There are miniature rooms (kitchen, living room, bathroom, bedroom) beneath the bookstore where I live. It has two windows that look up and over Meldon Street. I pay Poe pennies to live here. He never checks on me because I work for him. Repeatedly, he tells me, “I like someone living downstairs. It keeps the ghosts away.”
Poe stays out of my business, except when Dustin visits the store during our first month together. He is inquisitive and asks a string of questions:
“Who is that handsome man?”
“What does he want with you?”
“He says he adores you. What’s he talking about?”
“Is he your boyfriend?”
“Are the two of you more than friends?”
“Tell me who he is. I want to know.”
I tell him everything I know about Dustin. And add, “I broke up with Dustin recently. He’s not handling it we
