At a little past six the next morning I was heading to my car when my phone began vibrating. I juggled my coffee, notes for the meeting and my purse without much success attempting to get to my phone. This acrobatic like act caused not only the caller to be sent to voicemail but, my coffee to spill down the front of my favorite light purple blouse and white skirt. To top off the whole fiasco, my painstakingly organized notes for this morning’s meeting were now strewn on the mud soaked ground as well. I stood there placing my pointer finger and thumb over eyes trying to take deep breaths to keep a scream of frustration from escaping when the cause of all the mischief started going off again.

Bzzz. Bzzz. Bzzz. I grabbed my purse that had also taken a tumble, and pulled my phone out to see that it was my boss, Mandy. I felt the pressure of a building geyser of anger in my mind, what could she want now? I quickly answered, knowing it had to be important for her to be calling so early but not wanting to deal with her personality right now.

“Angelik! Are you there? Did I get your stupid voicemail again?” She sounded a bit congested and not quite herself.

“Yes, I am here. What is going on Mandy?” I answered a bit short, letting my aggravation at the morning events and lack of sleep show.

“Why didn’t you answer earlier? You know what, never mind. Have you left home yet?” She asks ignoring my flare of temper.

“No, as a matter of fact, I might be a little late. I had a minor bit of clumsiness this morning and I will have to ch…”

“Good. Don’t worry about coming in.” She interrupted. She started coughing at this point and I had to wait for her to continue, tapping my foot while staring at my mess of notes. “Sorry about that. Most of us that had gone to New York seemed to have come down with something. So, as a precaution with flu season and all, we thought it was best to disinfect the building.”

“What about the meeting with the overseas client today? I stayed home to work on it for the past two days. I don’t want to miss this meeting Mandy. I have put in a lot of time on this project.” I was sounding like a petulant child and I knew it. But damn it, I was supposed to be one of the leads for this and I wanted the recognition for once.

“Didn’t I tell you not to come in today? The meeting was cancelled anyways. Word is the clients are sick too. Guess the flu hits everyone. We will have to reschedule it.” I could almost picture her pinching her forehead while speaking to me on the phone. “I will make sure you get paid for today and all the work you did, so don’t worry about that. Spend some time with those kids of yours or something.” I could hear the disgust in her voice at the mention of my children. She met them once several years ago at a company party. Samuel called her a ‘pretentious jerk’. I scolded him, but truth be told I couldn’t help but be proud of him for hitting it on the mark and saying what I could not. “I will see you on Monday.” I heard her say as she ended the call, breaking me out of the memory.

Most were more than happy to have a three day weekend, I however was not. I had been in the house for two days working. I needed some time away, an escape from here, to actually go to work. I tended to get a bit of cabin fever with the kids going to school today, Lexi more than likely would have work so I would be left to my own devices. I had finished cleaning yesterday, even with the surprise clean-up in the game room, I had nothing to do.

I began picking up my notes that were ruined now; thankful I kept back-ups just in case and went back into the house to clean my shirt. Hopeful that the day would improve but the moment I walked into the house I realized it only just begun. I just had no idea how bad it would be.