Erika and Tim stood outside the library. Erika was the person Tim remembered and yet she wasn’t. Tim still couldn’t believe he was talking to an actual cheetah woman, especially one so beautiful. A part of him felt guilt over imposing this form on her. He wondered if she’d accepted becoming this way had he asked her.
"So, how have you been doing?" Erika asked.
"Not bad. Let's just say that there's been some changes in life as of late," Tim replied.
"What sort of changes?" Erika asked.
Oh boy, she just had to ask for more information. Okay Tim, no problem, think fast.
"Well, I might be getting an interesting new job."
"Oh?" Erika asked.
Tim thought about the interviews he and Steve had. In their previous reality, it had been animal people costumes. However, with live animal people in the world, was the job different?
"You okay Tim?" Erika asked.
Tim nodded his head. "Yeah, I was ... just thinking of how to describe the job."
Despite his fears over trying to access memories from this new reality, Tim decided to do it. As though he just remembered a dream, Tim knew how the interview and job had changed.
Unfortunately, he also realized that remembering this version of the job made it hard to remember the former version of it. In this reality, the interview was for the part of a raccoon character from a comedy comic. It didn't seem to have existed in their former lives. The company needed more then one person to play the role for a pavilion at an amusement park. One person doing it alone would get tired. Given that Steve and Tim were now apparently twins, it seemed they were suited to the role perfectly.
"You know the comic lazy days?" Tim asked.
"The one about the raccoon bachelor?" Erika asked.
Tim nodded. Now, he was starting to remember it. While he hadn’t had followed it, Mark did. Tim had read some of Mark's issues of it.
"It seems they're going to have something at a theme park for it and need someone to play the lead character. Steve and I are ideal because we're twins. It looks like it could work out."
"That's great."
"I remember how good you were at Track in school," Tim said.
Another memory, He knew that being a cheetah would make Erika and obvious candidate.
"I know. Unfortunately, I got out of it after High School."
"What'd you get into?" Tim asked.
"Modelling. Since it was for a woman's clothes store, I'm not surprised you haven't seen it," Erika said.
Tim smiled. He eyed her form briefly. "I'm sure you increased their sales by a thousand percent."
"Thanks," Erika said.
Tim sighed. "I need to get home. Would you like to have dinner or something later?"
Erika appeared sad. "Sorry Tim, my parents don't really approve of me dating outside of our species."
Tim nodded. "It's all right, it's not your fault."
"Well, you know where to find me if you ever want to talk," Erika said.
Tim nodded and they parted ways.