Imperfect

Party Hard

I was late home from work again. I knew Fin would be irritated but I was elbow deep in some major quality issues. I had even bought some paperwork home to look through. I pulled up to the drive and tapped the code in. The heavy iron gate sprung into action and creaked open slowly. I managed to squeeze through and it began closing behind me. It sounded old and tired. Just how I felt lately. I parked in the garage and closed the door. I turned the car off and sat for a few seconds. I massaged my temples with my fingertips and leaned back against the soft fabric of my chair.

"Come on Claire, you have dinner to cook." I muttered to myself. I opened the door and stepped out of the car. I grabbed the stack of paperwork from the back seat and walked into the house. Mr Boots came running up to me and began meowing loudly. "Fin?" I called loudly. No response. I walked through to the kitchen and placed my paperwork on the counter top. I grabbed Mr Boots' food from the fridge and emptied it into his bowl. He began eating ravenously. Fin definitely hadn't fed him yet. He was so irresponsible lately and it was driving me crazy. There were dirty dishes in the sink. I didn't know why it was so difficult to rinse a plate off and put it into the dishwasher. Not only that but the counters were covered in crumbs, and food scraps. My patience was running very thin. After twelve hours at work I could really do without this.

By the time I was finished cleaning the kitchen, and picking up all the clothes Finley had strewn around the bedroom it was nine. My stomach growled so loudly I was sure something was living in there.

"Too late to cook now Claire." I said out loud to myself. Where the hell was Finley? I sent him a message

Fin. Don't worry I've cleaned all your crap up, oh and fed Boots. Where the hell are you and what time will you be home? You know I worry when you disappear without letting me know... whatever you're going through I'm here for you.

Even though I was angry at him, I still cared. It had become obvious something was happening to Fin that I didn't know about. He was moody, distant, and barely spoke to me at the moment. It was part of the reason I was spending so much time at work. I walked back down to the kitchen and grabbed my favourite chinese takeaway menu. I settled on a vegetable chow mein and some crispy vegan duck. I grabbed my paperwork from the kitchen and flopped down onto the sofa. I flicked the television on for some background noise and began sifting through the reports and results from all the measurements we had taken. One of our parts was drifting outside the drawing spec, and we were struggling to find the source of the problem. The CNC program was the same, the tooling was correct, and the machine had been checked. The product however was still falling outside specification. The customer had rejected our last two batches of parts and were now screaming for us to fix the problem.

I was so engrossed in my work, that when the bell for the gate went I nearly hit the ceiling with how high I jumped. I buzzed the gate open and quickly walked to the door. I was wearing an oversized hoodie and some tight bike shorts. My hair had been scraped into a messy bun and I was sure I looked like a homeless young boy. I didn't care though. I opened the door and took the bag of incredible smelling food from the man on the other side. I gave him a tip and close the door. I buzzed the gate open and closed again, allowing him to exit. I wandered into the kitchen, leaving my paperwork strewn all over the couch and coffee table. I placed the bag on the counter and grabbed myself a fork. I was so hungry I could have eaten a ten course meal. I opened the containers and delicious smelling steam wafted into my face. I smiled and began tucking into the delicious vegan food. Mr Boots meowed at me from the floor.

"No Boots, I'll give you a treat once I'm finished." I told him. He continued meowing for around half a minute, but gave up when he realised I wasn't going to give up my food. I ate around three quarters of the chow mein, and around a quarter of the crispy duck. I sat back in my chair and patted my stomach. It was now visibly bloated, and I had eaten way too much. I stretched slightly and checked my watch. It was now quarter past ten. I still had around two hours of work to get through before I could go to bed. I cleaned away my takeaway and put the dishwasher on. I placed the leftovers into the very sparse looking refrigerator. I made a mental note to go shopping. I closed the door and got Boots one of his disgusting dried meat smelling treats. I gave it to him and went back into the lounge. I sat down and immediately immersed myself in the monthly quality figures.