30 The Journal (1)

There was little time for anything, and Kyro still needed to grab a bite before leaving. He placed the fox on the bed and rushed to the wardrobe. With practiced moves, he put on a suit in record time and ran to the kitchen. There was nothing ready made, so he just threw a sandwich together and ate it while tying his shoes.

He was almost out the door when he looked back into the living room. From here, he couldn't see the bedroom with the fox, but he could see Lucy. Would the cat injure the fennec while he wasn't looking? The two seemed to have come to an unspoken agreement to ignore each other, but could he trust that?

Not at all. He ran back into the kitchen and poured a cup of water and grabbed a pack of cat food. All of this, he brought to the bedroom and prepared for the fox. But this wouldn't be enough. He also needed to prepare a litter box.

There was extra litter in the bathroom cupboard, so it wasn't a problem, but finding a box was. He didn't have them lying all around the room. But he needed to find one now. It took him much longer than he expected, but in the end, he located one and placed it in the opposite side of the bedroom than the food and drink.

His room might stink a bit when he returned, but he could air it later, and this was better than risking the fox's life. Lucy was great as a companion, but Kyro didn't trust him just yet with not becoming overly jealous of the new resident in the house.

'Right, this should be it,' he decided after a quick look around. He was now going to be certainly late, but nothing to do about it. He'll come up with some excuse on the way there.

"Be good, I'll come back right after work," he promised as he closed the bedroom door. The fennec screamed in return, and he hoped it was a positive reply. On his way out, Lucy came to show him out, and Kyro scratched the cat's ear. "You too, be good. I'll be back soon."

Lucy bumped into his foot and Kyro looked down to find that the cat was holding his car keys. "Oh right, thanks! You're a lifesaver! I'm running now, bye."

He closed the door, which locked automatically, and dashed down the stairs. The moment he sat down in the car, Gale called. "You planning to skip today? Too infatuated with your new acquisition?"

"Sure." Kyro placed the phone in the holder and turned the car on. His workplace wasn't far, but it would take some half an hour to get there now that he would have pass through the morning traffic jam. "Is everyone there already?"

"Of course no. I'm not, for example." There was a breeziness to Gale's tone that said he was quite proud of this.

Kyro relaxed a bit now that he was in the car. No matter how much he wanted to rush, the traffic couldn't be pushed aside to hurry through. He could catch his breath and reorganize his thoughts, remember what was the agenda of the meeting today.

"Did you call my secretary just to find out if I was there?" he asked while stopping a good kilometer away from a red light. He minimized the call and checked his calendar on the phone.

There wasn't much detail there, just the title "New Provider". 'Oh yeah, that one. Gale mentioned before that the board wasn't too happy with it. Seems like we'll have a long morning today.'

"As if I'd do that. I called my secretary to ask yours."

It was hard to say how that was any better, but Kyro didn't try to reason it out in his head. "Then have him tell her that I'll need coffee when I show up. Didn't get to drink it at home."

"Something happen?"

"You could say that." Kyro started the car again and moved a few car lengths forward. At this pace, he was going to be late by two hours and not the ten minutes he was expecting. "The fox wasn't fond of the alarm sound."

Gale guffawed on the other end of the call. "Don't tell me it tried to wake you up." Before Kyro could confirm it, Gale continued, "I will pray for the little thing. It must have been scared into the afterlife. Seems like I won't be able to steal it away for my date. Mhm… What should I do now…"

"Don't make it sound like I killed it."

"Might as well have. I still shudder remembering that time we went on a trip together first year of college and I tried getting you up. I was never the same after. No one could be." His words had a chill to them, and Kyro could even hear Gale shivering for a greater impact.

"Drama queen," was all he said in answer.

Gale laughed and changed the topic. "When do you think you'll be there? Do I need to come up with something to postpone the meeting?"

"Some fifteen minutes extra would be nice. This street seems to be stuck."

"Right, I'll tell them we got some last minute updates so you're checking them out while I start this sham."

"There's something new?"

"No, but I haven't yet updated them on what we received on Friday. Use that."

Kyro smiled. "Got it."