Chapter 3: When everything went wrong

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The alarm rings making you slowly open your eyes, still heavy from the spent night. During all night you kept tossing and turning around in your bed, not finding a comfortable position to fall asleep and get the rest you so deserved.
Weakly you raise your hand and turn off the alarm that kept ringing in your ears. After a few minutes, still with your face on the pillow, you take the phone and turn it on, blinding yourself for a moment and then looking at the time: 8:40 am. You widen your eyes and get up, jumping out of bed.

"No, no, nonono, not today!"

You mentally punch yourself as you dress in a hurry, quickly throwing on a turtleneck and a sweatshirt with baggy sweatpants, without forgetting your backpack. When you leave, you turn to close the door but obviously when you most need it, the key doesn't go into the lock.

'Come on, please!'

You tell yourself and finally manage to close the door and run down the stairs as fast as possible. But soon after arriving on the second floor you are blocked by the movers who were taking away some heavy furniture. Stressed, you remember that your tenant was leaving today. Cursing the coincidence, you pray that the movers can get the closet to the truck as fast as possible. When you finally get to the ground floor you dash.

'Dammit, dammit !!!'

Looking at the clock on the phone you see that it is already 9:20 and so you increase the pace as much as possible, running with all your strength towards the laboratory.

'I am sorry, I am so sorry Otto!'

******************

In the laboratory, Dr. Octavius ​​was preparing to present his finally completed project. Pride grew in his eyes as he saw the amount of people who had gathered to attend the exhibition, but something was missing. A small, mere detail that he couldn't get out of his head. Looking around, he could not find the face of the person he so wanted to be present this specific day. Continuing to scrutinize the crowd in front of him in the back of the laboratory, a hand rests on his back, making him divert his attention.

"I think we can start honey."

Rosie says softly, stroking the back of her husband and encouraging him to start. Otto looks at her smiling, leaning into her touch and nodding to the advice.

"Yeah, we should. Give me just a second to get all the necessary, love."

He looks at her, bending over and kissing her on the cheek, then he turns and heads to a table with some papers, placing his hands on the surface. Hesitating for a moment, he straightens his back and gives a good sigh, turns to the crowd and steps forward with satisfaction and conviction on his face.

"Ladies and gentlemen, my wife Rosie and I would like to welcome you..."

He says pointing to his wife and drawing the audience's attention, still looking at them in search of that person who had been present with him all week. Hoping it was just a simple, slight delay he procedes.

"But first... Before we start, has anyone lost a large roll of 20 dollar bills in a rubber-band?"

He stops for a moment, observing the group of people who stood in front of him and then turns his gaze to the entrance door before immediately returning to look at the people, as if trying to buy time, but in vain.

"Because we found the rubber-band."

He ends up in a sarcastic voice as people giggle at the joke, but he notices Harry who is not very happy with the little setback unlike Peter who laughs along with the crowd. Chuckling at himself, the Doctor apologizes.

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