“Can I just go on record saying this is a bad idea?”

“Worse than signing him in the first place?”

“Mm, it kind of falls under this ubiquitous umbrella of bad ideas. An ouroboros of bad ideas, even. Just expounding one bad idea onto another in a vicious cycle.” The flat humorless tone of Harris’s voice made the corner of Murina’s mouth tug into a half grin, half sneer. She adjusted the wireless device hooked around her pink ear.

“Alright, I get it,” she sighed, pulling up a few files on her work computer, making notes in her paperwork. Harris’s dogged resistance to anything related to the draft prospect from Toxteth had been a mild buzzing compared to how much he hawed about her decision to take this trip to England. She tried to explain that it was procedure for her to visit her clients’ home towns, that she was missing out on valuable and important information by not examining him in his “natural habitat”. Besides, she had said, she needed to make sure he’s still on track.

“Look, I understand your need to follow your process, but don’t you think you can pass on this one? The Rozich article aside, it is a well-documented fact that that place is not an area you want to be alone in, much less an outsider.”

“I won’t be alone. I’ll be with Alphonse.” She knew that would rub Harris the wrong way, smirking when he groaned in frustration.

“Besides,” she continued, “This will give me more material for my promotions. Everyone loves a hard-luck story, and I have a feeling I can spin this like a top selling record. I’m not an idiot, Harris, I know this guy is bad news in Toxteth. I’ve seen what they’ve been writing since that article was published. But if I can get to the root of the problem, it will benefit him and his chances in the FBA.” The silence that followed aggravated Murina, making her sigh and press the spot between her brows with her fingertips to relieve the ache.

“I still think you should let me come with you.”

“Give me a break, Harris. You don’t need to hold my hand through this stuff anymore. Look, I’m staying at a real nice hotel in a safe area of Liverpool. I don’t plan on being there after dark. I’m a rat. I’m there to help. You’re presence there would be like poking a bee hive, anyway.”

“Will you at least humor me with some daily reports? Looking over your data always seems to pacify me.” Another flat bit of wit that Muri feigned a chuckle at.

“I’ll make sure to call you when I get in before curfew, Dad.”

“Don’t do that. It makes me feel old.”

“You want to grab breakfast before I catch my flight tomorrow?”

“You mean, do you want to bribe me with omelets and mimosas in exchange for dropping you off at the airport? You know me too well.”

“It’s my job to know the people I work with,” she gave one final jab in favor of her trip. “See you at seven.”

With the call ended, Murina removed the earpiece and fell back into her chair. “Anna?” she called out, and her door quickly opened to her firm’s smiling cheetah receptionist.

“Ready?” the perky feline chirped, poking her head in before Muri nodded. She slid into the seat in front of the large desk, clipboard of papers and schedules in her lap, as Muri brought up new files on her monitor and flipped open a small planner. With the regular season over, and her draft prospects for next season secured, she needed to only tie up a few loose ends before her trip and make sure that her schedule was on track for her return.

“Ok. I need to contact Mr. Brine’s financial advisor when I come back. Schedule a conference call with them. I need to talk about some of his spending habits over the season, and make sure he’s aware of his limitations during the off season.”

The cheetah nodded, making note on the cover sheet of her stack of papers, flipping to another page to check the schedule. “A week after your return OK?”

“That’s a Wednesday, right?” Murina glanced at her monitor, tapping the pen in hand on the glass desk surface.

“Yes.” The cheetah continued to write, knowing Murina would agree. She nodded in approval as Anna expected.

“You still have an outstanding meeting to schedule with Mr. Mahi?” Anna flipped to the next page, continuing to write. Murina winced a little, but continued to cycle through her files on her computer, glancing at her own small planner to confirm.

“I’m going to give him a call when I land, but go ahead and book a flight to Biloxi for me for…” She glanced down at her planner, flipping through the pages. “Three days after my Brine meeting.” The cheetah nodded, her writing finally slowing as Murina once again closed out of her computer for good, stretching her arms and smiling.

“I think that’s all. The rest can wait until I get back.” Murina leaned down to grab her shoulder bag, sliding a few documents and discs into its already crowded interior, until the cheetah leaned forward, piping up to get her attention.

“Oh, one more thing. I have here that you wanted to keep the Monday you’re gone open for something you didn’t specify. Says you scheduled it earlier in the year? Did you still need that date open, even though you’ll be out of the country?”

That made Murina freeze in mid-motion, as instantaneous as a pause button. For a moment, Murina was halted by the uneasy feeling she had forgotten something important. That feeling suddenly intensified when she realized what it was. She closed her eyes slowly, sighing away the dip in her gut as she turned back to her desk, flipping open the small planner.

The pages were packed. Scribbles on top of scribbles, in different colored pens and highlighter marks. It was practically in a language all its own, seeming more like cyphers in a mystic tome than the mad rambling notes of an excessively busy sports agent. Some did not understand why she kept notes and schedules this way, opting for the more tedious analog way of doing things over the clean efficiency of digital technology. She insisted she remembered things better when she wrote them down by hand, though most would speculate it’s just another part of her slightly obsessive personality. The several days she’s to be gone were just as cluttered with notes and schedule points as all the other days in her planner, written and rewritten over one another. For the Monday she was to be gone, in the corner smudged away in pencil, hidden by more important frantic scrawling was the source of the meaningless gap in her agency’s schedule.

One word, practically faded away: Gavin.

Murina paused, only her whiskers flinching, as she looked at the small word. She remembered when she wrote it, and she remembered why. She didn’t want to add it to her schedule those months ago, but she wrote the date down out of habit, and only habit. Somehow, it made its way into her work schedule, perhaps to make sure her appointments matched, perhaps on the off chance she might go or even perhaps out of some small sense of obligation. She would have preferred it go by unnoticed, but she realized her keen organizational skills were not going to let that happen.

She realized she was looking at the page for longer than necessary, the receptionist keeping her pen poised to write or strike the schedule.

“Should I move it to a different day?” she asked, not knowing what the gap was for. It snapped Murina back to attention as she looked up from the book.

“Hmm? Oh. No, remove it from the schedule.” Murina slapped the well-worn planner shut, tucking the thought of the appointment she had no intention of keeping away with it. The cheetah nodded softly, sensing something heavy had once filled that empty space, but smiled up at Muri nonetheless.

“OK, that’s it!” Anna chirped again, getting up from the seat as Murina did and nodded to the rat. “Have a safe flight Murina and I’ll see you when you get back.”

Muri favored her with a similar polite smile, letting it fade once the slender cat closed the door upon her exit. The black rat slowly melted forward, bracing her knuckles against the desk, her head hung. She told herself she was too busy for it. It couldn’t be helped. Her schedule was packed. Somehow that seemed to be a less heartless excuse than the truth. That she could only deal with one thug right now and that was Alfie.