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The first meeting took five hours. Five hours . It was entirely my fault. Why the fuck had I suggested to go through every Orb species issue on the first day? Talk about biting off more than I could chew.

While I wanted to show how serious I was about tackling issues that the communities were facing, I guess I hadn’t expected for there to be so many nuanced issues that needed attention in varying degrees of urgency.

Again, that fell on me. I don’t know why I’d been naive to think that this first meeting could be a nice meet and greet and casual talk and be wrapped up in two hours, tops.

The lycanthe were tired of being pushed to the lower limits of their respective cities, making them feel like less a part of the community that only wanted them to be in the shadows.

The virces were having trouble reproducing, the threat of their entire species’ extinction a very real thing, one that olatsma agreed with since they’d been hunted down for their uncanny ability to shift forms. The tythwig and ausserknoch wanted to be further integrated into society, their harsh exteriors being some of the most feared by humans, only wanting to truly walk alongside the humans with the same rights that everyone else was awarded.

It was a lot to take in and I don’t think I’d properly adjusted to the expectation of their voiced concerns.

Of course I wanted to help each and every one of them in as many ways as possible, but figuring out the how was baffling me.

I didn’t even know where to start. While some issues were easier to tackle than others, the last thing I wanted was for one group to feel like they were getting more preferable treatment by having more accessible tasks to remedy.

Basically, what I told them was we needed to list everything from easiest to hardest issue to fix, and to bring them to the board by the end of the week.

That way, they’d have their most pressing issues in order and we could attack them together that way.

Finding a method to the madness was going to be my greatest issue, and I was determined to take them all on in due time.

I just needed to trust myself, and them, and believe that everything would get dealt with without risking favoritism or pushing any one group aside because their problems were too hard to locate and eliminate.

After I called the end of the meeting and thanked everyone for coming again and being so diligent with their concerns, I said we could meet every day around the same time, unless anyone had any objections.

This was everyone’s job now, just like being a member of the House had been my job prior to this, and the government was funding this like any normal political forward job.

Which meant no one objected to the time we’d set today for future meetings.

Francyn announced that she’d orchestrated a little get together that evening at a local bar for anyone that wanted to celebrate their new jobs and all they wanted ORBIT to accomplish.

She invited both Maxim and I as well, saying she wouldn’t feel right if we weren’t there as the “token humans paving the way”.

I’d agreed, but I was ecstatic that there’d be several hours to prepare for something like that.

I really needed to decompress from the meeting.

Which meant I was ordering food and playing video games until it was time to go to the bar.

I’d rushed back to the condo after making sure that Maxim had everything sorted with the recording of the meeting.

I’d asked him to convert the audio for me so that I could go over it tonight.

I wanted my mind sharp over what had been covered today so that I could pivot and try to tailor tomorrow’s meeting to not be so destructively long.

But that was a different Wallace’s problem.

Right Now Wallace was about to play video games and disassociate.

I don’t know when my obsession with video games had started.

They’d been with me as long as I could remember.

From destroying zombies through Raccoon City in Resident Evil to catching them all on my Gameboy in Pokémon Blue, I’d always had video games as my right hand caretaker.

My parents allowed me to do so, not being the type of parents that claimed playing video games rotted your brain.

I was lucky in that respect, because they meant so much to me.

While I preferred to stay in my lane and play Nintendo games, I dabbled in a little bit of everything, thanks to my PlayStation and the PC I’d handcrafted piece by meticulous piece over the years.

Currently, my game of choice was Stardew Valley for its laid back timeline to accomplish things within the game as well as the cozy vibes it offered.

My neglected copy of Fire Emblem Engage that I’d refused to complete stared at me as I sat on the couch and turned on my Nintendo Switch.

As much as I loved the game, I needed the coziness of the farm simulation game over that of the tactical RPG.

I was an hour into playing Stardew Valley when I got a text from Roger, a mutual friend that I’d met through Matty.

Normally, I wouldn’t have bothered to tend to my phone when I was gaming, but the gnawing inquisitiveness in the back of my mind took the form of picking my phone off the couch to see what was going on.

Hey, I’m not trying to take sides or anything, but did you see what Matty is saying on Facebook?

My heart quickened. As much as I wanted to ignore anything that Matty did going forward now that the divorce was final, my curiosity ramped up to maximum capacity. Without even messaging Roger back, I clicked on the Facebook app.

Stumbling my way through to Matty’s page, I found what Roger must have been referring to. Matty had made a life event, stating that he was single. But it was the text that followed that started to make my blood boil.

I’m single again! Wallace & I are officially divorced after being delayed over and over, but I’m finally free!

No more having a husband that prefers his work over me, no more feeling like the bad guy when I voice that I want to spend time with him, no more bullshit!

I’m super excited for this next chapter of my life and truly hope the future is even brighter than the present.

Why the fuck was he acting like he wasn’t the one that’d been delaying the finalization of the divorce papers?

And even though it stung to see him paint me as the bad guy, a part of me felt like I’d played the role.

I didn’t agree that it was such a one sided thing, like Matty was clearly trying to boast about on social media.

We’d both played a hand in the demise of our marriage.

I had definitely changed the most throughout our time together, my priorities and wants and needs shifting as I grew into not wanting to stifle myself any longer.

No more bullshit was right, but it wasn’t entirely on me .

I was tempted to text Matty and yell at him for being so immature, but that was exactly what I knew he wanted. Matty wanted the attention of a fight, he always had. And as a very introverted, non-confrontational individual, I hated when he bated me and I gave in because I was fed up.

We weren’t married anymore. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

Instead of texting Matty in anger, I texted Roger back.

He’s entitled to his feelings about everything, even if he’s not painting the true story. I don’t have to react to his attention anymore.

And I tossed my phone back on the couch after pressing send.

I wanted to veg out, to relax. That wasn’t going to happen if I was too obsessed with my phone.

No, I was done catering to the needs of other people over the needs of my own in my personal life.

My life was just that. Mine. No one could take that away from me unless I let them.

Playing another day in Stardew Valley, a smile colored my otherwise calm face. My life was back in my own hands and in my own terms again for the first time in a really long time.

Viva la Wallace.