Taste of the Dark - A Mafia Romance

IA

e: /əˌmo͞ozˈ

served as an appetizer

taste that leaves you hu

ve the decency to warn you when bad shit is coming, you know? It wouldn't be hard. A little heads-up text from the co

o. No

egs out of bed with my usual Monday morning enthusiasm (which is to say, none whatsoever) and promptly tr

downhill f

puddle of street juice. My coffee shop is out of caramel syrup for my latte. I stub my toe on the staircase leading into my

or so, you're g

ye

h

tually

, not the rapper. It's straight-up outrageous for so

enjoy sunsets and pretty flow

he faces of your loved ones and the hap

shed, before it all gets taken away from you by a genetic di

failing me little by little for a very long time and are soon to be failing me a whole lo

the most of the t

oss

oste

re

at it's my fault that some requested documents were late, why should I care? When the elevator is down for maintenance and I have to walk up seventeen flights of stairs after my lunch break

dn't

't bot

t

o

o

tt

into corporate-ese. As 5 P.M. strikes, I just sigh and watch eve

higan, I sit alone in the twentieth-floor offices of Hale H

ve been nostrils-deep in a spreadsheet all day-but with this morning's bombshell,

this when the

he far end of the floor. Then, while I wait for it to p

it. "It's extraordinarily rare for it to manifest this la

-seven-year-old wants to hear

normies, have gone home to their normal lives with thei

hursday night business. But up here, it is just me, the h

the gruesome particularities of my future can wait. It can all wai

up, I clo

ch, but I force myself to keep them shut. If this is going to be my

Three steps forward ought to put me at the edge of my cubicle. I shuffle forward, hands e

n: two steps for

me cringe. I am talking to myself in an em

bottom, it's at lea

vigate out of my cubicle and into the mai

ngers along the wall for guidance. The texture changes from

hi

ubbed my toe at Dr. Haggerty's this morning. The pain makes me want to quit. It'd be s

tuck my head between my legs

ep g

s to work three jobs to put herself through community college, when everyone says she'll never make i

keeps go

can't see wher

eans it properly). I successfully avoid both the refrigerator and the microwave that someone has definit