Helena led the woman up to her apartment , letting Esme follow her. She rested her shopping bundles against the door as she fumbled in her purse for her keys. “It’s not so bad,” she insisted, assuming it was the former that was a shame. “He likes his work. It keeps a roof over our heads.” She would have added that he also liked his boss but that would be too much.
The deeper meaning of Esme’s advice washed over and she took it as just conversation once more. Just a recommendation that she should go out and travel, not a warning that she was living two floors away from Death himself. “I will. One day. I think I still have too many things keeping me here.” Whatever things or people that were tying her to Bellum she didn’t specify.
She finally found her keys and unlocked her door, setting her bags down inside the unit but not stepping in. Even without Vlad’s earlier warnings, Helena didn’t make it a habit of letting people she just met into her home. She turned around and gave Esme a warm smile and held her arms open for the bags. “Thank you, again, for helping me carry them.”