Bills crinkle. Words crack. Four letters.
Drawers groan. Doors slam.
Toyota roars.
Pick up cell phone. Straight-to-voicemail.
Merlot pops. Glass clinks and tinkles like tears.
TV laugh track assaults.
Words break into regret.
Drawer opens and closes. Picture frame scrapes and lands with a thud.
Air conditioner whooshes. It’s cold.

Yash Seyedbagheri is a graduate of Colorado State University’s MFA program in fiction. His work has been published in SmokeLong Quarterly, The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Write City Magazine, and Ariel Chart, among others.