The man heard the crack of the phone dropping on the floor, then immediately a much louder thunk as the woman collapsed and began loudly sobbing. He didn’t know what to do. Maybe it was time for him to move on and get out of this woman’s house before she found him. But somehow he felt the compelling need to comfort this woman; this tortured soul that he had never met before.

He slowly and quietly climbed the stairs up from the basement and into the woman’s kitchen. There, he saw the crumpled and distraught form of the most beautiful woman he had seen in his life.

“It’s going to be okay,” were the first words out of the man’s mouth before Melinda let out a bloodcurdling scream that could have woken the dead.

Melinda grabbed the broom out of the corner of the room and brandished it, warning the man to back off before she called the police.

“I need to explain,” the man said to Melinda. “I was out in the cold and I needed a place to stay, and…”

Melinda’s face softened a bit as she listened to him.