The gravitas of her new situation didn't hit until she sat in a booth at Flo's twenty four hour diner, where she clutched a cup of coffee and slowly unraveled.

Her neck was stiff from sleeping in the passenger seat of the Chevy, the back seat occupied by her haphazard stack of boxed belongings and broken office mementos. A strip of duct tape covered a tear in the booth's seat and there was a stubborn spot of stickiness from artificial syrup that remained after a harried busboy wiped down the table, but the coffee was hot and the refills were free. The appeal of Flo's was a cheap meal, and a decent sized parking lot open to loitering. It was a common customer practice to sober up in Flo's lot before the hungover drive home, or for a recently homeless chick to catch a few restless hours of sleep without a cop knocking on her window.

Kay still mourned the loss of her pho as the waitress came round and refilled her cup. There was enough spare change in the Chevy's cup holders to pay for Flo's bottomless coffee and a dollar side of hash browns. She contemplated how many cups of coffee she could drink before her nervous system sizzled out. This was refill number four. Her leg jigged under the table as she poured in three spoonfuls of sugar.

He dumped her over Facebook.

Kay slapped the spoon down with enough force to rattle her cup. A furious blush heated her cheeks as her waitress slowed at her table.

The other woman glanced Kay over from beneath her mascara caked lashes and shook her head. "Here's your check." She set the paper print-side down and tapped a tiger striped nail on the plastic tabletop. "This place won't pick up til 'round noon. Stay as long as you need, you got that hon?"

Kay raised her mug with a slightly shaky hand. "I keep drinking, you keep filling right?"

"Nurse this one, unless you want to pee for a week," said the waitress. Her name tag read 'Daphne'. Kay wished she had enough change to leave her a better tip.

"Thanks Daphne," she said.

Daphne nodded and pushed a limp hank of strawberry blond hair out of her face. "You need anything, call me over."

Kay needed a lot of things, but not something she wanted to burden her waitress with, yet. She needed more coffee for that. Maybe with Kahlua.

 The events of yesterday spiraled through her thoughts as she stirred in the creamer. None of it felt real. It was as if at some point between her arrival at work and when she brought Mr. Silverstein a cup of salty coffee, her reality went off the rails. Probably the moment Becky proposed the prank while the interns huddled in the break room. Kay could picture the mental divergence of her day, another meeting that bored her to tears where Mr. Silverstein leaned a little too close to explain the conversation as if she were a first year student rather than a pre-law graduate. She would try hard not to react to the mix of coffee and cigarillos on his breath and ignore Becky's occasional barbs. She would get home close to seven, depending on traffic, and her key would work in the door. Matt typically ordered out and sometimes, he saved her some, though usually she scourged on her own. She'd pour herself a glass of wine and go find her boyfriend to snuggle on the couch watching some show or other he chose, until the wine kicked in and she staggered off to bed.

"Damn, my life was boring as hell," muttered Kay. Tiresome routine aside, the factor in all this she couldn't wrap her head around was Matt. What possessed him to do this to her? What signs did she miss? She sipped her coffee as she mentally laid the contents of a three year relationship out to examine.

He was supportive enough of her career choices, at least she thought he was. The fuzzy recollection of her final couple semesters at college in a sleep deprived, Red Bull fueled haze possibly left her with shiny hindsight. When she stopped and really thought about it, there were little things, too insignificant to attribute red flags, or what seemed like sage advice at the time. Like her desire to take a pottery class as an elective that he said was too messy and he didn't want to risk clay mixing in with his laundry, or when he told her to wait until after law school when she wanted to use her graduation gift money to visit Italy. Or how he made her park her Chevy closer to the street, behind his pristine Lexus, even though she only left earlier than he did so she could move the car.

Kay made a face into the bottom of her cup. When was the last time Matt made a romantic gesture? Or initiated intimacy that wasn't scheduled? She knew to the hour the last time she got laid because Matt marked it in his personal planner. Or, at least, the last time he got laid. Her frown twisted into a sneer.

And he had the nerve to dump her over Facebook. Where everyone could see. Kay flinched.

Oh no. No,no,no.

Daphne swung around to fill her mug as Kay dug out her cell, which still clung to a sliver of battery, and cautiously dialed her parents.

By some small shift of luck in the universe, her stepmother answered.

"I'll kill him."

"Morning to you, too Ma."

Her stepmother Lisa gave a disdainful sniff into the receiver. "Where did ya stay last night?"

Her neck ached at the question. "The Chevy," said Kay.

"Oh, sweetheart, I'm so sorry. You at work?"

Kay sank three inches into her seat. She absently picked at the strip of duct tape, all too conscious she wore her work clothes from yesterday. There was an actual draft in her slacks. "They let me go."

"What? What happened?"

"There was a salting incident."

"You were assaulted!"

"No," Kay clutched the cell close to her mouth. "I--I put salt in Mr. Silverstein's coffee."

There was a long beat of silence. "They fired you for that? It was April first yesterday. Do these schmucks have no sense of humor?"

"Apparently, Mr. Silverstein has a severe allergy to sodium chloride."

"Who the hell is allergic to salt?"

Kay slapped her free hand down on the table. "Thank you. I was aiming for a spit take, not to close up his airways. Anyway, HR said I was lucky he didn't press charges." She could hear Lisa shake her head by the faint jangle of her double hoop earrings.

"What're ya going to do now?"

Kay froze. She hadn't gotten that far. Effective as of last night, her life was an absolute mess, and she knew by the lack of invitation, home wasn't a good option.

Kay loved her stepmother. Lisa Eve Oritz, nee Guilliamo, was her father's second wife. Her father, Antony, loved Kay's birth mother with legendary overindulgence. It must have been real moon-eyed love to swallow a name like Keeluayama for his newborn daughter, but Tony couldn't deny his free spirited Japanese Hawaiian wife anything. Yuko Oritz was the embodiment of spontaneity, from midnight waffles to dancing in the rain. She showered Kay with love and affection until the accident that claimed her life.

Lisa came into the picture three years later. When she learned Tony's old school Italian conservative family shunned him for his previous marriage, she absorbed father and daughter into her own massive extended Italian American clan. She was the exact opposite of Yuko in many ways, but loved Kay and her father.

One of the things Kay loved most about Lisa was her unflinching honesty, especially when her father would bankrupt himself before he admitted he couldn't support another person under his roof. Kay knew the twins, her half brothers, were set to go to college in the fall. She couldn't do that to her parents. Their graduation gift was far too generous as it was, even if she was now living off the dregs of it.

"I'll figure something out," she said.

"Good girl," said Lisa. "But ya know, if push comes to shove, you come home, sweetheart."

"Give my love to dad and the boys," said Kay.

"Of course. Love you too, Kay. If ya need a twenty for gas or something, we can definitely spot that."

Kay ended the call. She couldn't run home, tempting as it would be. Somewhere between the shuffle of college and the internship,  she'd lost touch with most of her college girlfriends. The friends she stayed in contact with the past few years, she met through Matt. Would they help her get on her feet? Would they shut the proverbial door in her face? The more she mulled over the prospect, the more likely the latter prospect seemed. Most of Matt's friends were like Matt. They tolerated her by proxy.

She set the phone on the table as Daphne swung by for another refill.

The waitress clucked her tongue against her teeth when she noticed Kay's expression. "Honey, I've seen that look before. He's not worth it."

"My life is ruined," said Kay. She didn't mean to say it. It sort of slipped out like a verbal fart.

"Try to get some perspective, hon. It's rarely all that bad," said Daphne, a well meaning platitude she must have offered dozens of times. The six cups of coffee marinating Kay's nervous system reacted poorly to the advice.

"I got fired yesterday. I came home to find my boyfriend changed the locks and boxes of my stuff sitting in the hall. He broke up with me over Facebook." Kay had flatulence of the mouth. "I slept in my car and I can't go home because my dad needs to pay my brothers' college tuition."

Daphne nodded. "Those college loans are a bitch," she said. She swiped Kay's bill off the table. "This one's on me, hon. You want a sandwich?" The waitress didn't miss a beat. "It's about eleven. The turkey club's halfway decent."

Kay blinked at her. "I don't suppose Flo's is hiring?"

"You got a degree?"

"Pre-law," said Kay.

Daphne shook her head. "Over qualified."

"Ouch," said Kay.

Daphne patted her shoulder. "How bout that turkey club? Coping is easier on a full stomach." She sauntered away after Kay caved. There was too much uncertainty about her next meal to turn away the offer. Kay dreaded her bank statement. Her car insurance payment was due yesterday. Between that and the failed pho fiasco, her account was severely shriveled. Never mind next month's payments. Or the other benefits that evaporated with her unceremonious exit from her internship. They didn't pay her wages, but there was coverage. Kay covered her face.

"My insurance," she groaned into her hands.

"You'll find something," said Daphne. She set a turkey club with potato chips and cranberry juice. Kay was so grateful to have something other than coffee to drink she almost cried.

"Thank you," she said.

"It's a drop in the bucket," said Daphne. "Just keep your heart open to the universe and it will provide."

Her words sounded dangerously close to something her aunt Suki would say, who believed in the healing power of crystals and kale. But this woman bought her lunch in breakfast. She'd sleep with a quartz under a pillow if Daphne asked her to. No, no she wouldn't. That would be damn uncomfortable. She'd feel that rock all frigging night, and she had enough neck problems.

"I'll try," she said, for the sake of honesty.

"All we can do hon," said Daphne. She set down a folded newspaper with a wink and waltzed away. She'd left Kay the classifieds.

"I need to come here more often," said Kay, as she bit into her club sandwich. She perused the job offerings as she ate. On paper, the prospects were bleak. What she really needed to do was charge her cell phone and upload her resume online. Terminated or not, Hermann, Silverstein, and Schwartz still snagged attention in the hiring pool. She would find a job, one that actually paid her, and then she'd hire a locksmith to change the locks while Matt was at work. Maybe just nail the whole door shut. While he was inside. The jerk.

An advert caught her eye. It wasn't often a company advertised itself with rainbows and sparkle emojis.

"Fantasy Land, INC is looking for employees for all levels of management. Huh." She scanned the rest of the information with mild interest. All the company required was a basic resume. Sounded like a gimmicky theme park. Maybe she'd toss in her resume, since she was now open to the universe and everything.

"Kay? Is that you?"

She lowered the newspaper at the sound of her name. "Oh my god, Jess Be--" Kay stumbled over the last part. Funny how those old college nicknames just rolled off the tongue no matter how public inappropriate they happened to be.

Jess grinned her signature dazzler of a smile as she slid in the booth next to Kay and threw her arms around her. "You can say it," she whispered in Kay's ear.

"I missed you so much, Jess Beast." said Kay. Of all her college relationships, this was the one she regretted letting lapse the most. They were roomies for nearly two years, until the advent of the Jerk. Jess was a hardcore fan-girl, a true nerd, a whiz with computers, and a fierce friend. She was an actual morning person, perky to a fault, and she hugged Kay with the same intensity she used to do every day, like it hadn't been months since they spoke.

"How the hell are you, Noodle-head?"

Kay's lower lip trembled. Somehow it was easier to spill her woes to a stranger than Jess. "I didn't know you were in the city," she said.

"Your Jedi mind tricks don't work on me," said Jess. She pulled back to look at Kay, her light brown eyes full of warmth. "Spill it."

Kay squinted at Jess. There was something about this situation that tingled her out of practice Jess Beast senses. "You weren't in the city, were you?"

"I moved here last week," said Jess, nabbing a chip from her plate. "You're still stalling."

Kay stiffened and dug out her phone. The screen lit up long enough to inform her the location had been turned on before the battery flat lined. She distinctly remembered turning it off the location the other day. "You jacked my phone."

Jess swiped another chip off her plate. "Damn, I love kettle cooked."

"Jess! I haven't called you in months and you stalked me here?"

"Damn right I did," Jess slammed her fist down on the table. "That fucker dumped you on Facebook."

Kay stared at her.  She would have seen him change his relationship status but the rest? "That's oddly accurate."

Jess gave her a gimlet side eye. "He made a post."

Kay slumped back into her hands. "The jerk."

"Eloquent jerk. Not that he'll be posting again any time soon."

That made her peek through her fingers. "What did you do?"

Jess grinned and popped another chip in her mouth. "Honestly, who uses the same password for all their social media and important accounts? A man who orders half a dozen packs of tighty whities at a time on Amazon, that's who." She happily crunched another chip. "The monster."

Kay didn't know what to say. The masochistic part of her wanted to read Matt's post, but if Jess was involved, it no longer existed. It was a small comeuppance in the current shit show of her life. "I'm sorry I didn't call," she said.

Jess waved her off and wiped the grease off her fingers. "Bygones. What matters is you're free of the leech."

Odd, Kay would have cast herself in that role before, because that was how he made her feel.

"So," said Jess, "Got a place to stay?"