Emily unlocked the door to her tiny studio apartment, then swung the door open and was greeted by an excited meow. She smiled and crouched, giving the bobtailed cat a scratch before setting down her tote and shutting the door.
Another long day. There were too many days like this, days where she worked from sunrise until well after sunset. When she had first landed the position, she had been told that she would be working a regular 9-to-5 with an occasional late night. However, that occasional late night had turned into a regular occurance. If not for the fact that she needed this job, she would have long since quit.
She opened the cupboard next to the refrigerator and dug to the back, pulling out an opaque, blue mason jar. She popped the top open and smiled. The jar held her savings, nearly $3000 at this point, and was her ticket out of her dead-end job. She made this week's deposit, another $150, then placed the jar back into the cupboard.
Just one more month, maybe two, and she could start looking for a new job. Something better, something with regular hours and better pay and a boss who wouldn't berate her endlessly. She was tempted to start looking now, to just throw caution into the wind and start submitting her résumé, but she knew her boss would catch wind of it. Maria would fire her on the spot if she found out she was looking for another job.
Emily collapsed into her favorite chair and Kitcat immediately jumped into her lap, purring loudly and rubbing her face against Emily's. She smiled and cuddled the fluffy feline, allowing her stress to fade.
Soon, things would finally change for the better.
This prompt was provided by @mariannewest and can be found here.
Image sourced from Pixabay.
