1 Chapter 1

"Get off." Rayne Valera scowled at the fluffy black body blocking the view of her laptop.

The cat ignored her. "Off." She said. "How do you expect me to work with the way you're acting?"

"Meow." The cat protested.

"No. Get off the lappy. I got work to do." Rayne said as she put down her wireless headset on the computer desk. The cat stared at her almost pleadingly. "I am not going to fall for that again, Bubbles. Go away. Mommy needs to earn money to feed you with all the Royal Canin in the world." She added as she gently removed Bubbles from the laptop and put him on the floor. With a final loud meow of outrage, the cat left.

"I'll make it up to you!" She shouted at his departing figure. The cat ignored her and continued on his trek away from his human. She turned back to her laptop and sighed in relief. Luckily, she was on her first 15-minute break, or things would be awkward between her and whoever was on the other line. Now eyeing the basket filled with various food, she reached out for a bag of Cheetos Jalapeno and opened it, proceeding to eat while staring at the multiple windows on her screen.

So far, she has been productive this evening: three callbacks, five appointment schedules, and about two hours' worth of checking emails. After her break, she was to call potential clients. She dreaded this part of her work, but it had to be done. Besides, she was a lead generation agent before she got promoted to virtual assistant.

Rayne nearly quit, but with the encouragement of her friends, she pushed on until she became a virtual assistant for a VA firm; then, later, she was directly hired by the client she was working under. Rayne was only too happy to accept the client's offer. She was fortunate to end up with a boss who was not only competent but who saw her as a person, not some peon. It has been five years since she began working from home, but she was contented.

The alarm was signaling that her break was over echoed throughout the room. She retook her headset and turned it on. After sipping her coffee from her cat-shaped mug, she began to log in to her dialer. "Good day, my name is Rayne calling from a group of real estate agents looking to buy properties in the Long Island area. Are you looking to sell your property?"

She spent an hour and a half calling and trying to convince homeowners to sell their houses. Out of all those calls, she managed to get about 15 leads. Not bad, she thought. At least she was not going to have a hard sell, and her boss was not too demanding regarding leads. Speaking of boss… she eyed the Skype icon briefly. She had to call him to give him the progress report he had been asking for a week. She clicked on the chat application and sent him a brief message. She got a reply to take her time; he was not in a hurry.

Once she was finished, Rayne let out a sigh of relief and began to dial her boss' number. She got an answer when the video camera on his end turned on and revealed a handsome man with silver-gray hair and a beard. "Hey Rayne, how's my favorite girl?" He asked, giving her a warm smile.

Rayne waved at him. "I'm the only girl on the team, Russell." She said dryly. "I'm good."

Russell raised one silver eyebrow. He looked concerned for a moment. "You hardly look good. Are you eating at the Arches again? How many times…!"

"Keep going, boss, and you're going to sound like my dad."

"Can't help it, kid. I know you love food, but -!"

A high-pitched male voice chimed in. "Tell her if she doesn't stop eating toxic food, I will fly in there and feed her decent food myself!"

Rayne groaned and did not bother to hide it, "Since when did Victor decide to be my mom?!"

"Since he found out you had a privilege card for that place," Russell said.

"Hey, I worked hard for that card! Tell your husband to stop interfering with my dietary habits."

"He will if you start eating properly. Anyway, you got the progress report?"

"Yup, done since last weekend."

"Good grief, you're quite the workaholic. You could have worked that during the week."

"Oh, I didn't do much during the weekend. It's fine. I managed to rest last Sunday."

Russell sighed. "Fine, you have always been efficient. Thanks for sending it through here, and…hmm, we're doing way better than two weeks ago. The newbies are performing more than I expected. You're right; promoting Dean as the new HR manager was a great idea."

"I told you he has an eye for talent."

"I'm aware."

The two continued discussing work, and Russell assigned a few more tasks for her to do this shift. He strictly told her not to work on them after the shift or during the weekend. If she could not finish them within the evening, it was okay with him, and she could continue the next shift. Rayne agreed and was relieved that her boss gave her flexibility to work.

"Okay, all done for now, and I'm satisfied with the report. I'll get in touch with Dean in a bit. Enjoy your shift, Rayne, and seriously take care of yourself. Victor and I will be visiting soon."

Rayne waved at him once again and ended the call. She opened the compressed folder Russell sent her during the call. Halfway through her shift and doing most of her work, she decided to start with these files. When she saw the first signs of the sunrise, she realized it was already dawn, which meant her shift was over. She set her work aside and logged out of her tools and out of Skype, sending a brief message to Russell that she was out of the day, and then shut off all her programs and turned off her laptop.

When she opened her home office door, she saw Bubbles sitting still like a statue and staring at her with his green eyes. She would have thought that the hallway had eyes if it were not for the unnatural darkness around the cat's form. "Good morning, creepy." She said dryly. "I'll be feeding you shortly, your highness." She added as she switched the lights on in the hallway.

Bubbles followed her as she went to the kitchen, this time vocal about being kicked out of the home office last night and how he was so hungry. She took his feeding dish and filled it with cat food, mentally promising herself that she would buy a timed feeder someday. She also refilled his water dish and watched her cat eat, her heart filled with joy. She found him as a kitten on her way home from the market and initially thought he had an owner sitting beside a fish ball vendor. She petted him and was shocked that he followed her home. After confirming that the vendor did not own him and that he had no other owners, she took him in, had her checked by a vet nearby, and was microchipped and vaccinated. A year later, she had him neutered. Bubbles was her constant companion, and he had always loved her unconditionally, except during mealtimes.

"Since you're happily ignoring me, I'm off to buy my breakfast." She told the cat. Bubbles kept eating, not even bothering to look at her.

Rayne left her place and sighed happily; she enjoyed the relative isolation of the building where she was living. Usually, at this hour, it would be noisy with the vehicles and students on their way to school and a few employees that had to go to work early, but the restrictions that the government had enforced resulted in an almost eerily silent compound.

It was welcoming, but a year and a half later, it felt like she was isolated. Taking out her light blue mask container, she took out a black surgical mask and put it on the lower half of her face. She was still waiting for a cab when a red car stopped beside her.

Rayne took a step backward. She felt uneasy as the crime rate had gone down due to the recent health crisis, but one can never be too careful. The passenger window rolled down, revealing a man in dark-rimmed glasses. She noticed how cute he looked despite the glasses. She found him even more attractive when he gave her a friendly smile. "Morning." He said. "Is this N Towers?"

"Hi. Good morning," she answered. "Visiting?" she suddenly added. It was not unlike her to converse with random strangers though she rarely does it.

"Moving." the man's smile widened. "Thanks."

"No problem." Rayne nodded as she hailed a passing taxi and nearly ran toward the vehicle.