First day of the rest of life
Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to Impossible Pictures™.
Note: contains spoilers for the official series.
Less than a month ago, Angelika Finch was a CFO of a relatively up-and-coming company, a successful, even if a single, and relatively young woman. And now she was not. Sure, she could have remained her, if she had accepted the fact that her ex-boss and best friend, Evan Cross, was mentally falling apart over his dead wife and she was powerless to do something about it, short of playing along with it – which she had no intention of doing.
OK, admittedly, she could also get a job at some other company: considering that her job as a CFO had made Cross Photonics a very successful enterprise...but Angelika was in no rush: she was still very comfortable, financially, so she could take some time before getting a new job at least, while she figured out what did she want in her life.
This question was actually very important, because after the incident with the dinosaurs in the woods Ange had began to wonder about this question. Sure, being a CFO was financially satisfying, but she was not into it for just the money, not really.
But what else was there? Theoretically, of course, a whole lot, but Ange was not the sort of a woman to be interested in theory alone; she wanted something more concise and practical – but what?
As Ange drove into the front yard of her apartment building and got out of the car (usually she used the underground parking spot, but not always), a sudden yowl caught her attention.
"It's the cat," she muttered crossly.
The cat was a mongrel grey feline; at least everyone assumed that it was grey, but it was hard to tell, because it was so heavily scarred. It also lacked an eye and most of the ear on the left side of its head, one of its legs had been broken and never reset, and the tail was almost completely gone. Everyone avoided it, even though it was a relatively friendly feline, and somehow no one had gotten to calling pest control just yet, probably as everybody waited for someone else to do it, and now, as the animal desperately raced towards Angelika and hid behind her, no one ever did.
Instead, it appears, some 'young adults' have brought their dogs and set them upon the cat, with a clear intent of doing it harm...until Angelika's arrival changed things.
"Hey, lady, what are you doing?" one of the dog owners asked, as it became apparent that Angelika was not going to run away in fear but rather was looking for a fight.
"I live here," Angelika snapped, deciding that she did not have time for this. "And I don't remember seeing you around here before. Are you visiting someone, because otherwise I advise you to leave." The last words were not a suggestion, but a statement.
There was some hesitation in the ranks of Angelika's opposition; at least one of the dog owners opened their mouth to ask: "Or what?" but met Angelika's gorgon gaze and fell silent instead. And without anyone to confront Angelika's challenge directly, the dogs and their owners began to shuffle, and then turned around and left, leaving Angelika on her own.
Well, not exactly just on her own, as the cat (Angelika had honestly forgotten about it in all the excitement) looked from behind Ange's legs and suddenly purred in gratitude, rubbing in affection as well.
"Oh yeah, what to do with you?" the former CFO mused as she leaned downwards and picked the feline up.
The cat did not stop purring and continued to stare at Ange with its single eye, which was rather gold-colored, as the woman realized.
Ange exhaled. As it was said above, recently she has been re-examining her life, and she did not quite like what she had so far. Therefore, perhaps a change was in the wind, and might as well begin now.
"Come on with me, then, furball," Angelika sighed. "If I'm going to be an old maid, might as well have a cat to complete the ensemble."
The cat just purred and rubbed against Ange's face as the ex-CFO took her inside the building.
End