Irene was engrossed in work, working out website and corporate design proposal for a new client, and loving it. Just another quick mockup of that idea that had sparkled surprisingly like fresh snow in summer, for an additional suggestion, and—
A knock on the office door ripped her out of her thoughts. Her husband, of course. Nobody else to be expected when working from home. Irene gave him a smile and cracked her neck while she was turning away from the screen, anyway. “What’s up?”
“Marayal is here?”
“Oh, is it that late already!” Irene bit her lip, tempted to ask for just five more minutes, or maybe ten, but then saved her work and shut down the computer, while her husband let in the local witch. Irene apologised.
“No problem, it’s why I’m here, after all.” Marayal pulled up the chair for visitors so she could reach the desk, and set a silvery bottle on the latter. “Any particularly interesting projects in the works?”
Irene started talking about the startup that had hired her to come up with their corporate design, and was so far surprisingly pleasant to work with, and her fingers started itching and the back of her mind nibbling on details again, wanting to go back to it.
Marayal gestured a little, like catching cobwebs too fine to see from the air.
It was a familiar ritual by now. Irene relaxed while Marayal pulled out her focus and drive for work, of which she had an unhealthy amount, and somehow stored it away for someone else to use.
When the process was finished and Marayal stoppered the bottle, she asked, “And, any fun plans for the weekend?”
Irene stretched her arms up and back, enjoying how, with her mind slowed down, she could actually feel her body. “We went hiking last time, so we’ll probably stay in. That’s right, time for a movie binge.”
“Sounds great!” Marayal slid over paperwork for a signature, to document the transfer.
Everything handled, Irene walked Marayal to the door. “I really can’t thank you enough. You’re probably saving my marriage.”
“I hope you’ll get a better handle of things so my kind of help won’t be necessary, but if not, well, redistribution helps more than one person. See you next time!”
Taking the reminder as cue to make a note for next week to stop putting off reading the book her therapist had recommended, Irene went to the kitchen for a leisurely, shared dinner.