A Tale of Magic and Woe, set in an Arby's Restaurant. Part 1

It had been a long day at work and Clarence the Sheep was exhausted. He'd spent the last 4 hours combing through page after page of calculations looking for a $45 accounting error and then, just when he'd found the problem, his boss had announced that the cost analysis department declared solving the problem was "NCE".
Not. Cost. Effective.

Clarence'd headed straight out the door the minute his shift was up and made a bee-line for the closest artery-clogging fast food he could find. Arby's. He decided Arby's would be his Grayhaven, his shelter from the last 8 hours of hell he'd spent rifling through stacks of paper with his aching hooves.

Clarence considered dropping into a liquor store on the way to the roast beef menagerie but a split second before he clicked the turn signal on he saw a familiar car in the Arby's parking lot. He couldn't put his hoof on it but something inside of Clarence told him his day was about to get better. It hit him only seconds before his eyes took in a wonderful sight: That was Ferdinand's car!

Ferdinand the Monkey had been Clarence the Sheep's best friend at his previous job and it had been almost entirely because of Ferdinand that Clarence had stayed at the little framing shop for 3 years before moving on to his current work place. Almost every day, pulling into his personal parking space in his company car, Clarence had questioned if the extra pay and perks were worth the loss of his best friend.

"Ferdy!" Clarence tried very hard to sound as if no time had passed since they'd last seen each other. In reality it had been almost 3 years and had felt like 10. A full 5 seconds passed before Ferdinand, an impish grin on his face, turned around and launched himself onto Clarence with his arms wide open. The sheep in a suit had shed 3 tears before he realized what was going on but Ferdinand the Monkey was kind enough not to point them out. The truth was he'd cried 4 tears himself in the 5 seconds between Clarence calling his name and the mighty monkey-hug they'd shared.

The less time he spent thinking about crying the less likely he was to re-open the floodgates.