Spencer Carlin felt her calves tighten in protest as she came to the end of her jog. Her daily ritual seemed to be getting longer and longer, and her body grew leaner and leaner with the change. She ran up the steps of her apartment building and flashed a smile at the security man, his focus on the monitors briefly broken by the attractive blonde who ran past. The elevator to the eleventh floor was empty, a fact which Spencer embraced as she leaned wearily against the hand rail, her body wet with her exertions.

Making her way into her apartment she made for the shower, losing clothing on the way there and practically groaning with the feeling of the hot hot water steaming down her body. It took her too long to finish. She had to will herself out of the shower and into her clothes knowing she’d be late for work anyway. Today was a bad day Spencer decided. She knew they came, and that she just had to deal with them as they came, but somehow with every bad day that passed it seemed harder and harder to push herself on. If she was going to be honest with herself she’d admit that all she wanted to do was keep jogging. If she thought she could she’d run for hours and hours. Spencer sighed. There was no time, she had to get to work.

As she opened the door to her office she was greeted by the flashing smile of her receptionist. He raised his eyebrows to her and gave her the look.

She raised her eyebrows back daring him to say something. He took the pencil out of his mouth.

“Your nine o’clock appointment is in your office, Daniel wanted to know if lunch was still on. Your dry cleaning will be here at seven, and you are not, I repeat NOT allowed to be late for tonight. I’ve been told”.

Spencer flashed him a grin.

“Tim, if you got any better at this… I’d have to kill you”. She took the folder he handed her and glanced at the name. Portia de Francesco. The name rang no bells. New client? Spencer made her way into the office and smiled at the blonde seated in the chair at her desk. She made her way around to her chair, placing her briefcase on the floor, and leaning across to extend a hand to her new client. They shook hands briefly and Spencer sat down.