Finding Mayhem

by Layla Frost

“How’re you feeling?” If I never hear that question or tone again, it’ll be too soon. I didn’t say that, of course. Alice—my boss and hero—meant well. And to be fair, it was a good question considering… everything. “I’m good,” I told her honestly. For the most part, at least. “How’s the house?” Holding a bottle of cleaner in one gloved hand and a rag in the other, I used my shoulder to keep my cell against my ear as I scanned the kitchen around me. After moving in the day before, it felt like I’d been cleaning nonstop, but there was hardly any difference. Not in the dust. And certainly not in the smell. I wasn’t about to tell her that. It wouldn’t matter how much she’d already done for me, Alice would send in a cleaning crew and insist I sit on a throne of pillows like a delicate princess. Or a cracked vase on the verge of shattering completely. The last thing I wanted was to have strangers traipsing through the house already filled with a stranger’s things. The last thing I needed was to have idle time to let my thoughts wander. Staying busy was the best thing for me. Therapeutic. Cathartic. When Alice had inherited the house by default from a childless aunt she’d never even met, she’d planned to sell it. But as her coffee mug declared, she was, indeed, the Best Boss Ever. She’d insisted I move in and get what I desperately needed. Which was why I answered her with nothing but the truth. “It’s a fresh start.” “Exactly what you need.”