The Riddle of Us

Margot stood at the kitchen counter, the ceramic sphinx paperweight watching her with its chipped gaze—Marcus's souvenir from Egypt, back when they still collected memories like souvenirs. She crushed an orange C tablet between two spoons, the powder scattering like resentment across the granite.

"You're taking your vitamins again," Marcus said from the doorway. Barnaby, their aging golden retriever, lifted his head at the sound of his voice, then settled back onto his bed between them.

"Trying to be healthy for the baby."

"Margot."

"What?" She turned, the orange powder coating her fingertips like guilt. "We're still trying, aren't we?"

Marcus rubbed his temple, leaving behind a smudge of charcoal from his evening class. He'd started sculpting again—something he'd abandoned in their twenties, before the mortgage and the promotions and the slow erosion of whatever they'd been before they became this.

"I saw the receipt from the clinic," he said quietly. "The one from last week. You went alone."

"I wanted to surprise you."

"With what?"

"With good news. Or bad news. Just—news." She laughed bitterly, the sound jagged in their kitchen with its too-expensive appliances and the dog who knew something was wrong. "You're like a sphinx, Marcus. You never ask anymore. You just wait for me to figure everything out alone."

"I'm trying not to pressure you."

"That's the problem!" She slammed her hand on the counter, and Barnaby scrambled up, whimpering. "You stopped pushing. You stopped hoping. You stopped being anything other than... present. But not here."

Marcus crossed the kitchen slowly, his hands in his pockets. When he reached for her, Margot stepped back, then forced herself to stand still as his arms came around her, careful and careful and careful.

"I'm scared too," he whispered against her hair.

She cried then, finally, while the dog pressed his warm weight against their legs and the sphinx watched from the counter with its painted smile, knowing something about riddles and answers and the terrible courage it takes to speak the truth.