Another Waiting Game • •

[casimir quintus donmoyer]

Casimir didn’t mind Mondays so much. He knew people grumbled and complained when the weekend ended and they were forced back to the money earning ways of the nine to five, but he was alright with it. He got up as easily on a Monday morning as he did any other day of the week. He could be in different places depending on his schedule and business arrangements, so his routine was constantly adapting and changing to suit those appointments. Today he had left at a comfortably early hour and then headed to the Starbucks on the corner of the block where his apartment building was situated. He ordered his regular decaf latte to go and grabbed a croissant for breakfast. He had had a bowl of oatmeal in his apartment while waking up, but he had a large appetite. Many times he had explained it was down to his extraordinary height. He loomed over pretty much everyone he met, standing awkwardly at 7ft. Awkwardly, because often he had to duck through doorways and there had been a few offices where he had been forced to stoop like he was actually some kind of behemoth giant. His height was certainly eye catching, possibly the only physical characteristic of his that made him stand out. He was used to people staring at him whenever he entered a room or a building, so by the age of thirty he was completely at ease with it, even able to forget that it was happening.

After his coffee stop, Casimir made his way downtown to his office to pick up the mail that had arrived over the weekend, and to sort through any messages on his machine or emails that had collected in his inbox. He ran his own small firm, but he wasn’t the type of man who brought his work home with him on the weekends. Once he was finished on a Friday then everything was untouched until Monday morning again. The weekends, and most evenings, were when Cas got to relax, unwind, and do the things he enjoyed in life. He didn’t want to work himself into an early grave, or work so much that he grew to dislike the career path he had chosen for himself.

Casimir checked that he had everything he needed for the meeting he had that morning. His laptop was charged and in his bag, and he had the folder filled with printed copies of the contracts and e-mails that had been sent to him in preparation of the appointment. Once he was sure he had everything, Casimir left his office and moved along with the sea of pedestrians to the address he had been given in every correspondence with the CEO who had contacted him in the first place. He liked working with different companies on a semi-regular basis. It was nice to meet new people, learn how differently operations could be run, and find what else was going on out there in the world. He gave his name in at the reception when he arrived and was immediately directed to the sixth floor. Casimir rode the elevator with four other silent men, ignoring their shocked and curious glances in his direction. He stepped out of the elevator and once again gave his name to the reception desk. This time he was told to take a seat, but he was sitting for barely ten seconds before someone came, shook his hand and took him along to a large meeting room where other people began filing in.

This was just a preliminary meeting. That meant there were a lot of introductions, some small talk, and people asking questions about roles and the paperwork that had been issued to them all. Casimir had been here countless times before, but he was relieved when they took a break for coffee and for one guy to call his own business partner about their personal investments in the matter. Casimir knew they’d reconvene and it would be back to bouncing questions around, arguing points and trying to get to the next stage of the proposal. He was only there for warn against any or all financial risks and how they could or would pay off. He still needed to be there to understand all the potential variables in the project. He opted to avoid the coffee and fetched himself a glass of water, sipping it and leaning back against one of the columns in the room. He was thankful for the chance to stretch his long limbs, since furniture rarely catered for those few who reached his literal height.

• • •

TAGGED! Barclay Kairi Murdoch
WORDS! 769!
LYRICS! For Those Whose Wait - - - Fireflight
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[Barclay Kairi Murdoch]

Bar woke up that Monday morning just like every other one. She rolled out of bed and offered herself up to the usual cocktail of morning routine mixed with the speech she gave herself every morning since the diagnosis. She was more than a word, she was more than what people thought. She was brilliant and funny and worth just as much as anyone else. She was not someone to be ignored, underestimated or belittled. Then she hopped in a quick shower, dressed and ate breakfast with the roommate from hell on Monday mornings before heading off to the office. She adored her roommate, they'd been stuck together since their first day of college and nothing had changed since then; including her hatred for Monday mornings but that could be in part that she'd had that god awful eight am class first thing Monday morning but that, of course, could also be just an excuse. Bar liked routine and hated when things changed without notice. She'd been hoping for a regular week at the office but she'd also forgotten until she got there that there'd been a big meeting set for the first thing that morning.

Barclay had been working towards coming to terms with her new reality because it was her reality and there was no hiding from that. At least at work, she could hide away in her office, just do her job and no one bothered her because she was one of the people in charge of the finances. She was lucky that her friends and family didn't treat her any differently after the diagnosis. She hadn't changed, she was still the same girl she had always been, there was just a special name attached to her quirky personality. But she still wasn't great with change, even when it's something she herself had forgotten about because then she blamed herself for being foolish for forgetting it; even if it wasn't anyone's fault. She had been prepared, of course, but that had not stopped her from being a little hard on herself through the whole meeting process that morning.

She was pleased, however, when the meeting was over or was it just a break? She needed to escape that room and go back to her tidy office and the small stack of files that needing sorting. The only reason she was in that meeting was that she had climbed the ranks to junior executive rather quickly, and knew more about how the finances of the business worked better than her seniors; all thanks to her ASD and need to know everything about what she was doing and being the best at it. Just in case it was just a short break, she had been lost in her own thoughts while everyone else bounced around questions like a ball, she popped into her office to get the tea she brought in for herself. She kept it in her office because she'd found teabags missing from the box and no one had asked her permission, despite her name being on the box. Her assistant asked her and she had no problem at all sharing but she preferred to be asked first. It was anarchy otherwise and Barclay liked things to be in order. When she made her way into the small kitchenette, one of the men from the meeting was in there leaning on the counter. She hadn't been paying attention to him before, lost in her own notes and thoughts to pay much attention to what was going on but she got the basics of it all. "So, if this is happening, it looks like we'll be working together." She finally said after having to talk herself into opening her damn mouth while adding water to the kettle and turning it on. She'd been like that even as a child though. People always thought she was just shy or just didn't know what to say. The truth was she wasn't shy exactly, it was that she got caught up in her head, trying to string the right words together before she said them out loud. By the time, she figured out what she wanted to say, the conversation had moved on and she just dropped it.

♦ ♦ ♦

TAG; casimir quintus donmoyer
WORDS; 707
LYRICS; Wildlife --Cole Swindell
NOTES; <3

[casimir quintus donmoyer]

Owning his own business was rather rewarding. There was no need to fight others for attention or for better clients. He had also discovered that by having a small team work for him, they were able to offer clients more of their time and attention. He liked being able to dedicate more of himself to a company, rather than correspond through endless e-mails and missed calls while running around sorting something else out. Of course, there was always someone calling or trying to get him attention when he was busy with a different business arrangement, but Casimir was good at keeping free time in his diary just in case someone desperately needed to see him. If no one did, then he got to sit in his office and do the admin stuff that he probably couldn’t pay anyone else to do. It was general things, like ensuring the bill for the cleaner’s supplies was taken care of or checking off a health and safety inspection that typically just wanted to make sure the computers didn’t have wires trailing across the office floor. It was menial, but it had to be done and Cas was pretty good at keeping on top of it, even if it meant he stayed behind for an hour or two some evenings.

He was pretty good at keeping a line between his work and personal life. Cas turned his phone off on the weekends and left it off until Monday morning when he was back in the office. He had always told himself that if there was some kind of financial collapse on the weekend then he would relent and go to work, but he knew that he would likely have more warning if things got that dire. He hoped it never would happen, since he cared a great deal about his clients and their interests. He just also knew that he had to care about the other relationships in his life, too. Even a phone call or a drink with a friend could go a long way in this age of social media and ambitious careers. Cas didn’t want to wake up one morning and find out that he had spent too much time working and missed out on all the good stuff life had promised him when he was younger.

He sipped from his glass of water before realising that the young woman was talking to him. “Hm? Oh yes, I suppose we will!” He smiled, glancing around the room to take stock of the people in there. So many suits and number talk, and yet Casimir was still often surprised that he was part of this world. “I don’t know about you, but I think it’s going well so far.” There had been no resistance from either side, no red flags to warn Cas to keep away from the business, and from what he could tell everyone seemed eager to get these papers signed and to go further with their spoken plans. He hoped this would be the start of a prosperous relationship for both parties.

• • •

TAGGED! Barclay Kairi Murdoch
WORDS! 517!
LYRICS! For Those Whose Wait - - - Fireflight
NOTES! <3 <3 <3