Wow, two updates on a single weekend! Hope you guys like it :)

Day 937

September 2020

Elphaba woke up with a start. Her alarm beeped loudly and endlessly until she smacked its head and it almost fell from her bedside table. It was a big day, and she was ready. She was going to meet with an important client—Mr. Vellerstein, a very talented upstart author. Mr. Strumpet assigned her to the job and she was supposed to meet the client after lunch to discuss his upcoming book, Clockwork. Albeit the pressure, she was actually excited. It was the first time she was assigned to an editing and publishing job.

Speedily getting out of bed, she opened her bedroom's curtains to bring in the light of dawn. It was a chilly Autumn day, and the sky was already a bit downcast. But not the time nor the weather was going to ruin her mood that day. She had to be in the best of spirits for her first client call, after all. Setting her hair in a neat low-bun and wearing a gray, perfectly-ironed pantsuit, she grabbed her suitcase and headed out.

"Good morning, Miss Elphaba," the doorman to her apartment building greeted.

"Good morning," she returned as she exited and the breeze blew across her face.

On the pavement, she marveled at the large red and orange leaves piling up under the line of trees between the road and the sidewalks. She liked Fall. It always interested her how nature transitioned the way it did, ever so slowly, ever so beautifully. With seasons, one always had something to look forward to (or dreaded to see) as the landscape transforms after a few months in an annual cycle, carrying with it the stories of those who experienced it at their time. She brushed a stray leaf that fell on her foot and briskly walked to the subway station and got to work.

Her morning was quick and uneventful, as with most of her days lately. Everything had grown routinary—and she liked it. At least she didn't have to deal with anything unexpected, she always thought. It was simple: when she got to the office, she would sit at her desk and do some paperwork until lunch break. Then, after eating lunch at the pantry, she would go back to her desk and do more paperwork. Though she would always go home tired and frequently at a loss for words—all of which exhausted from writing, the job had a sense of fulfillment. Now, her words actually went somewhere, she thought.

Upon finishing the last stack of paperwork on her desk for the day, she glanced at her watch. 2:45 PM, it read. Right on time, she thought. She quickly stood and told Mr. Strumpet's secretary that she was off to meet Mr. Vellerstein, in case the former looked for her while she was out. The secretary nodded, and Elphaba left the office with a slight spring in her step. Yes, she was nervous, but the excitement wore on her more. She hoped she would make a good impression.

Their meeting place was in the same building, for professionality's sake and of course, convenience. There was a restaurant on the Lower Ground Floor, and meetings from the varying renting companies in the building were frequently held there. So that was where she went after exiting the elevator. Madame M's, the sign greeted her. And she hoped for the best.

She was a few minutes early, and a waiter assisted her to a table. Once seated, she grabbed her phone and texted her client that she was already at the restaurant and that he could simply ask the waiter to lead him to her table as he got there.

She waited for a while before Mr. Vellerstein came, and she slowly began feeling anxious. What if he was notified about her appearance and decided to reschedule with another editor? Nonsense, she thought. Mr. Strumpet or his secretary would've told her so earlier. What if he didn't reschedule and he already saw her and decided to—so to speak—'flee the scene'? She didn't have an answer to that. Why did she always have to fear for her job like this, even after all these years? Why did people always have a hard time getting past her skin color? She didn't have answers to those, either. So she waited.

And after a few more minutes, Mr. Vellerstein appeared with a slight pant.

"Good afternoon, Miss uh..?" he said.

"Thropp," she casually replied. "But you can call me Elphaba."

"Ah, yes. Good afternoon, Miss Elphaba. Sorry, I'm a bit late. No excuses," he said. Quickly pulling his seat, he flopped down in front of her with an excited smile on his face. This would be interesting, she thought.

The meeting went by swiftly. Mr. Vellerstein turned out to be a very kind man who was very passionate about his work and his book. He never commented on her skin or looked at her awkwardly. He was young, and all he wanted to talk about was his book.

They went through several points of the soon-to-be publication and had agreed to meet again once he accomplished what needed to be improved. Unlike other editor-author meeting stories she heard where the author would be very defensive, Mr. Vellerstein proved to be none of that. He was very receptive of the comments that she pointed out and was actually very excited about the edits they were going to make.

It surprised her how easy the meeting went as she bid the young author goodbye. She was practically glowing by the time she exited Northtown Towers, and she mentally patted herself on the back for a good start on her biggest project so far.

Jovially brushing away stray leaves on the sidewalk as she walked to her apartment, she decided to quit the train and walk all the way home, instead. Besides, it would be more manageable with the weather now being a bit cooler, she thought, and she could use the fresh air. She looked at the shop windows she passed by as she walked from one block to another.

Then, from a distance, she could see the plaza at Goldhaven. And her mood immediately turned. She was so preoccupied with her meeting's success that she forgot to take another route. She quickly looked away. She couldn't bear seeing the lake, so she fixed her eyes to the line of stores and cafés at her end of the street. But her attempts at fleeing from her negative emotions were unsuccessful.

A few paces more, she saw a familiar glowing yellow signage. And as if to prove her futile attempts even further, she saw what, or rather who, she'd been avoiding to think of for as long as she could remember. Come to think of it, she thought she was doing a good job at forgetting the subject. But once again, she was terribly mistaken.

For a moment, time seemed to stop; yet the clock continued to tick. She found herself staring at the figure before she could calm her nerves and move along.

There, in the specialty café, she was standing in front of, sitting at a table near the window, a familiar woman ate with her companion. But it was her companion that bothered her.

It was Fiyero.

She fled before anyone could begin to notice she was there.

So much for a breath of fresh air.

I took some liberties with how the writing career works here hehe

The draft is around 23 chapters, including the Prologue. But some chapters will be way shorter than others (you'll understand why as the story progresses).

I'll try to update every weekend :)