The Man in the Orange Suit

I found him by the hotel pool at midnight, swimming laps in that ridiculous orange suit he'd bought for what he called our 'fresh start.' Marcus had never been a swimmer. The man who couldn't even make it across a lake at our wedding reception now cut through the water with terrifying precision, lap after endless lap, while I sat on a deck chair with my third martini.

We'd been running from something for months. At least, that's what I'd thought. Marcus had called it a second honeymoon, a chance to rebuild after his 'promotion.' But the promotion had meant moving three times in six months, new names at each stop, and a growing collection of burner phones he thought I didn't notice.

When he finally emerged from the pool, water streaming down his chest, I didn't ask about the phones. I didn't ask about the woman who'd called him 'Michael' when I answered his phone last week. I just watched him towel off, marveling at how well he'd been playing me.

'You're getting good at that,' I said, gesturing toward the pool.

Marcus's smile didn't reach his eyes. 'Lots of practice lately.'

'Thirty years, Marcus. You never learned to swim until this year.' I set down my drink. 'You're not really in insurance, are you?'

The pool area went quiet. Somewhere distant, a woman laughed. Marcus's face went still in that way I'd learned meant he was calculating his next move, which was how I knew I was right.

'I'm going to tell you something,' he said, 'and I need you to trust that everything else—our marriage, our life—was real.'

'Except it wasn't.' I stood up, my legs steadier than I expected. 'Because Michael wasn't real. And James wasn't real. And Marcus probably wasn't either.'

He reached for my hand and I let him take it, his fingers cold from the pool. 'I'm done,' he said. 'After tonight, I'm done.'

'Then why are you still swimming?'

'Old habits,' he said, and the sad thing was, I believed him.

I watched him walk back to our room in that orange suit, and for the first time in thirty years, I didn't follow.