Vitamins in the Pyramid

Maya stared at the vitamin D bottle on her desk, the orange pills glowing in the fluorescent wash of the 40th floor. Her doctor had prescribed them last week — 'your body's starving for sunlight,' he'd said, as if three years of remote work hadn't already made that clear.

The vitamin sat next to a plastic pyramid her boss had given everyone at the quarterly meeting. 'Success is built layer by layer,' Bradley had announced, his voice booming through the conference room like he was addressing troops instead of exhausted software engineers. The pyramid had 'TEAMWORK' embossed on its base. Maya had moved it to the very edge of her desk.

'You're running scared, aren't you?'

Bradley stood in her doorway, a man whose MBA had apparently come with a certification in unnecessary metaphors about livestock. He called himself 'the bull' — aggressive, unstoppable, charging through obstacles. Maya called him something else entirely.

'Just working, Bradley.'

'This project needs someone who's not afraid to get their hands dirty. Not someone hiding behind their vitamin supplements and ergonomic keyboard.' He stepped closer, his cologne — something expensive and completely wasted on him — filling her cubicle. 'I'm promoting Jenson. He's hungry.' Jenson, who was twenty-four and thought 'hustle culture' was a personality trait.

Maya looked at the pyramid, then at Bradley, then at the city skyline beyond the window. She thought about her rent, her student loans, her mother's voice on the phone asking when she'd find someone nice, the way she couldn't remember the last time she'd felt anything resembling hunger for anything other than sleep.

She stood up.

'You know what, Bradley? You're right.' She grabbed her bag. 'I'm running.'

'That's the spirit,' he smiled, all teeth.

'No,' she said, walking past him. 'I mean I'm literally leaving. I'm running to the elevator, then I'm running to the bank, and then I'm running somewhere that doesn't have plastic pyramids on the desk.'

The vitamin bottle went into her pocket. The pyramid stayed behind.

She took the stairs.