A House Is Not a Home
ShortStory 1,050 words Recommended by 2 award/anthology sources
"Home brews coffee; black, no sugar. She maintains the temperature of the coffee at precisely sixty degrees Celsius. Most of the coffee sloshes over the jagged edges of the half-shattered mug. Rough holes have been torn through the matte plastic back of the coffee machine; twisted steel fléchettes still embedded in the wall behind."
Quasar links out; the story lives on Clarkesworld, where the author gets the click.