The Seventh Inning Stretch

Elena adjusted her sunglasses, the stadium lights glinting off her still-dark hair—fifty years old and dyeing it the same chestnut she'd worn at twenty, because some deceits were worth maintaining. Section 214, row 12, seat 8. Perfect angle.

Two rows down, Richard's hair had started thinning at the temples. She'd watched it happen in real-time, their bathroom mirror documenting the retreat year by year until their separation. Now he sat with someone else—a woman with the kind of effortless waves Elena had always envied, laughing at something Richard said as the baseball game droned on below them.

Richard had always loved baseball. Had grown up in Montreal during the Expos' final years, carrying that disappointed loyalty like a genetic condition. Elena had never cared about sports, but she'd learned to watch him watching games, finding romance in his rapt attention to statistics she couldn't follow. Now she was watching him again, from what felt like a terrible distance.

She'd spotted him by accident—her corporate spy training kicking in at the wrong moment. She'd been good at her job once, tracking executives through airports and hotel lobbies, documenting indiscretions for clients who paid well for other people's secrets. But surveillance skills were terrible things to carry into a failed marriage. Knowledge was rarely a gift.

The other woman reached for Richard's hand, and Elena felt something shift in her chest—less pain than she'd expected, more recognition. The last time she'd held Richard's hand at a baseball game, their daughter had been eight, eating popcorn sticky with artificial butter. Now Sarah was twenty-two, living in Portland, calling twice a month.

Elena stood up as the crowd roared—someone had hit a home run, she assumed. She'd been watching Richard's profile instead of the field. His hair caught the stadium lights as he turned toward the woman beside him, and for the first time in three years, Elena didn't want to know what happened next.

Some surveillance was better left abandoned.