“I’m in, Sal.” Kallie tried not to roll her eyes. “I’m safe.”

“Lock your door.”

“It’s locked already.”

“You’re sure?”

Kallie could hear Angie in the background tell him to just get going. “Thanks again for the ride, Sal. ’Night.”

“’Night, Kallie. See you tomorrow.”

The line clicked off and she tossed her phone onto the counter. Too hungry to care about anything else than the paper bag in her hand.

Now, in the privacy of her own meager apartment, she dove into her food. She felt torn between devouring it and savoring it. Then exhaustion almost ruined the moment completely. Sleeping on a pile of fries provided zero comfort. She ate a couple more bites of fries and polished off one burger before stowing the rest in the fridge.

What a disappointment. Like something you’d wanted for the longest time, then when you got it, it wasn’t how you dreamed it would be. Like my shitty life. She shrugged; there was no use getting upset over a meal. A free one at that.

She’d eaten just enough to bring her down from being wound up after working so late. It might be gross, but she didn’t even bother to shower though she should have. She just stripped to her underwear and crawled under the covers, sinking into full sleep almost as soon as her head landed on the pillow.

She woke a few hours later and just lay in bed, enjoying the silence around her. She’d slept awesome. Which was weird, considering she hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in months. After witnessing a gun shooting, she figured sleep wouldn’t be her friend. There was a calm peacefulness in being alone. It was nice. She settled on nice because she felt content. Happy that she didn’t have to be anywhere for hours, and happy she had to be somewhere later today.

Her basic one-bedroom apartment seemed unusually cozy. She relished her lounging for a little while longer. Then her stomach remembered the leftovers in the fridge and she was out of the bed in a flash. Her world, in its own way, became rich and decadent for a little bit.

Her fridge was barren except for ketchup, a box of salt which she kept in the fridge (not the cupboard because the place had roaches), and a very expensive bottle of unopened wine she’d kept over the years from a moment when she thought she was in love with someone. There was also a jug of water and, now, her wonderful but cold food.

Kallie liked A&W burgers even better when they were cold. Yeah, most people would find it odd and unappetizing, but she was different she supposed. And she loved cold food with salt, so the day started off wonderfully. She assembled her breakfast and climbed back into bed. Breakfast in bed. It was absolute heaven. The only thing not completely perfect was the fact the hamburger wouldn’t last forever.

She took her time eating, enjoying the burger more than the one from the night. When she finished she washed her hands, sipped some water, and cuddled back in bed. After a few moments, her thoughts dreamily turned to someone who looked very much like Sasha, she blissfully fell back to sleep.

* * *

She woke suddenly to a strange sound.

Someone was in her apartment.

Dammit! The pitfall of being on the ground level. Kallie tried her best to control her physical reaction, and not scream. She steadied her breathing and her heartbeat. Otherwise she was a sitting duck. She could either play like she was really out of it and hope whoever it might be wouldn’t rape her, or she could fight. Or she could make a run for it.

She chose flight. The only escape was the window. She’d have to do it with a sheet wrapped around her, then figure out how to get through the window and then down the alley in one piece. Slipping out of bed, she silently wrapped her sheet around her and snuck toward the window.

She paused when she heard a creak in the other room. Shit!

Whoever was there opened the front door and closed it again. Then there was silence.

Dead silence.

Hopefully because they’d left. Maybe they came to rob the place, found nothing but cockroaches, and took off. Didn’t matter the reason, at least they’d left. She hoped.

She ran to her bedroom door and locked it. Then jumped into her jeans, threw on a tank top which was the first shirt she could find, and grabbed her phone.

Armed with her phone and a spike-heeled shoe, she slowly braved the other room. Seeing the coast was clear, she quickly locked the front door and the window. She must’ve been so tired and hungry last night that she’d forgotten to lock it. She felt grateful she was once again safe in her apartment, until she was struck by a horrible intuition.

Kallie searched for her apron. It and her tips were gone. All of it.

The realization destroyed her. Gone. “Asshole!” she screamed out to no one. She sank to her knees and sobbed. She was flat broke. Again. Yeah, she had money in savings, but she couldn’t touch it. Not yet.

Tears slid down her cheeks. A shooting yesterday, and today someone had the audacity to come into her apartment and steal from her. Just another in a long line of blows. It broke her. It felt like she’d lost everything all over again.

When she could finally catch her breath, she dragged herself to the bathroom and drew a bath. Being as sad as she was it felt like having the flu, and Kallie treated it as such. Whenever she felt sick or super sad, she alternated between hot baths and bed rest. She stripped out of her underwear, stepped into the tub, and let the water fill around her. She slouched against the back of the tub and pressed her eyes as tight as she could, trying to squeeze out all the tears.

She let her mind drift back to when her heartache began, six months prior. She’d been the owner of her own employment agency, placing executive assistants with some of the wealthiest, most powerful players in the metropolitan area. She was in business with the man who was her fiancé.

Then, one day, a knock sounded at her office door. Some men with badges wanted to ask her a few questions. Seemed her beloved fiancé, Jeremy Corcoran, had been running a high-priced escort service right under her nose. Through her business. While she sat at her desk, meeting with the agents, she had the good sense to move the contents of one account to an account she had before she’d gotten involved with her partner-fiancé-crook.

It was a good thing she did.

Because he’d had the same thought, and before the feds had a chance to question him he’d taken all the cash in their accounts and split. Kallie had her attorney liquidate everything, but when the scandal broke and the phone calls, the hate mail, the social media attacks began, Kallie knew she couldn’t start over again.

She paid what she could to her creditors and declared bankruptcy. It would be only a matter of time for the government to catch on to her money move. It wasn’t much. But one day, she hoped she’d be able to use it. The crap that had hit the fan hadn’t been hers. She was innocent. Not that she felt that way anymore. She might face charges one day, but she’d dropped out of everything. Left it all behind and just wandered down the street into an unknown part of town, for no specific reason and with no goal. A short time later she saw the bar, Temnota. And an idea formed. A simple one. Get a place to live, earn some money. Maybe start over. Maybe.

She’d rented the small place she was in now, using the last of the cash in her wallet as her first month’s rent. Then found the courage to apply for the job at the bar.

Sitting in the tub in an apartment unit that didn’t have much hot water, she admitted that she hated her place. She hated her stupid job. She hated herself. What did she think would happen? She would build up this new life and pretend her failure had never happened?

Disgusted with herself, she dunked under the cold water, shampooed her hair, shaved, and did whatever else she had to do to maintain. Kallie then wrapped herself in a towel, crawled back to bed, and hid from the world. It seemed that was all she was good at now. I’m not even good enough at disappearing.

Well, if she was honest, she wasn’t even good at disappearing. First two gunmen nearly killed her, then a burglar walked into her apartment and stole her money. Yeah, she hadn’t been killed either time, which was fortunate, but she sucked at life.

If there was such a thing as luck, she sure didn’t have any.