The Last Supper

Elena stood at the kitchen counter, her knife hovering over the papaya she'd bought at the specialty market that morning. It had cost twelve dollars—a ridiculous price for fruit, but David had mentioned once how much he loved it. That was before she found the text messages on his phone, before she learned that his late nights at the office had actually been spent with someone named Chloe who apparently preferred red wine to her expensive papaya.

The knife sliced through the fruit's flesh like it was cutting through everything she'd believed about her marriage. Bright orange seeds scattered across the cutting board—colorful little lies, she thought. She scooped them into the trash with deliberate precision.

She turned to the spinach, wilting slightly in the colander. She'd planned to make them a salad, something healthy and virtuous. They were supposed to start eating better together, another project for their supposed future. The spinach leaves looked like tired green flags surrendering to inevitable decay.

The oven timer beeped. The salmon was done.

Elena plated everything with the careful grace she'd learned from her mother, who'd stayed married to her father for thirty-five years despite his wandering eye and whiskey breath. Some traditions deserved to die, Elena decided, carrying both plates to the dining room table set for two.

She sat alone and cut into her salmon. It was perfectly cooked—moist, flaky, seasoned exactly as David preferred. The papaya lay beside it like a tropical reproach, its flesh the color of a sunset over a marriage that had already ended.

Her phone buzzed. David's name lit up the screen: "Running late. Start without me."

Elena took a bite of papaya. It was sweet and slightly musky, nothing special. She'd wasted twelve dollars and a decade of her life on things that weren't worth it after all. She texted back: "Already did."

Then she stood, cleared both plates, and scraped everything into the garbage. The spinach, the papaya, the carefully cooked salmon—all of it went into the trash together. Some things were better left uneaten.