Glen unlocks the front door and goes inside. He kicks off his shoes in the hallway and throws his jacket onto the hall furniture before walking into the living room and throwing himself face-down onto the couch.

Finally Friday, what a fucking week.

Glen looks around the living room. He needs to clean a bit before the guests come tomorrow evening. Ideally, he'd just cancel everything, but he needs to meet up with friends. Cheer himself up a little. It's not every week that his wife announces she wants a divorce and moves out. Nor is it every day that someone loses an important report they've been working on for over a month. A report full of company secrets that's due to be submitted on Monday. A report that will get him finally promoted to section chief. If he doesn't find it, he's guaranteed to lose his position. But if that wasn't enough, Glen managed to crash into another car at an intersection on his way home from work, less than an hour earlier.

It can't possibly get worse now?!

Glen drags himself out of the couch and heads toward the kitchen. Some food and maybe his brain will start working again and he can get some constructive thoughts instead. He's just about to open the fridge when he sees something in the corner of his eye.

What's that?

He turns his gaze and stands there with his mouth wide open, like a birdhouse and wide-open eyes.

A ghost? Am I really seeing a ghost?

After blinking several times, Glen concludes that there actually is a ghost standing there looking at him. A female ghost. Or he's really gone mad after this week's events. Glen opens the fridge and looks inside. There's one piece of lasagna left from earlier this week. That'll do for dinner. He reaches in and grabs a beer, then closes the fridge. The ghost is still standing there.

"Do you want a beer?"

Glen holds out the beer toward the ghost, but she just keeps standing there looking at him.

"Fine, blame yourself. Then I'll have one myself."

Glen takes a first sip and lets his gaze sweep over the kitchen.

When I didn't think it could get worse, I end up with a ghost roommate too. But she doesn't seem to want to kill me at least.

Glen freezes at that last thought and looks suspiciously at the ghost.

"You're not planning to kill me, are you?"

The ghost rolls her eyes and floats away through the wall, into the living room.

Great! Even ghosts roll their eyes at me now. As if my soon-to-be-ex-wife wasn't enough. Wonder what happens next? A werewolf? Vampire? Alien?

The ghost stops in front of the basement door and floats there watching Glen. When Glen walks into the room, she floats through the basement door. Glen hesitates, but decides to stay. The ghost's head pops up through the door. She looks intently at him, then down toward the basement, then back at Glen.

"You want me to follow you down into the basement? Follow a ghost down into a dark basement? No no, forget it!"

The ghost seems to sigh and rolls her eyes, then looks at Glen with a look that simply screams "idiot." Glen doesn't know what to make of that. Then she disappears.

Glen heats up the lasagna, eats, watches TV. The ghost comes up here now and then and seems to try to get him to go down into the basement.

"Oh no, I'm not becoming ghost food tonight. Whatever you're doing down in the basement, you'll have to do it yourself."

Eventually, the ghost seems to give up and disappears. The clock shows it's quite late and Glen gets ready for the night. Soon he sleeps.

Glen wakes up in the morning. He looks at his phone. It's almost twelve. He hasn't slept that long in... well, he can't remember the last time, but it's been a while. He turns to the other side and is about to climb out of bed.

"AAAAH!"

The ghost is standing there an arm's length from him. Glen throws his phone at her and throws himself backward so he falls onto the floor on the other side of the bed. He cautiously looks up over the bed. She's still standing there looking at him with a resigned look. A resigned and somewhat irritated look.

Glen sees that the phone hit the window and made a big hole. Fortunately, at least the blinds stopped the phone so it didn't fly out onto the lawn.

Great, now I have a broken window in the bedroom too.

"That's your fault!"

Glen points at the hole in the window. The ghost stares at him, a tired stare. Then she closes her eyes and opens them again. The "idiot" look is back briefly before it softens. She extends her hand toward Glen and smiles kindly. Then she floats away toward the basement again. Glen doesn't intend to follow. She shrugs and disappears.

After a hearty breakfast, Glen gets going and starts cleaning and tidying up for the evening. The window is patched with cardboard and duct tape. The meat is placed in marinade. The entire house is cleaned and the table is set. The ghost circles around and studies what he's doing.

"I'm getting guests soon. You need to hide so they don't get scared. It's bad enough I'll probably get fired on Monday, I don't need this evening ruined too."

The ghost seems to understand. At least she nods as if she does. The doorbell rings and Glen looks toward the hallway, then back at the ghost. She's gone. Glen sighs in relief and then goes to open the door. Standing outside are his friends Ulf, Tom and Amir with their wives Laura, Johanna and Alice.

"Welcome, come in! Welcome drinks are on the kitchen table."

Glen hugs everyone as they come in and all the usual and expected greetings are performed before they go inside with their drinks and sit on the couches and talk. Glen sits himself in the love seat and for the first time tonight feels alone. Stina always sat there beside him, but now she'll never do that again. Alice sees what he's thinking and quickly comes over and sits beside him. She hugs him.

"You know, you always have us. You'll get through this!"

"Thanks! Ah, now I'm going to stop moping. Come on, let's eat. Food is ready and waiting for us. Slow-grilled flank steak with roasted potato wedges and vegetables."

There's a cheer and soon they're all seated at the table eating and having a very nice evening. Glen has fun, but he starts feeling more and more lonely again. He watches how the others are sitting holding each other, quick kisses, holding hands. Glen takes another whiskey and brushes off the thoughts. For the first time tonight, he thinks about the ghost and looks around.

I'm sitting here with my best friends missing a ghost. Talk about being a fool.

"So, what do you say, shall we go out drinking? Probably good chaos tonight."

Tom looks expectantly around at the others. Everyone thinks it's a great idea, everyone except Glen.

"Go out, you guys. I think I'll stay home tonight. Not quite in the mood."

"Are you sure? Getting out would probably do you good."

"I'm sure! Have a drink for me too."

"Of course!"

Tom gives Glen a pat on the back and soon they're all gone. Glen looks around.

No, cleaning can wait until tomorrow. I'll sit down and stream a movie instead.

After much searching, he ends up with a movie eventually. A pornographic film. He starts it. After a while, he hears something behind him. There's Alice. She blushes. She looks at Glen, then at the hard member he has in his hand, then at Glen again. She bites her lower lip.

"Well, and here I am jerking off!"

"I forgot my purse."

Alice quickly picks it up and hurries out of the house. Glen stays seated.

Was that all I could come up with to say? I'm probably ready to die now.

Glen looks around and sees the ghost standing by the basement door. She looks tenderly at him. Glen looks back and thinks for a while.

"Okay, you win. I'll follow you down into the basement. Can't get much worse right now."

Glen manages with some difficulty to put his manhood in his pants and zip up. He walks over to the ghost and stands opposite her.

"After you!"

The ghost smiles broadly and glides through the door. Glen opens it and follows. He doesn't know what to expect. A morbid curiosity drives him down the stairs. He turns on the light and sees that the ghost is over by the workbench. He steps closer and suddenly stops. He looks surprised at what lies there. The report! He looks up at the ghost who smiles broadly, then looks back at the report.

"Was that what you wanted to show me all along?"

The ghost nods. Glen walks forward and picks it up. Standing there, he remembers how it ended up there. He was walking around reading through it when he remembered he had to take meat out of the freezer for the weekend. He'd laid the report down on the workbench then.

Maybe life isn't over after all.

"Thank you, you've saved me!"

The ghost smiles and floats up through the ceiling and disappears.

Glen looks at the report and hugs it tight. He closes his eyes and smiles widely with relief.

The End