Igor Zevimsky woke up on a cold October morning and looked outside to an overcast sky. A grey sky for another grey day. Only today he noticed that someone had planted another flower in his sad garden while he was asleep. It made his lip quiver into an almost smile for a moment, but then his somber gaze returned.

Today was just a normal day. He would go to work, pound coffee for a few hours as he stared at a screen doing work that had long ago been made obsolete by technology. But his boss didn't know that, and it pleased his boss to make Igor do mind numbing tasks.

Today was going as normal, until the espresso machine broke. No one else was in the office except for Igor at this point. Most people worked from home and only came in the mornings to hang out and chat before they stepped out for lunch and never returned, but Igor stayed in the office because his boss liked it that way.

He spent an hour reading the manual and trying a few different things before a phone call came in. He rushed over to his desk and answered the phone.

"Igor, I hope things are going well over there! Try to smile for a change. Anyways, I'm going to need next week's work done over the weekend, we can't afford to lose this client and you're my main man on the case. Please stay late if you wouldn't mind!"

Before Igor could get a word in, his boss hung up.

Igor had been rather productive today, so he was surprised when he found himself trying to calculate how to get all of the work lined up for the next week done over the weekend. His head must have imagined it was hit by a bus for a moment. It would mean a lot more coffee, a lot less sleep, and maybe he would order take out from the salad place. He'd hated the salad place for a time, but his boss had taken them often enough that he learned to like the smokey salmon with miso ginger dressing well enough to eat the spinach, beets, and mushrooms that came with it.

By the time evening came, Igor went home, despite considering if he should keep working. He fell asleep on the couch soon after walking in the door and then woke up to his neighbor's friendly "Honk honk honkkk!" they did every morning to greet him. He glumly got up, made eggs, made coffee, and got on with the day.

He was fully alone in the office until lunch and decided to walk to the salad place, since maybe the nice young gal with the glasses was there. She had brought a slight smile to his face once or twice, despite looking just as miserable as he somehow.

As Igor walked over he noticed a family walking with their dog and cat. It was an adorable sight. Then he noticed through the window that his salad girl was there. No customers either. She just stood at the counter awaiting the day.

Igor walked in, glumly ordered his salad, doing his best to manifest a purely draining energy to fully activate the power. Then he saw her eyes light up. She seemed happy to see him.

She was the one to prepare his salad. She looked younger today as well. Normally he'd imagined she probably had a small family of her own back home, but she looked particularly...lively today.

"Mr. Igor!" she said. "Welcome, welcome. The usual then?" she asked, with a renewed vibrancy in her eyes.

"Oh come on, Igor, don't give me that pouting look, you're a good man. I've seen you walking into the office today. Only the best of men dare work on a Saturday just to keep the earth spinning."

His mouth threatened to turn into a smile again, but it sunk down. He wouldn't dare take this joy away from her. His power must continue to have its way with this wonderfully happy sad planet.

But then she gave him an extra piece of salmon. That was unexpected. Usually everyone just talked a good talk, no one ever actually did anything for him.

"Igor," she said, as he turned to walk away with his lovely salad. Back to the office.

"Please stay," she pleaded. "I have something to tell you."

Back to the office... his brain said. But she said...to stay. So he must, right? He must stay and please her even if it would cost him sleep later on.

"Igor, let me sit down with you today!" she said as she dashed over from behind the counter. "Oh, I was hoping you came in today. Saturday's are the only day my boss isn't here. It's the only day I can get away and enjoy myself here."

Igor squinted at her. Then he truly narrowed his gaze.

Was this girl acting as if she wasn't truly happy all of the time? She had a dilemma with her boss? It wasn't possible. Only he was permitted misery in this world. It was his curse, his burden to bear for humanity.

She handed him a cookie. One of two. "I know cookies aren't the best for you, and you always eat so healthy, but, maybe?" she asked. "We actually bake 'em fresh daily, they're surprisingly good for a salad place."

He said nothing, but look at the cookie.

"Oh," she said reading something in his look. "Do you not like chocolate chip? I can get you oatmeal."

"Ms. Lisa," Igor said slowly. "You aren't usually...like, this." he said as he gestured to her. "What's changed?"

Lisa looked down into her hands as she munched on a bit of her cookie. She swallowed.

"That's what I wanted to tell you about," she said. "I've sort of been...I'm terribly sorry, by the way. I know it's awful. But I followed you home one day. I had to know where you lived. I thought there must be something terrible going on at home. No one is as sad as you, Sir," she said shyly.

"But no, it was just you. You and that sad sad garden of yours."

Igor's eyes lit up a bit. Then they lit up a bit more.

"The flowers," he whispered.

Lisa scrunched up in her seat and awkwardly breathed a laughing breath that said, "That's okay, isn't it?"

It wasn't that day that Igor started to understand happiness, truly. Nor was it that week, or that year. But after a lifetime, after a nest of kids and grandkids, Igor felt that he had found some measure of the stuff. And not a small measure, but enough to fill him up.

When the world began to return to normal, Igor had quit his job. He'd considered burning the office down to spite his boss, but he thought better of it, because somehow everything, even that wretched place, had led to her. The one girl who'd shared in his glumness amidst an uncannily happy world.