The Riddle We Never Solved

The glass of water sat between us on the balcony table, condensation pooling like unspoken words. Cairo shimmered in the heat below, but Marcus couldn't see it—his face was illuminated instead by the blue glow of his iphone, thumbs moving in that familiar rhythm that meant he was somewhere else entirely.

I watched him organize the supplements on his napkin: a vitamin D capsule, omega-3, something for stress he'd ordered online. The orange I'd peeled earlier lay beside them, segments drying in the sun. He'd taken exactly three bites before setting it down.

'You're not hungry,' I said, and it wasn't a question.

'Just catching up on work.' He didn't look up. 'This merger has everyone on edge.'

The Sphinx was visible from our balcony, that limestone creature with the worn face and the inscrutable smile. We'd come here to fix whatever was breaking between us—some last-ditch attempt under the guise of a tenth anniversary trip. But Egypt's ancient riddles had nothing on the one I couldn't bring myself to ask: when had we become strangers who shared a bed?

I thought about last night, how he'd turned away from me in the dark, phone lighting up repeatedly with messages from someone named Sarah. Not the Sarah from accounting. A different Sarah.

'The tour guide said the Sphinx lost its nose to target practice,' I said, my voice sounding strange in my own ears. 'Soldiers used it for entertainment. Shot off the feature that gave it character.'

Marcus finally looked up, his expression annoyed. 'What?'

'Nothing.' I pushed my chair back. The heat pressed against me like a physical weight. 'I'm going for a walk.'

'Wait, Elena—' He reached for my hand, but I was already standing, my phone vibrating in my pocket with an incoming call I knew I should take. The lawyer. The one I'd been secretly consulting for three weeks.

The riddle wasn't about the Sphinx at all. It was simpler: what do you do when you realize the life you built has become a monument to something that no longer exists?

I left him there with his vitamins and his excuses, the water between us finally warming in the sun.