“Get out,” he told her. He didn’t like what was happening here, was afraid of where it was headed, and whatever feelings he had once had for her were definitely gone. He was frightened of this woman, and he wanted her out of his house.

“Things are changing,” she said. She coughed, and the sound was horrific, a deep phlegmy hack that made him think of TB and lung cancer and respiratory disease.

“Get out,” he repeated. He did not want to hear her talk about how things were changing, and definitely did not want her to tell him why she thought things were changing. He’d had the same sense all day, ever since Shanley had called him in to congratulate him, and though Coy hadn’t been able to articulate his percolating concern, Florine had done it for him.

Things are changing.

Maybe it would have been better if Montgomery Community had gone under and he and his fellow employees had had to look for jobs elsewhere. He didn’t like this agreement with The First People’s Bank, this…collusion. It felt wrong to him. Everything about that bank felt wrong to him, and he didn’t want to be a part of it.

Florine stood. On the seat of the couch where she’d been sitting was a large wet spot.

Grimacing, Coy put down his water bottle and strode over to the front door. He held it open. “Leave.”

She walked over to him, looked up coquettishly. “Are you sure you don’t want me to spend the night?”

This close, he could see a thin sheen of sweat on her pasty skin. The bulge beneath her right eye made it look as though that eye was partially closed. What had happened to her? How could she have deteriorated so quickly?

Things are changing.

“Go,” he said.

She kicked his shin, and the pain was searing. “Fuck you, then!” she yelled. “Fuck you!” Running out to her car, she got in and backed up crazily, not bothering to turn on her headlights though it was getting dark. With a screech of tires and roar of engine, she sped down the street and was gone.

He closed the door, feeling numb. Montgomery Community was now in league with The First People’s Bank, Bank of America having closed, all of its former employees dead. Over at First People’s, Julius Pickering had a nude photo of Florine on his desk and claimed she was his wife. She said she wasn’t, and had suddenly become so physically degenerated that she looked as though she’d contracted a fatal disease. She also said that the auditor who had been investigating Montgomery Community was dead, as was her rival at the title company.

His head was pounding. It was all too crazy, and he looked over at the wet spot on the couch and ran into the kitchen, barely making it to the sink before throwing up.

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