The Last Vitamin

She kept the goldfish in a bowl on her desk at work, its orange scales catching the fluorescent light like tiny coins. Marcus had bought it for her on their third anniversary—'a pet that won't die when we forget to feed it,' he'd joked. Now Marcus was gone, and the goldfish was still there, swimming in endless circles, its delicate fins trailing like seaweed in the water.

Her office mate, Jen, watched her from across the cubicle divider. They weren't exactly friends, not anymore—not since the promotion incident. But Jen had stopped by her desk that morning with a bottle of vitamins. 'You look like you need these,' she'd said, setting the bottle down like a peace offering. 'B-complex. For stress.'

She'd accepted them with a tight smile. Now she stared at her reflection in the darkened monitor, seeing how gray her hair had become over the past six months. The vitamin bottle sat next to the goldfish bowl, a pharmaceutical promise of renewal beside a creature that symbolized stagnation.

'Your fish is sideways,' Jen said, appearing suddenly beside her desk.

She looked down. The goldfish was indeed floating at an odd angle, its gills moving rapidly. 'Is it dying?'

'They do that sometimes.' Jen reached into the bowl with her bare hands, her hair falling forward as she gently righted the fish. 'My ex had a tankful. They're tougher than they look.'

She watched Jen's hands in the water, the way the droplets clung to her skin, and felt something crack open inside her chest—a sudden, impossible tenderness for this woman she'd spent months resenting.

'Thank you,' she whispered.

Jen straightened, water dripping from her fingers onto the carpet. 'We could get coffee after work,' she said, casual, not meeting her eyes. 'If you want.'

The goldfish swam upright again, oblivious to the tiny war it had just witnessed. She thought about the vitamins, about how sometimes you have to swallow something bitter to feel whole again. Outside, rain began to streak the windows, blurring the world beyond into liquid abstraction.

'I'd like that,' she said.