My Imperfect Life

Prologue

 I curated my entire life to be the perfect reflection of myself, from how I walked, talked, dressed, and ate, I trained myself mentally to be truly perfect, without blemishes, and be the envy of everyone around me. Narcissism? Definitely, but it's for the greater good! I am setting the standard of what others should push for themselves!

After achieving top marks at my grade school and university level, graduating at the top with honors while carrying my department for grant funding, I entered the working world at a prestigious company. As an accountant, I work closely with others to establish connections and build foundations for our regulars, it's the perfect job for the perfect me.

My daily routine begins at 5am on the dot, I shower and dress myself. Make my bed and put together a simple breakfast that includes toast and coffee and then I'm out the door by 7am to get to work by 8am. I live in a wonderful one bedroom apartment in a high rise unit, my neighbors are all older than me yet they marvel at what I've achieved so far in my life that some of the wives look at me with a twinkle in their eyes while their husbands groan at their own failures.

A simple 20 minute walk from my apartment's entrance to the steps of the conglomerate building the company owns and the one I work within, I greet my coworkers as we ascend up to do our daily business and talk idle conversations. I smile and acknowledge them while they drink their processed and cheap coffee in their non-pressed dress shirts. The women of the company greet me with the enthusiasm and never fail to ask if they could join me for lunch. I flatter them and politely decline with an excuse of work related things taking up my time for the day.

The day breezes through as I complete my daily tasks, attend the meetings with the board, and coach any new employee's within my region. I spend my lunch eating the prepacked, highly nutritious spread I pack every evening consisting of a low carb entrée, various seasoned vegetables, a protein, and a simple cup of water with fruit in it for flavor. I arrange the food in such a way that my coworkers never fail to ask if a women made it for me. As if someone else can make the food worthy of my palate!

By the late afternoon, I finish the very last bits of my work and prepare myself for the next while waiting for exactly 5:00 PM to punch out for the day and venture back home, turning down the invitations to go drinking with my coworkers. I walk the same route as I do every evening, keeping to my schedule to reach home before 6pm to prep for my dinner and begin my nightly skin care routine and bathe for sleep, promptly in bed by 8:30PM in fresh pajamas and my electronics charging.

This unending routine was the foundation of my perfect life and I intended it to be this way until I approach retirement years and begin formulating a new routine. However, life can throw curve balls at us in unexpected ways and despite my best to be prepared for such events, it was bound to happen and my perfect life began to crumble.

One evening I was half way through my skin care routine when I got a call from my land lord who informed me that she had sold the building and I was going to be receiving a formal 30 day notice to vacate my room. The call was short and simple, not more than five minutes of my time yet it felt like I had just stepped into a timeless nightmare. I had to now dedicate time to finding new living arrangements within the same distance or closer to where I am now so I don't have to change my schedule too much, but it's midseason and leasing apartments this close to downtown can become too expensive or hard to find. It was only through my reputation that I was able to secure the apartment I have now and had spent the past 6 years in this location with every intention of being a permanent resident so I was indeed in a difficult situation. 

I began to dedicate my lunch breaks to eating and browsing listings while I spent my evenings in between my skin care routine and dinner to pack up what I had. I kept this up for 25 days and I had absolutely no luck finding accommodations where I desired and at the price I could afford. It stunned me with how much salary was compared to what these places were asking for in monthly rent! But I cant demand a higher salary without showing my greed but I can't ask the lending offices to cut me a deal without looking like a beggar, I was between a rock and a hard place and only had 5 more days to figure things out.

Almost all my neighbors had vacated and found other lodgings that I was starting to feel the pressure of being the last one out. I cant be homeless, I wont return back home, or even tolerate living with other people in a shared unit. So after some reworking of my daily routine, I managed to squeeze in an extra 30 minutes to travel between home and work so I began to browse farther away, but as the days rolled on, the distance only grew greater.

Eventually on the last day, living out of the boxes of my belongings in an entirely empty building, I found a place that would do a temporary lease which would allow me to have more time finding the perfect place for me. However, it was an hour commute by walking, and public transportation doesn't fit my image, but I'm too tight budgeted for a car, so for the time being I purchased my first ever bicycle. I would get to work within 40 minutes this way, and I would park and hide my bike not too far from where I was living before so it would seem as if nothing had changed on the outside to my coworkers. I kept a few items in my briefcase to touch up myself, such as a lint roller to pick up debris, a comb to straighten my hair, and freshener to hide any smells of my traveling.

This plan of mine worked great for the first few weeks until the work load got heavier and the extra workouts challenged my endurance limits, along with the shortened time between sleeping and working, everything was piling up but I refused to let it show. I still had the perfect lunches, I was still on time for work, my skin was flawless, and my suits pressed. It was good to get a work out but I couldn't help but feel jealous of those who had the privilege of owning a car. But the final piece of my fabrication was not allowing anyone to know I rode a bike to work, so I was always aware of my surroundings to make sure no one found me. I even bought a helmet to hide my face as I biked through the city that I kept secured to the bike itself. 

It only took 3 months before my lies became exposed. After completely an exhausting day at work, upon reaching my bike to make the journey home, it had been stolen. And what's worse, the new owner of my old apartment building, who knew of my reputation, saw my anguish because he knew a bike had been parked had been stolen. So the amusement on his face to learn the owner of said bike was me, the perfect human to have ever graced this planet, ridiculed me to my bones.

That wasn't the last time I saw Luka, either. He became a thorn at my side and what's worse, he's my bosses brother. Now I must entertain this suspicious man so he doesn't blab to the world about my lies.

No one must know the truth. I must remain perfect in this imperfect routine.