Lucia reacted with a start as his hand thudded against her door.  Her brain frantically went into panic mode, could she remember the class on self defense at the Y she took when she was 8?  What were those single women tips again?  She did her best to keep her face blank as instead of pushing his way in he handed her back her twenty and a business card.  She looked at the business card flicking it with her finger.  It was of a decent weight, and embossed rather than printed.  It was a trick they had been taught in school.  When you were in emergency services, a lot of people tried to scam, so they taught them to look for official cards.  Well shit... she thought to herself.  It seemed like he might actually be the real deal.  

She allowed the door to swing open as she absorbed the words he said to her.  She couldn't for the life of her imagine why Erik Willmer of all people wanted to meet with her.  She had been applying for every emergency service job she came across, maybe there was an opening on one of his advisory boards or something.  How long would it take her to get ready?  She took a deep breath and did a quick mental calculation.  5 minutes to grab clothes, another 5 to shower, 5 to actually dress.  Doing her hair would be nice, but that could take upwards of 20 minutes.  She was better off grabbing a brush and doing it on the road.  She added up the time she would need in her head and looked at him.  "18 minutes."  She said confidently.  

It was an oddly specific number, but that was another thing she had learned was important.  Most people would have rounded the number to 20, or padded their estimate, but when the world was falling apart, those two minutes meant a lot.  Lives were lost or saved in two minutes.  On average it took the human brain between two and four minutes to begin the process of neural death when deprived of oxygen.  She looked at him once more before pushing the door wide open.  "Make yourself comfortable"  She said as she turned around and headed back towards her bedroom.  She was now much more wide awake, but she was definitely going to take him up on his offer of coffee when they left here. 

She shut the bedroom door behind her and starting her own mental clock she rushed into the tiny bathroom, her ex hated staying here because of this bathroom.  He said it was the kind where you could 'shit shower and shave' all at the same time.  It was moments like this, when she was in a rush that she was thankful for it.  She turned on the shower with one hand while she grabbed her toothbrush and toothpaste with the other.  She set the items on the small shelf and stripped out of her clothes letting out a shriek as she got in the still cold shower.   She was not unused to cold showers, sometimes with her current work load it was all she had time for if she wanted to wash the stench of stale cigarette smoke and old beer off between work and school.   She took a very quick shower.  She wet down her hair but didn't have time to wash it.  She decided a quick spritz of perfume would not go amiss as the smoke smell clung to every strand.  


She shut off the shower and grabbed an old threadbare towel roughly drying her skin as she moved from the bathroom into her tiny bedroom.  She knew exactly what to wear, because she always kept a nice suit ready for interviews.  She wiggled herself into her underwear and bra hating that she hadn't been more careful in drying herself.  She pulled on the black slacks cursing silently as they caught on her thighs.  She slipped her arms into the white button up shirt hanging next to it.  She buttoned the buttons quickly as she shoved her feet into a pair of black slip on shoes.  She grabbed her suit jacket and small toiletry bag with her hair brush and travel perfume.   She tossed the jacket over her arm and headed for her bedroom door.  She decided at the last minute against using perfume on her hair.  Her hairspray was scented and would work in this case. 

She opened the door and walked out to the living room as she was tucking in her shirt. The white shirt had already been a little on the thin side, but now it was verging on being transparent because it stuck to her still damp skin. Her dark curly hair laying wet and limp down her back. She grabbed her toiletry bag with her teeth while she slid on her suit jacket.  The suit was nice, and at one time had been very expensive.  Most people wouldn't realize that it was more than a few years old, but the black on black pinstripes, and the way the buttons sat would clue in those who knew better that this suit was definitely no longer top of the line. 

 She brushed past him to get to her backpack she yanked it open and slid out a leather folio, keys, a watch that looked like it would be more at home on the wrist of a US Marine than her own somewhat dainty one and a pair of large dark sunglasses. She hated going out in the bright sunlight before she was fully awake.  She slid the sunglasses on her head, the keys in her pocket, slipped her hand through the loosely buckled watch and tucked the folio under her arm.  She looked at her watch as she tightened the strap.  She started muttering softly as she ran through her list. "Brush."  She said touching her small bag, "Sunglasses, keys, watch,"  She murmured as her hands went to her head, pocket and wrist.  "ID, cab fare, calendar.  Yup yup yup."  She looked up at the ceiling running through the list.  "Cell phone."  She patted her other pocket and then frowned. "And we have a runner... phone phone phone"  she chanted silently as she dumped her back pack out on the couch to find the missing item. 

If Serge thought her apartment was a mess, nothing would prepare him for the contents of her backpack spread all over the couch.  Thankfully there was no food in there, but it was filled with coins, and crumpled bills that rolled everywhere as she began sorting through the rubble of her life.  There were broken pencils, leaking pens, notebooks that looked like they had been dragged behind a city bus. She didn't care where they landed as she dug through the mess until she found her phone.  She tucked that into the pocket opposite her keys and looked at him with another one of her genuine smiles.  "Ready when you are."  

Lucia's mind had not settled through any of this rush to prepare.  First of all did the goon sent to pick her up have to be so damn good looking? Her mind demanded.  She normally couldn't care less what she looked like, but knowing that the amazingly put together and handsome man at her door had seen her at what was almost certainly her worst was disconcerting.  Her only hope was that her speed and efficiency in preparing to leave would impress him enough that he would forget exactly how horrible she looked this morning.  She also hoped it would distract from the chaos of her apartment.  It wasn't that she hated to clean... ok, so cleaning fell nowhere near the top of her list of favorite things to do, but she didn't normally let it get this bad.  She had been working doubles in addition to trying to keep up with her classes, and prepare the proposal for her thesis.