The Vitamin Kill

Elena swallowed her vitamin D supplement with lukewarm coffee, the pill catching briefly in her throat—another daily reminder that she was forty-two now, and her body no longer forgave neglect. The bear of depression had been hibernating in her chest for months, stirring occasionally, but today it felt fully awake.

She arrived at the office to find Marcus already at his desk, his posture too relaxed for a man whose division had missed quarterly targets. A fox if she'd ever seen one—charming, clever, always surviving. Their affair had ended six months ago, but he still looked at her with that proprietary interest that made her skin prickle.

"Coffee?" he asked, sliding a cup across her desk.

She hesitated. The corporate spy network she'd accidentally discovered last week—anonymous emails exposing internal sabotage—had everyone paranoid. Was Marcus grooming her again? Or was he genuinely concerned? The distinction mattered, yet somehow didn't.

Her golden retriever, Banjo, had been dead for two years now, but she still reached for his leash some mornings when leaving her apartment. The hollow space where he'd been—unconditional love without complication—felt more present than any human relationship she'd maintained.

"I'm good," she said, pushing the cup back.

Marcus shrugged, that fox-smile playing at his mouth. "Your call, El. But you look like you need something."

She did need something. She needed to know who was sabotaging the project she'd poured three years into. She needed to believe her judgment wasn't permanently compromised by sleeping with the enemy. She needed to stop seeing vitamins as her only hedge against mortality.

"Actually," she said, pulling the cup back. "Thanks."

His expression didn't change, but something flickered behind his eyes—triumph, maybe. Or relief.

Outside her window, the city grayed toward evening. She would drink this coffee. She would keep swallowing her vitamins. She would survive this workplace, this heart, this life that kept demanding more resilience than she thought she possessed. The bear in her chest settled, watching, waiting to see what she would do next.