Certainly Something

He kept his eyes fixed on the clock.

He shut out everything else in the room--every sound, every movement, every feeling in his body--and focused on the ticking of the clock. He payed no attention to the ficus sitting in the corner to his right; he ignored the subtle shafts of sunlight shimmering through the window behind him, illuminating the blue carpeted floor at his feet; he overlooked the strange sensation of his corduroy pants rubbing against the cushions of the couch he waited on; he tuned out the sounds of typewriters, fax machines, and copiers seeping in through thee thin plaster office walls all around him;

But most of all, he avoided her.

He didn't know her name and she knew his, so as far as he was concerned, she had the advantage. From what he remembered, as he couldn't risk looking back at her to check, her hair was a purplish black with matching hypnotic lavender eyes, and she wore a light blue shirt with a beige jacket. Two triangular ears poked out the top of her head, which would make her one of those cat-types. He wasn't sure exactly which one; he was terrible with the subtle intricacies of different species. Or maybe those were actually dog ears? Maybe if he looked at her once more--Nonono look at the clock look at the clock tick tock tick tock. What would happen if she saw him looking at him? No, focus on the sound. A loud tick every second. Every second. He started counting in one-one-thousands. One-one-thou-tick Two-one-thou-tock. He got a feel for the rhythm. He could sense its presence. He wa--

She started clicking her pen.

This beat was foreign, completely disregarding the precedent set by the clock. She was going too fast. He couldn't keep track. He tried to find where the beats aligned. After several attempts at reconciling the two competing symphonies, he determined that every 12 ticks of the clock equated to 37 clicks of the pen. That guess was pretty shaky though, so he resolved to take--

"Mr. Crane, Agatha will see you now."

Shit. She talked to him.

He looked over at the counter where the girl sat and their eyes locked. Oh God, this is what he was afraid of. How was he supposed to break eye contact? He had only been in this kind of situation a few times before, and none of them ended well. For a few seconds they were suspended in space, the rest of the world melting away until it was only the two of them in an infinite void, staring at each other. She started to smile. It was a little creepy if he was being perfectly honest, like her mouth was growing bigger than her head. Wait a minute, there was a cat-thing that did that a lot. She was a cat! He was going to have to look that up later, there was so much that he needed to--

They were still in the midst of eye-contact. Crap. He remembered that he should probably smile back at her to indicate that her invitation at friendliness was well-received and understood. He did so, and for a few seconds more they sat staring at each other, smiling. She then nudged her head towards the door to her right, his left. He smiled a bit bigger and nodded slowly to indicate that the message was once again received. He stood up and adjusted his tie, his pants rubbing against the couch, making that weird sound again. He walked over to the door, still smiling, never breaking eye contact. He opened the door and walked fully into the dark room before daring to turn his head away from the woman at the counter. As he gingerly pulled the door closed, he overheard her whisper to herself "Heh, the kid's gonna get eaten alive..." That was strange. Why didn't she think he was going to fare well in this... come to think of it, he had forgotten what this was all about. The blinds in this room were closed, the only light source coming from a computer in the corner. Other than that, he wasn't sure he--

A heavy footstep sounded immediately to his left.

Oh. Right.

A pointy-looking face filled his field of vision as the lights turned on. He was too surprised to look as scared as he actually was. The face started to scrunch inwards, lines forming, indicating disdain towards what it was looking at. A pointy-looking reddish-brown paw moved up to brush a pointy strand of maroon hair away from a scarlet eye that shot daggers into his soul. A pointy tail entered his peripheral sight, supposedly returning from flipping the light switch on. The face started to move backwards as the frightening woman took several thoughtful steps away from him and towards the window. She wore a full grey suit, with a deep blue tie. She was one of those chimera types, the ones that were a bunch of animals in one. Wait, was there more than one of them, or was it just called a chimera no matter what? He was pretty sure a ‘Chimera’ was a specific thing, but were there multiple--the pointy woman started to speak, ending all thought in his head.

"I know you."

He cleared his throat. "*cough* Well, um, I---"

"I don't know your name. But I know you." She took a few steps toward the computer as he deflated. "Yes, Felina out there sent me your profile before this meeting started, but I don't need that to know everything about you that I need to know. I can smell it on you. So let me guess..."

She pulled out her rolly office chair and slowly lowered herself into it, turning her back on him before he could get a word in. "You are a down-on-your-luck average joe kind of person. You've only recently moved to this fine city from your suburban upbringing to try and make it on your own in the world and make your mother proud. To do that, you need to find a job willing to take on someone with little-to-no work experience, and you thought a cushy office job fit the bill just perfectly. You figured that just about anyone who was willing to put up with all the dull cubicle work and stale water cooler talk could get a job like that without even breaking a sweat. And for the most part, you'd be right." She suddenly turned towards him. "But I know you. You're weak. You reek of it." She stood at her full height, a good 6 inches above him, and took several imposing steps towards him. "I got to where I am because I am strong. I got here because I persevered. I got here because I care about the things that go on in this building. I am a shepherd among sheep, the alpha of the pack, a leader among men. There are many things that I can tolerate in this world, and weakness is not one of them. If you think that I am going to jeopardize the company, the team that I care about for the sake of some nobody who wants to live an easy life, then you need to leave immediately. I am not that person." She leaned in close to him almost whispering into his ear. "I am the person you should fear. I am the person who is prepared to tear you limb from limb unless you make yourself absent from this place as fast as humanly possible. So go on, then..." She took a step back. "Go."

He hesitated. "Well, um, Ms. Morselle..."

She darted forward, baring her teeth at him, growling, "You dare use my name in my own chambers?! You think this is some kind of joke I'm playing with you?! How did you come to know my name?! Tell me now, or be prepared to face the consequences!"

He was still too surprised to show how scared he was. He could feel her hot breath beat against his face. "M-Ms. Morselle, I've been w-working here for 3 years. I came here to ask if I could have Thursday off."

Everything stopped for a second. The only sound was the muffled ticking of the clock in the waiting room.

Agatha Morselle's face didn't change for quite a while. Through her wild scarlet eyes he could see her brain rewiring itself to try and comprehend the situation it found itself in. Her devastating snarl turned into a neutral expression, then to disbelief, then confusion. She backtracked her imposing steps over to her computer and pulled up his file.

"Ambrose Crane... 25 years old... degree in mathematics... stationed in Accounting... This file is for you?"

He idiosyncratically scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, I'm Ambrose. There's a jazz night at this bar I go to, and I'd like to go and listen to it but it kind of conflicts with my work schedule. I mean, if you can't afford to have me gone all of Thursday I understand, but, like, if you could let me leave just a few hours early that would be great. It starts at 6, and I know this guy..."

Agatha wasn't listening. She was too busy clicking through his file, trying to find a reason as to why this weak man in her office was already employed at her building. After a few more minutes of her muttering to herself about dogged determination, Ambrose figured that nothing was going to happen any time soon and resigned himself to seeing jazz night another day. Just like last month. And the month before. And the month before that...

He stepped back into the waiting area. He looked to his left to find the cat woman staring at him, awestruck, mouth agape.

Shit. He forgot about her.

Her mouth slowly curled upwards into a smile. A few seconds passed and she asked, "...Who are you?"

Ambrose was not prepared for such an intimate question. He fidgeted and sort of looked around a little bit before responding. "I'm, you know, I'm a, the, I'm... I'm the guy."

Realizing that his answer was not sufficient by anyone's standards and that they had initiated eye contact once more, he quickly took a sharp turn towards the door and power walked away. But before he could reach the door, Ambrose heard her say "... Hey."

He turned to find her looking after him with a mix of wonder and... something else. No one had ever really looked at him like that, so he wasn’t sure what it was.

"My name's Felina. Felina Delandre."

God she had pretty eyes. This time the eye contact didn't feel wrong, and he could take in everything about her. The way her delicate eyebrows grew fuller the closer they moved to the center of her face, and how they led into the curvature of her cute upturned nose, the way the left side of her small mouth pulled upwards to give her a mischievous smirk, mirroring the sharp curve of her chin moving into her subtle jawline, and the way that melded into the side of her neck and grew lost in the midst of her purposely unkempt hair. Her hair's color didn't seem static, as though it changed between black and purple and anything inbetween just to keep him confused and unsure. Her ears retained the same unstable color as her hair, but sported small tufts of lavender hair inside, the same color as her eyes. Her eyes. They didn't seem real, like they promised that all the secrets of the universe laid behind them at the same time as they told him they lied about most everything, all the while implying there was more than they let on. Her eyes were dancing an intricate dance around him, while he stood there duck-footed and trying to grasp the subtle complexities of what he saw and what he thought she wanted him to see. He was enraptured, the world was gone to him. He forgot about everything about him. The sunlight, the couch, his corduroy pants, the ficus in the corner, the clock.

The clock. It was still ticking.

Shit. How long had he been staring at her? She was still smiling, so Ambrose assumed that his eyes hadn't overstayed their welcome in hers, but he had better end this before he messed it up like he always did. He gave a small nod and moved his eyes slightly to the side, subduing his own smirk just enough to indicate that he was ending their interaction. Their interaction. Crap, she had said something to him. What did she say? He couldn't remember. Did she say something about the secrets of the universe? No, that was just him. Dancing? Still him. What did she say? He didn't have time to remember. He only had a second or two more to say something before it turned into an awkward pause. Think Ambrose, think. What could he say?

"Yeah." He turned around, stepped out the door and began the walk across the 4th floor back to his cubicle.

Felina. Her name was Felina. That's what she said. And on top of that, he thought he figured out what she was: she was a Cashmere Cat. They were the ones who smiled real big and were all weird and stuff, or something, which would explain the hair. He'd have to Google that. Maybe he would try talking to Agatha again in a few days. Yeah.

She was pretty.