Prompt 48--Horoscope
Jun. 23rd, 2007 11:55 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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tamingthemuseTitle: Unsolicited Advice
Fandom: None--OC
Rating: G
Summary: Even unsolicited advice can be good advice.
A/N: My muse hated this prompt. No, really.
She never read her horoscope. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe—okay, so she didn’t believe in that tripe. Still, being a Virgo, she read once that she had to see to believe and that made it hard for her to trust in anything intangible, whether it be horoscopes or the existence of God.
Some days, though, she wondered why she even got out of bed. Today was one of those days; it seemed that everything that could go wrong had gone awry and all she wanted to do was drown herself in the largest bottle of Shiraz that she could buy at the liquor store down the road from her tiny house.
Phone calls had been missed; mail had been delivered to the wrong address. Even the traffic was against her, tying her up in snarls of cars and trucks fighting for dominance on the freeway for hours, horns blaring their annoyance and irritation.
And that was just on the way to work—the trip home was worse.
She kicked her shoes off at the door and put her feet up on the coffee table. Her heels shuffled a stack of papers to the floor and she bent to pick them up off the carpet her eyes fell on the horoscope column for that day. The print leaped off the page and emblazoned itself across her retinas to burn a hole in her mind as it tried to register the words printed on the gray newsprint.
“Today will be a day filled with delays and miscommunication for the normally unflappable Virgo. Take it with a grain of salt and indulge in a bubble bath with a nice glass of wine. Tomorrow will be a better day.”
Melanie looked at the wine bottle on the table and the newspaper in her hand before she tossed it down and headed toward the bathroom. A bubble bath sounded good about now.
The next morning everything seemed to run smoothly. She whipped through traffic to work and made several lucrative sales that seemed to be teetering on the verge of collapse the day before. She was working on a spreadsheet when her browser icon caught her eye. It seemed to beckon her with an unseen hand.
With a sigh, she double-clicked on the icon and her browser opened up. She didn’t know what she was looking for exactly or why she had even done it, just clicked on a website and watched as a collection of star signs scattered across her screen.
There was a speculative look in her eye when she clicked on the image of the virgin. She almost snickered when she thought of herself as a virgin; it was farther from the truth than even she would believe, although she was between lovers right now.
The words marched across her screen and she almost gasped aloud at their accuracy. “You’ve done a great job closing the deal today. Later, there will be a new person enter your circle of awareness—pay attention because they will be important in your life from here out.”
New person. Hmm. Melanie looked up as the bell over the door rang merrily and a tall man came through the door and let it close noisily behind him.
Across the room, her eyes met his and there was a feeling of electric charge that stampeded down her synapses to settle in the pit of her stomach and fill it with butterflies. She froze, her lips parted and her eyes wide, unable to break the look of animalistic desire that crossed her face. Gratefully, she noticed that the look was mirrored on his face as well, reflected in his icy blue eyes that seemed to see clear through to her soul.
She closed the window on the computer and stood, smoothing her skirt with damp palms. “Hi. I’m Melanie Hawkes, one of the sales associates.” She extended her hand and he clasped it warmly in his palm, his fingers closing around it as if it belonged to a child.
A smile crossed his lips and she was mesmerized. “James Dove. Very nice to meet you, Miss Hawkes. I’ll be starting here on Monday as one of the new salesmen.”
She tried to ignore the thrill that shivered through her at his announcement. She looked back at the computer and a secret smile crossed her lips. There was no way that her horoscope could have been so right two days in a row. Maybe she needed to make it a part of her morning ritual. A cup of coffee, a Danish, and her horoscope every morning.
Forgetting everything else, she sat down and started chatting with her new colleague, paying close attention. It never hurt to listen to advice, no matter where it came from.
Fandom: None--OC
Rating: G
Summary: Even unsolicited advice can be good advice.
A/N: My muse hated this prompt. No, really.
She never read her horoscope. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe—okay, so she didn’t believe in that tripe. Still, being a Virgo, she read once that she had to see to believe and that made it hard for her to trust in anything intangible, whether it be horoscopes or the existence of God.
Some days, though, she wondered why she even got out of bed. Today was one of those days; it seemed that everything that could go wrong had gone awry and all she wanted to do was drown herself in the largest bottle of Shiraz that she could buy at the liquor store down the road from her tiny house.
Phone calls had been missed; mail had been delivered to the wrong address. Even the traffic was against her, tying her up in snarls of cars and trucks fighting for dominance on the freeway for hours, horns blaring their annoyance and irritation.
And that was just on the way to work—the trip home was worse.
She kicked her shoes off at the door and put her feet up on the coffee table. Her heels shuffled a stack of papers to the floor and she bent to pick them up off the carpet her eyes fell on the horoscope column for that day. The print leaped off the page and emblazoned itself across her retinas to burn a hole in her mind as it tried to register the words printed on the gray newsprint.
“Today will be a day filled with delays and miscommunication for the normally unflappable Virgo. Take it with a grain of salt and indulge in a bubble bath with a nice glass of wine. Tomorrow will be a better day.”
Melanie looked at the wine bottle on the table and the newspaper in her hand before she tossed it down and headed toward the bathroom. A bubble bath sounded good about now.
The next morning everything seemed to run smoothly. She whipped through traffic to work and made several lucrative sales that seemed to be teetering on the verge of collapse the day before. She was working on a spreadsheet when her browser icon caught her eye. It seemed to beckon her with an unseen hand.
With a sigh, she double-clicked on the icon and her browser opened up. She didn’t know what she was looking for exactly or why she had even done it, just clicked on a website and watched as a collection of star signs scattered across her screen.
There was a speculative look in her eye when she clicked on the image of the virgin. She almost snickered when she thought of herself as a virgin; it was farther from the truth than even she would believe, although she was between lovers right now.
The words marched across her screen and she almost gasped aloud at their accuracy. “You’ve done a great job closing the deal today. Later, there will be a new person enter your circle of awareness—pay attention because they will be important in your life from here out.”
New person. Hmm. Melanie looked up as the bell over the door rang merrily and a tall man came through the door and let it close noisily behind him.
Across the room, her eyes met his and there was a feeling of electric charge that stampeded down her synapses to settle in the pit of her stomach and fill it with butterflies. She froze, her lips parted and her eyes wide, unable to break the look of animalistic desire that crossed her face. Gratefully, she noticed that the look was mirrored on his face as well, reflected in his icy blue eyes that seemed to see clear through to her soul.
She closed the window on the computer and stood, smoothing her skirt with damp palms. “Hi. I’m Melanie Hawkes, one of the sales associates.” She extended her hand and he clasped it warmly in his palm, his fingers closing around it as if it belonged to a child.
A smile crossed his lips and she was mesmerized. “James Dove. Very nice to meet you, Miss Hawkes. I’ll be starting here on Monday as one of the new salesmen.”
She tried to ignore the thrill that shivered through her at his announcement. She looked back at the computer and a secret smile crossed her lips. There was no way that her horoscope could have been so right two days in a row. Maybe she needed to make it a part of her morning ritual. A cup of coffee, a Danish, and her horoscope every morning.
Forgetting everything else, she sat down and started chatting with her new colleague, paying close attention. It never hurt to listen to advice, no matter where it came from.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-24 07:37 am (UTC)sometimes it does pay to listen.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-26 06:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-24 12:34 pm (UTC)Really well written and an enjoyable read.
Plus, I love the mixture of the sort of unexplainable, mystical horoscope-iness and the really hardcore scientific (synapses, retina, etc.).
This was fun!
no subject
Date: 2007-06-26 06:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-26 05:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-26 06:50 am (UTC)