The Spinach Between Us

The lightning flashed across the glass walls of the padel club, illuminating everything in harsh white — the court, her backhand, and suddenly, the spinach wedged between Marcus's front teeth.

Forty years old and still playing corporate spy games. I'd been following him for three weeks, hired by his business partner to dig up dirt on the embezzlement scheme. But watching him laugh with Elena — his hand on her lower back, the way she leaned into his touch — I forgot about the wiretap in my bag. This wasn't about the money anymore.

"You're staring," Marcus said, wiping his mouth. The spinach was gone. "Like you've seen a ghost."

I hadn't. I'd seen worse. I'd seen the bull-headed way he refused to walk away from failing ventures, dragging everyone down with him. I'd seen him charming investors while their accounts drained. But this — the tenderness in his eyes when he looked at her — this was new.

"Your wife hired me," I said. The words hung between us, heavier than the humidity of the approaching storm.

Elena stepped back. Marcus's face went still, calculating, like a chess player realizing he'd missed a mate in three.

"And if I told you Sarah's the one cooking the books?" His voice was calm. Too calm. "That your client's the bull in this china shop?"

Another flash of lightning. Rain hammered the roof now.

I thought of Sarah sitting in my office two weeks ago, weeping about her husband's affair, asking me to document it for the divorce. She hadn't mentioned embezzlement. Hadn't mentioned she wanted dirt on Marcus, not protection from him.

The padel ball bounced forgotten in the corner.

"Check the Cayman accounts," Marcus said quietly. "Not hers. Her brother's. That's where the money's going."

I looked at Elena. She nodded once, almost imperceptibly.

Outside, thunder shook the glass. The game had changed — or maybe I'd finally started playing the right one.

"Dinner tomorrow," I said. "My treat. And Marcus?" I gestured to my teeth. "Check your reflection first."

He laughed. Elena didn't.

Some things, I was learning, left stains that spinach couldn't explain away.