Part Three

(It's Fiction Friday! Previous installments can be found here.)


“Ouch! Damnit!” Gina hopped gingerly up and down on one foot, casting a scowl at the offending rollerblades that were the cause of her early morning outburst.

“Christ… MARK!!” She shouted, to no avail. The house was empty.

It wasn’t necessarily that she minded her brother staying with her for a few months while pulling himself together after a nasty break-up, but she did mind his uncanny ability to leave sporting equipment lying around in inconvenient locations. In the middle of her poorly-lit, upstairs hallway for example.

She examined the damage. Contrary to the throbbing sensation in her big toe, nothing appeared to be broken. She sighed.

“Well, at least he’s getting out of the house. It’s a significant improvement over last week…” She wasn’t certain that the smell of Chinese take-out would ever be entirely eradicated from her living room, but Mark was family. Her brother’s emotional well-being was worth the lingering scent of Kung Pao lurking around her Crate & Barrel curtains.

“I hate those curtains anyway,” she muttered as she made her way to the kitchen, stopping to grab her cell phone charger which Mark had conveniently left in the middle of the living room floor. Her battery had apparently died at the same time as the power had gone out, which seemed serendipitous in a pain-in-the-ass kind of way. She plugged in the phone as she poured a cup of coffee.

Mark may be a slob, but he always made coffee.

Replacing the milk, however, did not appear to be his forte.

Her cell phone chimed—Three New Messages.

“Oh shit…”

She dialed her voicemail.

“Oh… SHIT!”

She dashed from the kitchen, the still-plugged-in-phone flying from her hand and clattering to the floor, her boss’s last message still droning from the ear piece.

The meeting with Arveson. She had completely forgotten.

As she frantically began searching for her shoes, she stumbled, spilling coffee on her white blouse.

This was simply not shaping up to be a good day.

[to be continued…]