Monday would be very interesting indeed.
Four
Monday
Card of The Day: Embrace: 6 of Swords | Release: The World reversed
A purring gray cat with golden eyes tapped my nose incessantly.
I pushed it away with a mumbled curse. The blasted nuisance came right back.
Tap-tap-tap.
Then the tapping turned to an annoying bell. Whomever put the bell on the cat’s collar needed to be maimed.
By me, with pinking shears.
The bell got louder, followed by a crash of cymbals.
I jerked up my head, a sketch page stuck to my cheek. I peeled it off my face and stared down at the gray cat I hadn’t been able to get out of my head all weekend.
Evidently, it had walked right into my dreams. I rolled my eyes then put it on top of the seven other sketches I’d been working on since Saturday night. “Okay, okay. I get it. You want to have a guest spot in the comic.”
Of course it would be a guest spot. Not a whole change to my setup.
I stumbled out of my chair and nearly slipped on the scattered sheets in various stages of creative birthing. The cat on one of the pages even had a freaking tie.
I bent down and picked them up. “Alexa, off!” I shouted and the alarms went silent. I really hoped the alarms hadn’t been going off forever. I checked my Apple Watch, but it had died sometime between Saturday and Sunday.
Sleeping at my desk was not advised, but it wasn’t the first time. Nor would it be the last.
“Alexa, what time is it?”
“The time is 8:11.”
“Crap.” I shoved the pile of sketches on my small kitchen table and sprinted to the bathroom for a lightning quick shower. Thankfully, I’d had the foresight to pull out clothes for work the night before.
Mornings and I had a really crappy relationship. Add in a binge drawing night and it was the Mondayest Monday of all Mondays.
I didn’t have time to deal with my heavy, curly hair. Instead, I twisted it into two French braids and wound the tails into a knot at the base of my neck. A few stubborn curls wouldn’t be contained, and it was too blessed hot to deal with a crapton of product.
Quickly, I lined my eyes, swiped on some shadow and mascara, and called it good. “Freckles be free today.”
I gave myself ten minutes to meditate while I lotioned up with my protection blend. Who knew what kind of energy I’d be walking into?
I added on all the mystical armor I could find today. I drew the delicate chains of my body jewelry over my shoulders and around my breasts to meet in the chain around my waist. Clear quartz was wound throughout the silvery metal. Along the center of my back were three chips of rainbow fluorite.
Then I put on the armor the world required.
Unfortunately, I was far too curvy to forgo a bra, especially when I had to go into an office. Luckily, it was still summer, so I didn’t have to do the whole pantyhose thing. I pulled on a black maxi dress with spaghetti straps that flirted with my ankles. A celery green sweater hid all my witchy finery and turned the outfit into business casual-ish.
At least as much as I was ever going to pull off. A matching pair of strappy-heeled sandals pulled it all together and gave me that little bit of confidence I needed.
I rushed back into my kitchen and flipped on my electric kettle. I definitely wasn’t going to make it through the day without some tea.
I tucked some loose tea leaves into my little salamander tea infuser, and then prestuffed my kitschy sloth one for the drink I would surely need at the office. It would provide a smile later that I’d probably need. I tucked it into a reusable baggie full of loose tea and tossed it into my green bucket bag on my kitchen table.
My electric kettle was created for the perpetually late or impatient—whichever camp you wanted to sit in. Regardless, the water was ready for me in less than ninety seconds. I set my little dude in a to-go mug and let my breakfast blend steep.