With a stifled gasp, Nicole pushed back her desk chair and got up stiffly from her seat to rub her now numb butt. Wryly shaking her head, she grimaced as the deluge of pins and needles assailed her from, what felt like, head to toe. As the annoying prickling tingles attacked her lower limbs, she took a few stumbling steps from her worktop and gingerly stretched her foot en pointe in the vain hope that the uncomfortable needle-like sensation would soon dissipate. As it began to wane, she sighed gratefully and wandered over to the first of the three windows in the farthest corner of the room.

She'd tried to make this room as comfortable and pleasing to the eye as possible and to a point, she'd actually succeeded. The entire office was calming and soothing, free from clutter and prepared for the work she had to do.

The room was square shaped and while blandly painted in a dark beige and sparsely furnished, its focal point was the three windows on the east wall. The plainness of the room was accentuated by the lush views of the outside world, but the two complimented each other. The simplicity of the atmosphere didn't detract from the earthy garden. Looking out on to a leafy yard, filled with trees and old oaks, it was a perfectly lovely view and one she appreciated immensely.

Red leaves fluttered to the ground, autumn having turned the once bright green foliage to a more somber shade. Really, the yard needed raking, but a part of her loved the messiness of it. It reminded her of being in a park and kicking her way through the deep piles of leaves.

Sighing, Nicole realized she hadn't done anything so playful or childlike in a very long time. A part of her longed to go outside and make angel shapes on the loamy ground, but she held back.

Was this why Joe had sought succor from another, younger woman?

Was it because she was boring?

As the pins and needles abated, she flexed her muscles a little and sighed again. Glaring mutinously out of the window, she march out of her office and down the hall. Opening the door, she let it bang unheeded against the wall and marched outside. With a cry of laughter, feeling exuberant about giving in to the urge she'd had before, she launched herself into the huge pile of leaves and began to move her arms and legs to create an angel.

Angel now completed, she lay in the disbanded pile of leaves for a moment. Staring upwards through the densely packed branches, she saw the bright blue sky and the gleaming pure white clouds that mocked the season. It was hard to believe that it was autumn.

She supposed that this was one of the perks of working at home. All her family believed her to have a quaint job and to a point, they were correct. It was convenient, but still damned hard work. Just because she didn't have to work from 9-5 they considered her job to be less of a pain. They considered it to be less of a chore--hardly deserving to be considered work. Working irregular hours didn't mean that she never had to work. She still had to put the same amount of hours into her job. It was impossible telling them that though. They were stuck in their ways and refused to see her work as a real job.

At this moment in time though, she didn't care. For the first time in a long while, she took advantage of the fact that she didn't have to work from 9-5, that she could work when she wanted to. Perhaps it was about time that she stopped listening to her family and started listening to herself. That thought made her snort in self-disgust. She was far too much of a wimp to cut the apron strings. Her family worked on the principle that what Mama wanted, Mama got. What Mama believed, be it true or false, was always correct. A true matriarch, Nicole's mother would never allow her to cut the family ties.