I’m staring at the legal paper in my hand.

It is done.

I am now a 35 year old officially divorced woman.

Sigh.

It was not a messy process - we just grew apart over the last couple of years.

That happens.

13 years ago, we married and founded a company.

He was - and still is - a creative genius, while I have the business sense and guts to turn his creations into gold.

We are now both filthy rich.

After we sold the company as part of our divorce, we were double filthy rich.

Because of the marriage contract we had made, everything was split fairly 50/50.

Yeah, not very romantic, a marriage contract, but we are both intensely pragmatic - probably why we were attracted to each other to start with.

Now I was standing in the almost empty bachelor apartment of the building I bought this summer - I had chosen it because it had a vacant apartment, and because it was in a port town.

A simple desk in the dark side of the main room was graced with a top of the line new computer.

As I was not going to invite anyone, the computer desk chair was the only chair - no couch, nothing like that.

There was a well furnished bathroom with both shower and traditional japanese bath - and a combo clothes washing machine and drier.

A separate bedroom had a medium sized walk in closet and sported a new queen sized bed, with an attached sideboard that I could place a laptop on.

I was a computer addict after all, so I needed that.

The kitchen was also minimal - I never bothered to learn to cook - he... always did that.

So the other reason I chose this location was the wide choice of convenience stores, yummy lunch cafes, and take out places within barely a ten minute walk.

I do love good food!

---

And so, because my fridge and pantry was emptier than a very empty… thing... I was soon seated at a 2 person table at “Kathy’s Cafe” - one of the small restaurants just a block away from my apartment.

I picked Kathy’s because it looked cute - and indeed the other 3 customers were all women, so it looked cozy and safe.

“Kathy’s” was run by an energetic woman in her twenties - I am not good at judging age, but I figured I got it right.

There was a teenager helping her - as it was Saturday I guessed a college student making an extra bit of pocket money.

I ordered - and I when I received my lunch...

“Is the owner over there called Kathy?”

“Eh? No… That’s just our store’s name. The owner over there is Morina… not sure why we are called Kathy’s, though.”

“Ah so, thank you.”

My order was crispy fried salt and pepper tofu and saag paneer poured over fluffy whole grain rice. A sort of fusion dish, but also sort of home cooking.

It was amazingly well made and piping hot, with the S&P tofu wafting a wok hei I have not enjoyed for over four months… not since the very last time he cooked for me…

Morina was at the cash-register when I went to settle my bill.

“Excuse my curiosity, but why is this shop called Kathy’s?”

“Oh haha! That was my grandmother’s doing! That was the heroine’s name in one of her favourite books! She and grandad were the owners before I inherited.”

“Well, your wok hei is amazing, thank you so much - I just moved close by, so I will be sure to come by often to try out your other dishes!”

“Ah, then welcome to the neighbourhood! Thanks for the compliment! I learned my cooking from grandmother - I wish one day to be as good as she was!”

Morina gave a little bow which I reciprocated before leaving with a happy tummy.

---

On the way home I dropped by a well stocked convenience store, and picked up a few essentials, including several frozen instant meals and cans of juice. They also had prepared hot food, so I knew I’ll be visiting here some days for lunch or even dinner.

My freezer was now no longer empty, but it still had a lot of space left. Knowing me, it will eventually fill up with random things I don’t really want to eat, but end up buying because they are “healthy” - or at least not as bad as straight up junk food.

I plumped down on my bed and lay back, arms spread out, palms up… it was still early but the happenings of the past few weeks caught up to me, and the wind was taken out of my sails.

I had just closed my eyes and then...

RING

RING RING

RING RING RING

It was the old fashioned phone ring sound that could mean only 1 person… Debbie.

I lazily poked the phone and switched it to speaker - of course I still was staring at the ceiling.

“Debbie… I’m still alive, and I am living a chaste life.”

“Haha! I wasn’t calling about that! I’m going to be in your area tomorrow, want to meet up for lunch?”

“Oh? Slumming it now, are we?”

“Tut… I have a new job.”

“You don’t need a job… I know what you got from the company sale… you could go buy an island somewhere…”

“Nah, I would be bored. Anyway, I’m head of marketing again at this cool new company - they’ve only been around a couple of years… but that is that and this is this… lunch yay or nay?”

“Sure… I just found a nice place today, we can eat there… I’ll email you the coordinates.”

“Hehe you will need to learn how to cook, you know.”

“I can cook! ...well I know how to warm up frozen dinners anyway…” - the second part I mumbled.

“Sigh… well see you tomorrow then!”

“Yup…”

Poking the phone again I hung up and continued to stare at the ceiling.

Debbie - an old school friend - was one of the first I hired when he and I created our company.

Initially she was the general gopher - but after a couple of months she became our one woman marketing army.

By the time we sold off the company she had become our marketing vice president with a staff of fifty.

Tempus fugit… as he used to say.

I guess doing nothing can be boring for some people.

Well… my aim was to become a solid NEET¹NEET = Not in Education, Employment, or Training. - at least for a few years.

---

It was dark outside when I woke up.

I was still half sprawled on my bed - shaking my phone it stated it was 23:15.

Eh, might as well check emails, and get out of my street clothes.

I fired up my bed side laptop.

HANDY!

That said, he and I both did that all the time, too, having each a computer on each of our sides of the bed, so this was life as usual.

Hm… nothing really important.

Oh right, I need to send Debbie the location of “Kathy’s Cafe”.

I browsed the web for a while, trying to get a feel of what the MMORPG scene was these days.

Last time I played actively was over 15 years ago - before I met him.

Looks like a lot has changed - the graphics for one were stunning now!

I read a few reviews and spent a bit watching some “Let’s Play!”, but nothing really caught my immediate attention, though I did bookmark a couple that might be interesting to at least try out.

Most MMORPG seem to be free to play these days - back when I was still active you payed for the initial install, and then had a monthly subscription. That was rare now.

Current MMORPG made money either through micro-transactions - where you could buy strong or cool items - or some used in-game ads, which you could hide by again paying a few dollars per month.

At the convenience store I had seen gift cards for purchase that could be turned into in-game credits for some of the more popular MMORPG.

Well, we’ll see.

Money is no problem, but as an inherently pragmatic person - or as Debbie would say “cheapskate” - I’ll start with one of those “free-to-play” games, and see where it goes.

Later today, that is… It was 01:45 (AM) in the early morning now, and I was still tired.

No… I am not going to bother to set my alarm.

The last two decades I had set it to six in the morning…

But what kind of NEET would I be if I kept doing that, right?

Let nature take its course for a change!

I will awake, when I will awake!

---

Ahhh... poot.

My internal clock is hardwired.

The phone blinks 06:03 at me…. AM that is. In the morning.

The same time I always wake up.

Hmph… I see,

It will take some work to break that.

Being a NEET is not as easy as I hoped.

I turned around and tried to get back to sleep out of rebellion.

But after what felt forever, I turned my head and stared at the phone again.

06:08….

IT WAS MOCKING ME!

Sigh…

So, today you win, internal clock!

I got up and did my morning routine.

Then with that all out of the way I approached my fridge.

I had grabbed a couple of boxes of cereal and milk at the convenience store yesterday.

How long has it been that I’ve eaten “junk” cereal?

Well, he didn’t ever buy anything like that, so we never had any in the house.

Now that I look back, he only made us healthy food - it was delicious, but yeah, healthy…

“Was he even human?” I muttered as I poured myself the delicious sugary cereal from the garishly decorated cardboard box - you know the kind, Kids will scream their heads off at the store until their mom buys it.

The trick is to add the milk, and then immediately start eating.

Letting it get soggy was a blasphemy of the first order!

Hmmm! Junk food! How I missed you!

And how bad you are for me!

Eh, as long as I only gorge it once a week, I think I’ll be safe.

The trouble will be will power, of course.

After doing such a decadent thing for the first time in over a decade, I threw the bowl into the dishwasher.

07:13… AM….

Well, I had until 11:30 before I had to leave to meet Debbie at Kathy’s Cafe…

What to do? What to do…?

This time I fired up the computer at the desk in the living room… well I call it a living room, but it was still empty, other than the desk, computer, and the office chair.

Maybe I will get a nice soft sofa, and a LCD projector or something, maybe get a few game consoles, too… just to fill up the emptiness a bit.

After I downloaded a couple of the MMORPG that I had bookmarked, I checked them out.

The graphics were breathtaking.

Hm, the first one, the controls were a pain - how is that still a thing today? You would think by now game devs would learn from the great masters of game design, and not repeat mistakes from the past - or in this specific case, make new and original bad design choices?

DELETE.

I have no patience for bad UI and control design.

Too lazy, I guess?
The second one looked more promising, so I spent a few hours with it.

Not great, but sort of like a fast food burger.

Before I knew it, it was 11:07 and that was time to get moving.

Kathy’s Cafe was only 10 min from here, but I was still in my jammies.

Sure, they were cute, but I was not the sort to go parade outside with them.

11:40… and I was out the door on my way to meet Debbie.

---