Are you okay?

Derek just called me. He sounds terrible.

Can you call me back?

He sounds like a babbling mess. What did he do?

Toni, call me.

Toni, Eddie sounds frantic.

Why aren’t you at work right now?

I’m coming over.

Antonia sank to the floor and lay still. She didn’t want to worry everyone with her antics. She just wanted to curl up and die alone and in peace. Her phone buzzed, interrupting her thoughts. Eddie.

“Yes.”

“Jesus-fucking-Christ, Toni, I thought you were dead. Hold on, I’m texting Octavia. I’m pretty sure she’s on her way to your apartment.”

She sighed. “I’m sorry, Ed. I had a very shitty night.”

“I heard,” he said. His voice sounded distant, like he was talking to her on speaker. “I don’t know the details, but I heard.”

“Derek is cheating on me.”

There was silence on the other end. She waited.

“You still there, Ed?”

“I’m here too, honey,” said a woman’s voice, Eddie’s girlfriend, Megan. “Eddie told me what happened.”

Antonia cringed. She loved Megan and her bubbly spirit, but she didn’t want to talk to her at the moment. “Hey, Meg.”

“Shit...” Eddie trailed off.

A sharp knock at Antonia’s door announced her sister. “Give me a second, my sister is here to yell at me.” She climbed from the floor and carried her conversation to the front door. Octavia stood on the other side, arms crossed and mouth fixed for a tongue-lashing. Antonia stepped aside and let her in.

“... Toni, I hate to give you more bad news,” Eddie said. “But Richard sent us all home today.”

“Why did he do that?” she asked, closing the door and following her sister. Octavia stood in the living room and cast a judgmental eye on the mess. Without being asked, she started the annoying spot-cleaning Antonia hated so much. She even made a show of picking up the empty bottle and swirling the remaining liquid around. Octavia, who was forty, glided around her apartment with a grace that came from her past dance training. She wore black leggings that showed off her toned calves and a long gray tunic that hung elegantly off one shoulder. Octavia’s recently braided hair sat atop her head in a large bun, giving her the appearance of being almost as tall as Antonia.

“Wild Hare is closing shop, Toni,” Eddie said, bringing her back to the present. “He laid everyone off.”

She stumbled. “We’ve lost our jobs?”

Octavia paused in midwipe of the coffee table. “Can you believe that?” Megan cried in the background.

“No,” Antonia said in a dazed voice. Only yesterday, did she and Eddie vocalize their suspicions and now they were jobless. Why were there so many things that she failed to spot in time?

“I’m sorry,” Eddie said. “I wish there was a better way to tell you, but I tried to call. God, we’re going to have to contact all of our published authors. I’ve never handled a shutdown before.”