She wasn’t the kind of person to lose their cool like this. She’d been the one holding the company together for all these years, after all, taking care of the accounts and making sure everything was ship-shape.She’dbeen the one to realize that there were shady things going on, and who had informed Lucy, the CEO.
And Lucy, of course, had turned out to be the one who had been responsible for the shady things going on, and had therefore fired everyone this morning and run off with whatever money had been left in the company’s accounts. Poppy had reported her to the police once the shock had worn off, but it probably wasn’t going to lead anywhere.
Screw you, Lucy,she thought viciously.This is what I get, after I sorted out the absolute mess that your company was in?
It was all so completely and utterly…unfair.
Poppy knew she sounded a bit like a toddler who’d just found out things didn’t always turn out for the best, but she still thought it was a bit rich that her reward for having pulled so many all-nighters getting the business’s books sorted out – or so she’dthought– was unemployment.
But okay.
She’d had some… well, she’dtriedto have some ice cream.
She’d had a bit of a frustrated yell.
And now, Poppy decided, it was time to take action. Sitting around moping never got anyone anywhere, and she wasn’t one to let her emotions get the better of her.
I’m going to look for – and find! – a new job. But first, I’m going to go do something fun. I have enough savings for a short vacation before I have to put my nose back to the grindstone and start looking for work. One last tiny bit of happiness before the misery of job hunting sets in.
Poppy was pretty sure that she wouldn’t be able to convince anyone right now that she was going to be capable of having fun any time soon, but, well, she knew shedefinitelywouldn’t have any fun if she was stuck in her apartment for the next few days, staring at the rain through the window and eating the world’s crappiest ice cream.
Reaching across the table, she grabbed her laptop and flipped it open. There was a discount travel website that she liked to look at sometimes, when she dreamed about the time when she would be able to take more than a day off.
Lucy had been bizarrely strict about taking vacation days, somehow always seeming to find some sort of excuse to deny everyone’s requests. Everyone had had to work through the Christmas and New Year’s period – everyone, of course, except Lucy, who had justhadto take the time off for ‘personal reasons’.
Well, Lucy wasn’t here anymore to tell her what she could and couldn’t do with her time. Lucy could go suck an egg, as far as Poppy was concerned. A large one.
Warming up to the idea of actually being able to do whatever she wanted with her own precious time, Poppy scrolled through the vacation specials, trying to work out what sounded nicest while not blowing out the budget. Indecision grippedher, tightening around her chest – her life was always so meticulously planned that the idea of getting up and leaving on a whim was alien to her.
What do I want to do? Where do I want to go?
A sudden flash lit up the room, followed less than a second later by a crash of thunder that sent Geri scuttling under the couch, and Poppy’s heart did a little hop, skip, and jump.
Somewhere warm and sunny,she thought decisively, the mental image of an idyllic beach popping into her mind. Palm trees, and pina coladas, and manatees…
First things first,she told herself firmly, snapping out of the daydream. After all, it wasn’t like she could just leave Geri here on her own while she splashed around in a crystal-blue ocean or lazed by the pool in a giant hat.
Pulling her phone out of her purse, she started typing out a message to her little brother, Brett. He and his partner Mateo were currently living with Mateo’s parents while they saved up for an apartment, and Poppy was pretty sure that they would welcome the opportunity to have a little space to themselves for a few days… though she knew that they would also miss Mateo’s mom’s cooking.
Sure enough, Brett’s answer was instant and enthusiastic, not to mention surprised at the fact that she’d actually managed to get some leave approved. Poppy hadn’t mentioned the wholeMy place of work no longer existsthing, feeling like she just couldn’t deal with the sympathy right now.
Instead, she concentrated on getting down to the serious work of trying to find the best combination of airfare and accommodation that wouldn’t leave her either getting up at 2:00 a.m. or paying an absolute fortune.
A grueling hour and fifteen minutes later, she’d finally gotten everything worked out absolutely perfectly. It would barely make a dent in her savings, and she could even catch a planetomorrow morning, departing at a civilized hour and arriving just in time for hotel check-in. Maybe she’d take her laptop with her, and bang out a few quick job applications while she was on the plane.
“Fantastic,” she said, with the first real feeling of happiness or satisfaction she’d felt all day. Maybe her luck was turning around.
Geri seemed to agree, if the way that she jumped up on the table and started rubbing her chin against the corner of the laptop was any indication.
“I won’t be around for a few days, sweetie,” she said, petting Geri’s head and admiring her little tabby stripes. “But Uncle Brett and Uncle Mateo will be here tomorrow, and you love them, don’t you? Or youwill, once you realize they’re the ones who’ll be feeding you for the next few days.”
Geri responded to this by tramping ungracefully across the laptop’s keyboard, setting windows minimizing and then maximizing at a rapid pace, and opening up some sort of technical-looking screen full of computer code that Poppy would never in a million years have been able to open on her own.
Oh – no –
“Stop it – hang on – what are you doing? Stop showing me your butthole, you horrible beast!” Poppy cried, as Geri purred even louder and tramped even harder, the screen flickering wildly beneath her untender ministrations. “What evenisthis window? Stop biting the screen! Did you just make an umlaut?!”
Eventually she managed to pry the demon cat from the keyboard, banishing her unceremoniously to the floor.
