Chapter 1

Basil circles around the apartment looking for the perfect place to take a nap. He tries to reach a sunny spot in the corner, but there are too many plants blocking the way.

Lucky for Matthew, he doesn’t like nibbling on plants. Things could be very different with another cat. The desk could also be an option, but there are just too many of Matthew’s little toys on it. Then, he finds the perfect spot. Matthew’s work chair. It’s not often empty, so he takes the opportunity. Basil massages the seat and lies down, ready for his morning slumber. He yawns and closes his eyes.

“Basil, move! I gotta work,” Matthew says, slightly irritated.

Matthew gently signs to the floor, but Basil doesn’t move.

“Okay, you can keep the seat.”

Matthew gently moves his desk chair to a sunny spot. Basil purrs in gratitude.

Matthew opens the door to his tiny balcony and drags a chair to the front of his desk. He sits and opens his laptop.

“Another day in the wonderful world of health insurance”, he whispers to himself.

He checks his calendar — empty. His eyes light up. No small talk today.

He clicks play, and lofi music fills the room. He opens his coding software and his hands type quickly. He pauses to think, spinning his black fidget ring, then keeps typing.

A notification pops up — it’s his boss.

“Hey! Can you jump on a quick call?”

Matthew groans. He stops to think, spinning his ring again.

He types "Sorry, I'm busy", then deletes.

He types "Maybe in 30 min?", then deletes.

He groans again, then types "Sure, what's up?"

A call comes in through the computer. It's his manager, Janet.

Matthew forces a smile.

“Good morning, Matthew! How's my favorite developer doing today?” Janet greets.

“Morning, Janet! I'm your only developer…”

“Exactly! How was your weekend?”

Matthew spins his fidget ring. He is starting to get nervous, but Janet can’t tell. He is great at masking.

“It was good... I didn't do much. How about yours?”

“It was great! I had a wedding Saturday night which was a lot of fun and…”

Matthew starts to zone out and fidget the ring faster.

Basil gets up from the sunny spot and lies on his lap. Matthew takes a deep breath and relaxes a bit.

“Matthew?”

“Yes?”

“I think I lost you for a bit. I asked if you are free Friday morning?”

“I think so, why?”

“Great! I'll send you a meeting invite for our Q3 planning session. Please prep some slides to present with the main KPIs for Q2 and your highlights for Q3.”

“KP what?”

“KPIs, Matthew! Your key performance indicators for the past 3 months. Like website traffic, success rate, engagement rate, bounce rate…”

“Wait, I need to write this down!”

“Don't worry, everything is on the meeting invite! There, I sent it already.”

A notification dings and startles Basil, who gets off Matthew's lap. Matthew starts to spin his ring again.

“Ok, got it.”, he replies nervously.

“By the way, the CEO will be there! No biggie”, Janet announces casually.

“Wait, what?”

“I gotta jump on another meeting. See you!”

Janet hangs up. Matthew stares at the screen, motionless. He spins his ring in silence. After a few seconds, he presses play again, and a few seconds after that, he takes a deep breath and opens the email.

Matthew searches for more details, but the body of the email is completely empty. He refreshes the window, but still there’s nothing there. There are no details or information about the slides he needs to create. He presses reload multiple times, but still there’s nothing there.

He tries to message Janet, but she is already offline. Sigh.

“It’s ok, I have two more days to make this work”, he thinks to himself.

Matthew goes to the kitchen to prepare some tea while he tries to calm down. He pours water on the electric kettle and gets a bag of chamomile tea. He definitely doesn’t need any caffeine in his system today.

While the water boils, he moves his chair back to his desk, since Basil is now nowhere to be seen. He then brings the spare chair back to the balcony to keep things tidy.

The tea starts to boil, so Matthew serves himself and gets back to his desk.

He opens his planner and writes down “Message Janet about the Q3 meeting” under “Wednesday”.

He then gets back to coding - but Friday’s meeting stays on his mind the whole day.

By 6 p.m., Matthew realizes he has a headache. He was so focused he skipped lunch, didn’t drink any water, and is overdue to go to the bathroom.

“Well, I guess this is it for today.”

He closes his laptop, stretches his sore back, and grabs a glass of water.

He is too tired to cook, so he decides to order some Korean food from his favorite restaurant.

While waiting for the food, he takes a shower to relax. But his mind is still on Friday’s meeting. “What if I make a fool of myself?”

As he gets out of the shower, he hears Basil meowing at the door. The food must have arrived!

He puts on his pajamas and excitedly opens the door to grab the takeout.

As he opens the bag, his excitement immediately disappears.

They messed up his order.

Instead of the warm soon tofu soup he ordered, he got cold sashimi. Matthew hates sashimi.

“Well, I guess you are in luck today Basil”

He places some pieces of sashimi on his bowl, and throws the rest on a garbage bag in his freezer. Matthew likes to store his compostable garbage in the freezer to prevent any unpleasant smells in the house.

While Basil is feasting, Matthew grabs some soy milk and cereal as a sad dinner alternative.

He lies down on the sofa to eat, and Basil gladly joins him.

After a busy day, he only has energy to numbly browse social media until it’s time to go to sleep.