House of Defiance — The Midtown Apartment Key

maya met me at the company apartment in midtown it wasn't large and the furniture came straight from a corporate catalog but the closet was empty and the sheets were new a temporary label on the door read elena hart in block letters i didn't want you wandering into the it. Maya handed me two keys. Rent comes out of payroll. If anything breaks, you file a

ticket. No favors owed. I stood in front of that paper label for a few seconds. A place become yours because it had more rooms or armed guards outside. Sometimes all it took empty closet and your name spelled correctly. Maya opened the refrigerator, found it bare, and ordered Thai food without asking why my entire life fit in one suitcase she

only said first night in a new place shouldn't be spent eating crackers over the sink it was the most practical kindness anyone had shown me all week and it came without a debt attached I'd barely unpacked when dad called come Come back now, and I'll forget today happened.