Obournion

The New Normal

The next day, Fiona woke up hungry. Heading into her kitchen she wasn't sure there was anything for her to eat for breakfast. Checking her cupboards, nothing seemed appetizing. She settled for a bagel with cream cheese.
After breakfast, she went to her room and picked an outfit out of her closet. She got dressed, and went back to her night stand to retrieve her phone. It was time for her to call Terinda. As much as she appreciated Leo's offer to be her chauffeur, she knew she would need to run her own errands eventually. Besides she was unsure if he was called into work.
Dialing her sister, she answered by the second ring. "I want details!"
Fiona giggled, she expected nothing more. "So, I take it you saw my press conference."
"Of course I did. I also saw those two handsome guys behind you. Obviously the doctor digs you, but his friend, you know if he's single?"
"Cole? I'm going to guess he is, but he's the same age as Leo I'm pretty sure they went to college together."
"Cole, so that's his name. You're going to see him again, you should give him my number."
"Seriously Terinda, he's younger than you, besides if I'm dating Leo I think it would be weird to have my older sister dating his best friend."
"A: He's not that much younger than me. And, B: Whose to say he's not into older women?"
"Oh my God. Sometimes you're crazy Terinda, but I will talk to Leo about it. Ok?"
"See that's more like it, you can't keep all that yummy to yourself. So is that why you called me to rub my face in your good fortune. You still owe me details you know."
"Ok and I will give you details when you run my keys to me."
"Oh, that's right, shit I forgot I had them. Well in that case I will be over in twenty minutes."
Fiona chuckled, "Sounds good."
Placing a second call, Fiona dialed her boss Ed. He picked up on the first ring. "Fiona, oh my God, are you okay, what happened to you? I wasn't sure if I was ever going to hear from you again."
Fiona loved her boss, besides her not being there for work, any other boss would have probably chewed her out, Ed, on the other hand, was always caring and understanding.
"Sorry it took me so long to call, a lot has been going on."
"Oh yes, I see that. I watched your briefing. That a girl, give em hell. I can't believe all the things they were trying to spin about you. If I didn't know you personally, it would have been easy to believe them. All those terrible things, I know you, and that's not you."
"Thank you for that Ed, I appreciate it. I don't care what anyone believes, I just want to get back to my life. Speaking of, just wondering do I still have a job?"
"What? Of course you do, I did have to hire a couple of extra hands but I can work you into the schedule. Just let me see what I have so far, the pay period ends this week so I haven't finalized the schedule. Give me till the end of the week I will work you in ok?"
"Ok, thank you so much Ed, honestly with everything that's happened I wasn't sure if you wanted me working there, I mean with all the notoriety and all."
"Hey, if you ask me that's good for business, besides everything that's happened, well, it isn't your fault. I'm not going to act like I know what happened or where you were, but I'm sure there's reason behind it, and when you're ready you can always talk to me, ok?"
"Thank you again Ed."
"Anytime Fiona, well just get some rest while you can, because I'm going to be putting you straight back to work."
She giggled, "Sounds good."
"I will text you a picture of your schedule after it's drafted."
"Thanks Ed." Fiona hung up.
Waiting for her sister, she sat down and scrolled through her contacts. Before coming across the love doctor, she saw another unrecognized name, the bad ass sidekick. Fiona laughed, that must be Cole. Reaching the nick name for Leo she quickly changed it. Dr. Leonard Young. She sat back and went ahead and dialed him. He picked up on the second ring.
"Hey, good timing, I was just getting ready to head to break. I was gonna call you."
"Or, you could be saying that to win brownie points." She laughed.
"Well, is it working?"
"Maybe."
"No really, I was getting ready to call you. Wanted to see if maybe you're free tonight? Also, tell me you changed my contact name."
"I did. You wouldn't believe what Cole put as his contact." She chuckled.
"Oh I could only imagine."
"The bad ass sidekick."
"Yeah sounds like Cole, at least he admits he's the sidekick. So about tonight."
"On that, I'm not sure yet. My sister is coming over with my keys, she may want to hang out, so I will have to get back to you."
"Oh, bummer. Is she hounding you with questions yet."
"She isn't here yet, so I don't know if she will, actually she's interested in Cole."
"What? You're kidding, Cole?"
"Well, he's cute, so I can see why."
"You think he's cute?"
"You're cute too."
"Well we may have to set them up, don't want Cole getting any ideas."
"Ideas? Oh give me a break. I don't know about that, besides my sister is older than him."
"I'm older than you, who cares. How old is your sister anyway?"
"She's 28."
She could hear Leo laughing.
"What's so funny?"
"Cole's 28, they're the same age."
"Oh, he acts younger."
"Yeah, that's Cole."
"You don't think it would be weird, I mean if I'm dating you and my sister is dating your best friend."
"Oh, so we're dating now, it's official?"
She chuckled, "I don't know, maybe. I like you."
"Good, I like you too, so when you want to make it official, hey I'm willing to give it a try."
As Fiona's heart started to race with excitement, she noticed black soot floating in the air. Looking around there were pieces floating around her couch, the end tables, all the way into the dining room. Leo must've noticed her silence.
"Hey, Fiona? You still there?"
"Yeah, umm I think my upstairs neighbors apartment might be on fire."
She got up from the couch and headed into the hallway.
"On fire? You sure? Do you feel any heat?"
"No, but there's black soot, like embers or something, Leo let me call you back I'm going to check on them."
"Ok, let me know."
"I will, talk to you later."
She hung up and headed to her kitchen, the soot seemed almost to come out of nowhere, or it was seeping through the ceiling, she couldn't tell which. Heading to her front door, she quickly opened it. Terinda was walking up.
"Hey girl, I got your keys."
Ignoring her she looked up the stairs.
"Fiona, what's wrong."
Nothing looked out of the ordinary, no smoke emitted from the apartment. Although if it was a backdraft, it would need oxygen to be set in a blaze. There still would be smoke though, wouldn't there?
"Fiona, you're acting weird, what's wrong."
Acknowledging her sister, she said. "I think my upstairs neighbor's apartment is on fire?"
"What?" Terinda looked up the stairs. "I don't see any smoke."
"Yeah but there's black soot, like embers in my apartment."
Terinda walked past her as she headed up the stairs to her neighbor's apartment.
"Fiona, what are you talking about?"
Terinda screamed from inside her apartment. Heading back inside her own dwelling, Fiona looked around. The black soot was gone.
"There's nothing here Fiona, just your normal everyday raggedy place." Reaching out she finished, "Here are your keys."
Taking the keys, Fiona headed inside and looked around. Normally she would have some comeback for her sisters remark, but she was engulfed in what just transpired. Heading into the kitchen, back to the hallway, and into the living room, nothing was there. The air was clear.
"Are you ok?"
"Huh," Fiona glanced at Terinda, "Oh yeah, thought I saw soot or something. Guess it was nothing."
"And you're sure you're ok?"
"What...yeah, just my mind playing tricks on me. Anyway I talked to Leo, seems I was wrong. You and Cole are the same age."
"Really?" Terinda forgot all about what happened, "So, you think he would be interested?"
Allowing the events to drift from her mind as well, she said, "Well, I don't know, I can give you his number. Or, I can have Leo ask him."
"Yeah do that, I don't want to call him out of the blue, he would think I was a stalker or something."
"Ok, I will ask him. Hey do you wanna go grab a bite to eat? I'm hungry, and there's not a lot here. I'm running on a bagel."
"Yeah, we're taking my car though."
Fiona smiled. "Sounds good, let's go."
Terinda headed out and Fiona followed, as she grabbed the key to lock the door, she heard Aces familiar bark.
"Ace?" She whispered.
She opened her door and saw Ace barking furiously in the living room, before she could step inside, the puppy sprinted into the dining room and through the wall. He was gone again.
"Hey, you coming, what's wrong?"
Fiona shut the door and locked it. "Nothing, I'm coming."
She quickly headed to her sister.