Melody still hadn’t heard from Allie by the time she made it almost all the way back to her little studio apartment. Since Allie lived in a neighboring building, Melody decided to stop by her place just to find out what was up. It wasn’t like Allie always answered right away. She had a government phone too. Neither one of them used their phones for much. That meant they didn’t check the messages very often. But right now, Melody really wanted to know if she was going to be able to go out to her grandparents’ place tomorrow. The idea that she actually owned a house with furniture and stuff in it was mystifying.

“Allie!” Melody banged on Allie’s front door. “Come on. Open up and let me in. I know you’re home.”

There was a giggle on the other side of the door and some hushed whispers. Melody frowned. Allie wasn’t with anyone right now. In fact, her friend had been trying to end this super-toxic relationship with a controlling asshole that had nearly put her in the hospital. If Allie had let that jerk back into her life, Melody was going to kill her.

“Allie!” Melody said sharply. She smacked the door until it shivered. “You better open this damn door right now.”

There was a click as someone started unfastening locks and sliding the chains back away from the door. Finally, the door cracked open and Allie’s bright-eyed face appeared.

“Why are you over here?” Allie wanted to know. “You need your sleep.”

“I texted you.” It wasn’t actually a reason, but Melody knew that Allie would understand what she was getting at. “You never answered. I need an answer.”

“Oh.” Allie’s brows drew together. “I used up all my minutes for the month.”

Melody chuffed out a big sigh and pushed on the door. It did not budge open. “On what? It’s only the thirteenth!”

“I had stuff to do.” Allie’s lame excuse meant only one thing.

Melody put her hands on her hips and glared at her friend. “Is Ryan in there? Tell me you did not let that controlling narcissistic ass back into your life! What is wrong with you?”

Allie’s eyes shifted back and forth uncomfortably. “What makes you say Ryan is here?”

“Don’t be stupid.” Melody put her shoulder to the door and shoved it in. A very male-sounding grunt on the other side was her answer. Melody pointed. “See! I hear him, Allie. Why? Why would you do that? He almost put you in the hospital last time.”

“He’s changed,” Allie whined.

The door was now wide open, and Melody could finally see Ryan’s scrawny drug addict’s body standing just on the other side of the door opening. His blond hair was shoulder length and stringy. He looked high. For that matter, so did Allie. Melody cringed at the idea of Allie not only letting this jerk back into her life but falling off the wagon as well.

“Allie,” Melody said in what she hoped was a patient voice. Maybe it was better to focus on why she had actually come here. There was no point in beating her head against the wall trying to get Ryan out of the apartment. “I need you to swap shifts with me tomorrow.”

“Huh?” Allie’s over-bright and simultaneously vacant eyes seemed to be focused on everything but Melody.

Melody snapped her fingers. “Switch shifts with me. For tomorrow. You have to work. Remember?”

“Yes.” Allie was nodding her head. “You want to open? Why? It’s your day off.”

Melody was all too aware of Ryan standing there. If Ryan had still been in the dumpster outside where he belonged, Melody would have told Allie everything she’d learned from Cisco. As it was, she didn’t want to say much at all. Ryan didn’t need to know her business.

“I found someone to help me with that legal problem I’m having. But I need tomorrow afternoon to do some looking around to try and fix this situation.” From the corner of her eye, Melody could see Ryan’s drug-addled brain clicking in. The loser could smell the possibility of money a million miles away. With that in mind, Melody decided she needed to figure out a way to throw Ryan off the scent of a potential payoff. “This lawyer thinks I might owe half a million in taxes.”

Allie’s mouth fell open. “Half a million dollars? You owe the government that much money?”

“Probably.” Melody felt the weight of that statement on her head. It was actually true. If Cisco could not help her find out what Watson had been doing with her grandparents’ money, Melody was actually going to have to come up with that money. “He’s trying to help me figure out a way to pay it.”

“Then, I guess I’ll sleep in and do the closing shift.” Allie shrugged it off. “What time do you want me to come in?”

“Noon.” That would give Melody and Cisco a little bit of extra time to get out to her grandparents’ ranch. “Please say you’ll remember. I know what you’re like when you’re on this stuff.”

“What stuff?” Allie swiped the back of her hand across her mouth. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure you don’t.” Melody shook her head. She pointed her index finger at Allie. “And I’m sure you don’t know anything about giving your entire paycheck to Ryan to buy his drugs either. And I bet he didn’t use up all the minutes on your phone calling his dealer either.”

“I didn’t!” Ryan yelped. He stomped toward the door. “You are such a bitch, Melody! You’re always making trouble. You know that? Why don’t you just keep your big fat nose out of Allie’s business?  You’re so jealous that a man actually wants her that you want to ruin it for her!”

“Yeah.” Allie didn’t sound quite so sure.

Melody rolled her eyes. She forced herself not to flinch away from Ryan. He shouldn’t scare her at all. The scrawny little shit was the type of person who was worse than all talk and no action. He wasn’t even very much talk. He was a lot of idiotic sentences that weren’t very well put together because he was a pretty stupid individual as a whole.

“Ryan,” Melody began in as patient a voice as she could muster. “I don’t know why you’re back. I don’t even really care. What I do know is that you swoop in. You take all of Allie’s money and suck her dry. Then you leave her standing here barely able to pay her rent and generally in need of some pretty serious medical care because of a tantrum you’ve thrown where you feel compelled to hit her. So, don’t you look at me and pretend that this is all my fault.”

“It’s going to be different this time,” Allie said quickly.

Melody groaned. “Is that what he told you?”

Allie was bobbing her head up and down like a plastic doll.

“That’s what he tells you every single time, Allie.”

“He’s different this time.” Allie leaned in close and whispered, “He bought the party this time.”

Melody took that to mean that Ryan was the one who had purchased the drugs for their evening of “fun” this time around. It did indeed mean that things were different. Unfortunately, Melody wasn’t the type to be taken in by Ryan’s new game. It just meant that he was smart enough to buy her the drugs to get her to fall off the wagon. Then he would have her so addicted again that she was spending all of her money on the party, and at that point, he would have yet another free ride. So, yes. Things were different. They were worse!

“Tomorrow,” Melody told Allie roughly. “You be there at noon. Do you understand me?”

“Yes.”

“You need your job, Allie,” Melody told her friend. “Don’t let him screw that up for you.”

“Noon. I’ve got it, Melody.” Allie looked sour. “You need to stop thinking you’re better than everyone else. It’s really annoying.”

Melody bit her tongue. It hurt to have her best friend say something mean like that. But Melody had to remind herself that it wasn’t actually Allie speaking. She was repeating things that Ryan told her. Ryan didn’t like Melody. Melody told Allie to get rid of him. That didn’t work for him. So, it wasn’t Allie saying these mean things. It was Ryan.

“I’ll see you tomorrow at noon, Allie.” Melody sighed. “Maybe by then you’ll be yourself.”

But as Melody left Allie’s apartment, she knew that wasn’t going to happen. Whenever Allie was with Ryan, she was a train wreck. It took months to get over Ryan’s epic dumpings. Then it sometimes took another few months for Allie to even begin to recover financially. This had been going on for nearly four years, ever since Allie and Melody had met in high school.

Melody walked back outside to the street and headed across the wide road to her own building. It was quieter here. Allie’s building was larger. It was more subsidized housing than not. That was why Allie’s apartment had more than one room. Melody had one room and had to share the bathroom with the rest of the people on her floor. It wasn’t the best situation, but Melody kept telling herself that at least she lived on her own without a roommate to try and take advantage of her.

Trudging up the steps to the third floor, Melody felt about as low as she could get. It was impossible not to think about what it might be like to live in her own house. She would have her own bathroom and her own kitchen, a real kitchen with a stove instead of a microwave and a hot plate. How amazing would it be to see the stars at night? What would it be like to hear nothing but crickets and maybe the lone howl of a coyote instead of the constant barrage of blaring horns and roaring engines from the street below?

Melody put her key into the door of her apartment and went through the usual process of wiggling, turning, wiggling, and finally feeling the lock give as the door fell open. Going inside, Melody closed the door behind it and slid the bolt home. Then she went through the nightly ritual of sliding the chain lock closed and clicking the four other locks into place. She didn’t trust anyone. Not her neighbors, not the neighborhood itself, not anyone who might have a reason to move around her building. They were all suspect in her opinion. All of them were out to get something for nothing from anyone they could steal it from.

Setting her keys on the tiny kitchenette counter, Melody pulled out her flip phone and the cream-colored business card with Cisco’s phone number on it. She turned the card over and over between her fingers. Her thumb had left a dirty smudge on the pristine card. Running her fingers over the embossed letters on the card, Melody wondered how a man like Cisco would ever wind up helping a woman like her. Was he just nice? Was he feeling sorry for her? Did it matter?

She typed his number into the box on the phone display and then typed off a very quick text. Her plan charged by the character. So, her texts tended to be terse and to the point. Within just a few minutes, she had a response back. He would meet her at the coffee shop at noon in his car.

Was that awkward? Melody could not decide. She could not make up her mind whether or not this whole thing was some kind of scam that was totally new to her. What if Cisco was out to get her just as much as someone like Ryan was out to get Allie? What if he was going to take her money just like Watson had?

Flopping down on her sofa bed, Melody kicked off her shoes and stretched her feet. She was so tired. She was too tired to think about this right now. Plus, she had to open at the coffee shop now. She groped on the nightstand for the alarm and set it to go off at three thirty. That gave her enough time to get dressed and walk to work. The shop had to open by four. At least Sunday morning would go fast. People were always trying to get in and get their coffee before church started.

Church. Even the thought made her want to laugh. She closed her eyes and let the soothing feeling of a full belly lull her to sleep. She was still in her clothes. That didn’t matter. Maybe she just wouldn’t change in the morning. It would mean an extra few minutes of sleep. She could spend that thinking about church and Sunday school and how there had been one or two foster families who had attended church. They’d been so obsessed with the idea of “fixing” the little foster girl that they’d pressured her a lot about religion.

Melody always wondered why it was so difficult for them to understand that when you were existing moment to moment just hoping you had enough to eat and a safe place to sleep, your brain just could not spare a single moment to focus on spiritual matters.

Rich people.

It was the last thought Melody had before falling asleep. Of course, that was when her brain started conjuring images of Cisco. He was so good-looking and just so nice. Sometimes she wondered what it would be like to have someone like that in her life. Was there satisfaction in rolling over in the bed and putting her cheek against his bare chest?  What would it be like to feel his hand slide over her ribs and rest on her hip? Maybe she would never know such a thing. And maybe that was what kept Allie from truly throwing Ryan out of her life for good. It was hard to say. Melody didn’t have all the answers. She was too busy trying to survive from day to day.