Tropical Decay

She was running before dawn again, her feet pounding the resort's paved path while he slept in their air-conditioned suite. Four miles every morning, measured and precise—a ritual she'd adopted somewhere between their fifth anniversary and the realization that they'd become strangers who shared a bed.

By 7 AM, she'd slip back into the room, skin glistening with tropical sweat, to find him already seated on the balcony. He always ordered the same breakfast: papaya, lime wedges, black coffee. The fruit sat there, vibrant orange against white porcelain, its seeds glistening like tiny black eyes watching them fail each other.

"You're getting faster," he said, not looking up from his phone. "Swimming again at nine?"

"That was the plan." She pressed her palm against the sliding glass door, leaving a temporary mark. "Unless you'd rather—"

"No. Swimming sounds good."

They'd been swimming every day since arriving in Costa Rica, trying to force intimacy through buoyancy and saltwater. Yesterday, floating beside him in the gentle surf, she'd watched a school of silver fish dart between their bodies and thought: even fish know when to scatter.

The papaya sat untouched between them. Three years ago, he'd brought one home from a market, delighted by its exoticism. They'd eaten it standing in their kitchen, juice running down their chins, laughing at nothing. Now it was just fruit on a plate.

Later, in the pool, she watched him slice through the water, efficient and alone. She wanted to reach out, touch his shoulder, say something that would break through the surface tension they'd both been maintaining. But she just swam laps, counting strokes, measuring distances in a vacation that was supposed to save them.

That evening, she didn't go running. She sat on the balcony while he slept, finally eating the papaya he'd ordered hours before. It was overripe now, fermented and sweet. She ate it anyway, spit the seeds into the darkness, and understood that some things—you can't run far enough to escape them, you can't swim deep enough to drown them. You just have to let them rot until you can finally spit them out.