his yoga instructor.

"There's a situation," Greg panted, arriving breathless at the water's edge. His Panama hat had gone missing sometime during their escape from the welcome reception.

Elena followed his gaze to the tree line. A black bear stood at the edge of the resort property, nose lifted to catch the scent of papaya from the breakfast buffet.

"That's not native," she said, the understatement of the year.

"Animal control is three hours away. Corporate's not authorizing an early checkout. Budget constraints."

Elena laughed—a dry, bitter sound. She'd spent twenty years climbing the corporate ladder, and here she was, trapped in paradise with a dislocated bear and a man who still used a flip phone. Somewhere behind them, the CEO was probably delivering a keynote about adaptation and resilience.

"You know what my therapist says?" Elena said, stepping deeper into the water until it lapped at her ribs. "She says I need to stop swimming upstream. But she's never seen a bear at a beach resort."

The bear sat down, seemingly content to watch them. Greg's hands were shaking. Elena thought about her empty apartment, the silence that greeted her every evening, the way she'd been running from herself for half her life.

"Greg," she said, "have you ever actually lived?"

He stared at her, then at the bear, then back at her. Slowly, deliberately, he took off his shoes.

"I'm going in," he said.

And as they floated together in the warm Caribbean water, watching a bear eat complementary fruit, Elena realized she hadn't felt this alive in years.