Sanctuary

Chapter 5 - Cara (early winter, 2023)

The past four weeks had been hell on my body and mind. I was a creature of habit, who didn't like too much change; so, having my entire routine completely shaken up without time to prepare was an absolute nightmare.

My weekends were always my relaxing days, time spent with family and friends. Each Saturday morning, I spent the day running errands. I did my usual grocery shopping and stocked my supplies of stuffed toys I kept in my office. It was also my day to catch up on housework, which I begrudgingly did only so I could reward myself with a movie and nice nap on the couch, and maybe a nice treat if I'd worked extra hard.

On Sundays, Lisa and I caught up for brunch, usually at a new café down along the Cobron River, which separated Samta from Acheron, the capital city of the country that sat on the other side of the river. My best friend and I never ventured to restaurants and cafes in Acheron since the city, and the country it resided in, was so unkind to its hybrid residents. Instead, we preferred to stay here, where there were far more hybrid-friendly establishments than not.

I had thoroughly missed my usual downtime during the past month. Instead of two relaxing days off a week, I was lucky if I got enough time just for stocking up on my plushie supplies. I had been working harder than normal and dedicating most of my weekdays to find staff that I could hire for Sanctuary's management team, with weekends being the time I set aside to do my normal jobs. I'd swapped my fridge filled with groceries for a stack of takeout menus, and my comfortable bed at home for the much less inviting sofa in my office.

The only time I did manage to take a break was for my brother's birthday. Since we had all been really busy, it was a low-key event where we all went to Ma and Pop's house for dinner and cake. It was so nice not to have to worry about cleaning my house or cooking, seeing as my place was a quite dusty since I'd been sleeping at Sanctuary more than at home.

But now, for the first time in what seemed like an extremely long month, I could finally breathe and relax. After scouring countless resumes for suitable candidates, as well as reaching out to my contacts in universities and recruiting offices, I had finally hired new administrative management staff: a COO, and a Director of Hybrid Services.

Taemin Lee was a gorilla hybrid and was probably one of the sweetest people I'd ever met. He was so intelligent and at only a year younger than I was, he had a bachelor's degree, as well as a master's – both in business and business management. In his master's thesis, he'd done it on hybrid hospitals and the need for differentiated care. I was not only impressed by his knowledge, but also his drive to assist other hybrids. Taemin was exactly what I had been looking for as my right-hand person.