The Palm Reader's Last Client

The lightning split the sky outside the beachfront bar, illuminating Maya's face for just a second — long enough to see what she'd tried to hide all evening. Her hand trembled as she reached across the table, palm up, waiting for me to take it.

"You're leaving," I said. Not a question. I'd seen it in the way she'd packed her office belongings over three days instead of three hours, in the way she'd stopped laughing at my jokes during team stand-ups. But mostly, I'd seen it in her eyes when she told me she was "just going home early" yesterday — at 3 PM.

"It's not what you think," Maya said. Her hair fell forward, curtaining her face. She'd stopped wearing it down months ago. "I didn't take the promotion."

"Then what?" A cat wound around my ankles, one of the strays that lived behind the dumpster. I'd been feeding it for weeks. I bent down automatically, scratching behind its ears. When I straightened, Maya was crying.

"I'm sick, Elena."

The words hit like something physical. I sat back, the beer I'd been nursing suddenly tasting like copper. "How sick?"

"Six months, maybe. The CAT scans showed —" She stopped. "God, I'm doing this wrong. I'm drunk and I'm scared and you're the only person I could trust to tell."

"Friend," I said. "You said friend."

"What?"

"In the office, you called me your colleague. Your team member. Never your friend."

"I was trying to protect you," she whispered. "If people knew we were close, they'd use it. They already were." She looked up then, and I saw how tired she really was. "You think you're the only one who noticed the sabotage?"

"You knew about the deleted files?"

"I did them."

The bar went silent. Or maybe my hearing just shut down. Outside, lightning flashed again, closer this time. The cat bolted.

"Elena, listen to me." Maya reached for my hand, palm to palm this time. "They made me choose. My career or your reputation. I picked yours. Those files were backed up, by the way. On a drive I slipped into your purse after the holiday party."

I remembered finding it. I'd thought it was a White Elephant gift someone forgot.

"You destroyed your own credibility to save mine?"

"I knew I was sick then. Didn't see the point in climbing a ladder I wouldn't have time to enjoy." She managed something like a smile. "Also, you're better at the job. That's the honest truth."

The waitress appeared with another round. We hadn't ordered. She winked at us and left.

"What now?" I asked.

"Now you drink that beer," Maya said. "And tomorrow, you take my promotion. And you promise me something."

"Anything."

"Promise me you won't feed that damn cat behind my back. It's getting fat."