~Melinda's POV~
The radiator hissed, a metallic wheezing sound that matched the tightness in my chest. I sat at my kitchen table, the wood scarred and peeling, staring at the bright red "QUIT NOTICE" taped to my door like a bloody bandage.
Three months. That’s how far behind I was.
The city didn't care about my "temporary" layoff or the fact that my car’s transmission had decided to give up the ghost the same week the local bistro cut its staff. To the world, I was just another line on a spreadsheet. To Jeffrey, I was something else entirely.
I heard his heavy footsteps in the hallway before the knock came...three slow, deliberate raps that vibrated through the cheap hollow-core wood. I didn't have to look through the peephole. I knew it was him.
Jeffrey, with his salt-and-pepper hai
