Page 5 of Maid in Heaven

“I’ll shoot over some ideas I’ve been having the last few nights that might help you all rob me blind even more.” He chuckled insincerely.

“Well, I’ll be looking forward to that email.”

“Sounds good, doll.”

“Is there anything else you’d like to discuss?”Perhaps my failed marriage?

“No, I think we are all set.”

“Great.” She felt relief wash over her. “Alright, Mr. Breckin, you take care.”

“You too, hun.”

Ava slammed her middle finger hard against theend callbutton, clamped her eyes shut, and shoved her face into her hands. After taking in a deep breath, she shouted, “Fuckingasshole! Oh myGOD.What anidiot!It’seleven million. Ugh! Dickhead.It isn’t worthhalf—”

Ava opened her eyes.

Don was staring at her in utter shock.

With her fraying nerves, she must not have hit the button right. The call had obviouslynotended.

She swallowed hard, her voice barely escaping her lips. “Fuck.”

2

The house was silentas a cemetery. Oblivious birds chirped, fleeing from the empty feeder outside Ava’s home, casting avian-shaped shadows across the bleak shit show that was now her life. A south-bound flock of black-capped chickadees spattered a curved line of dung across the hood of her car, one which had not left the driveway in days.

There was no need. Where did she need to go? She was out of a job.

She had nopurpose.

First, Daniel had quit on her. Then, her job of nearly eleven years tossed her to the curb, too. After losing the multi-million dollar Breckin Labs account, she was expeditiously dumped from the payroll and thrust back into the harsh world.

It was nearly a week later, and she had yet to motivate herself to get out of bed, save for the obligatory trudge to the bathroom. Crinkled cookie dough sleeves and empty ice cream tubs littered the floor of her disheveled bedroom.

With the blinds drawn, she closed her eyes, hoping some unseen force would come to take her out of this dumpster fire of her own making. Perhaps she could sleep it all away.

“Ava?!” a bellowing female’s voice sounded through the stillness.

Kuda leaped up beside Ava on the bed and stood over her, ferociously barking at the intruder, hackles up.

“Ava?!”

The voice had come frominside of her house.

“Who’s there?” she asked cautiously, sitting up from beneath the rumpled duvet covers. She scrambled and grabbed a spoon off the dresser, hoisting it into the air as if it would offer some semblance of protection. “Speak!”

“It’s fuckin’Santa Claus. Who the hell do youthinkit is?” Madison said with an eye roll as all six feet of her strode through the cracked-open door casually. Her slender silhouette was barely visible in the darkened house, giving her unannounced presence an ominous feel. She looked like an angel of death, blonde and lanky, and for a split second, Ava hoped she’d come to put an end to this pathetic excuse of an existence once and for all.

Kuda quieted down. In full wiggle mode, he thrashed at the sight of Madison, jumping off thebed and running to her, nearly bowling her over with his muscular form.

Suddenly, the blinding overhead lights flicked on, LED ones Daniel hadinsistedon. The garish things were yet another painful reminder that he always got what he wanted.

“Gah!” Ava grunted, shielding her eyes from the light. The pale blue color of her walls now seemed far too bright. “Whyyyyy with the lights?”

“Jesus, Harla, you look like shit.”

“Yeah, well, you look like Slenderman’s illegitimate lovechild. And… stop callin’ me Harla. You know I hate that. No one even gets the reference anymore.” Ava flopped her face straight into her pillow with all the thrust she could muster.

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