Morning all, we have finally reached Friday. This week has felt a bit like a slog. Too much to do, not enough sleep and many many allergies I am happier to see this week end than I have been in a while. So shall we see what our last prompt of the week brings us? I think that would be just fine. So Ready, Set, write like the wind …
Apparently i have decided to wrap up the week with the same character I started the week writing about. I am still not entirely sure about this story but I might spend some time figuring it out so that next week’s prompts don’t all revolve around Anna’s disintegrating work atmosphere.
Friday, March 10th: That was so bad.
“That was so bad,” she whispered. Anna could hear her over through the cubicle wall.
‘Or would that be over, maybe around,’ she couldn’t decide. Either way Angela, her coworker in the adjoining cubicle, never learned that what she said could be overheard by everyone around her. There was a soft giggle in response to something Anna couldn’t here.
‘She’s on the phone,’ Anna realized. She tried to put it out of her mind. The conversation continued and Anna blocked the sound out. ‘Maybe it is time for the headphones again,’ she thought. Sometimes she worked with them on, listening to music or podcasts so she could fill her ears with something of her own choosing rather than have odd sentences float orer the walls from those around her. It was less distracting if she could control the noise around her.
Yet lately as soon as she put her earphones in, the phone would ring or her boss would come by. She didn’t quite know why he disliked the headphones as they actually made her more productive, but he scowled at the tiny earbuds as though they specifically did some personal harm to him in the recent past.
Anna realized she was wondering what that could be and spending far more time thinking of her supervisor than she usually did. Then she realized it was Angela calling her to mind. Angela mentioned his name, twice.
Anna blinked. She thought it was Laura who was having the affair with her supervisor. However from the sound of the cooing noises she was hearing Angela currently making into the phone, Angela was his afterhours playmate.
‘Oh no,’ Anna thought. Her eyes cut to the left. The cubicles were set up in blocks of four. The other two in her block were Denise and Laura. If she was hearing this conversation, there was no way the others weren’t as well.
‘Maybe her boyfriend and our supervisor just have the same name,’ Anna thought. She heard movement in the cubicle to her left and froze like a deer in headlights. Anna realized that the lack of keyboard keys clicking would give away her eavesdropping and began to work again.
She listened hard through the cubicle wall. She didn’t press her ear to the fabric coated wall, she didn’t have to.
“Excuse me,” Laura said.
Angela sighed heavily and Anna heard the squeak of her turning in her desk chair. “I’m on the phone,” she said. The chair squeaked again ash she turned away again. “Some people,” Anna heard Angela say.
“To who,” Laura demanded in an icy tone.
Again the squeaky turn. “To whoever I want, you aren’t the boss of me. I can talk to who I want when I want.” Squeak, squeak went the chair.
There was a loud huff and Anna heard the sound of shoes departing. Anna frowned. She hadn’t expected Laura to give up so quickly. Then she realized the steps weren’t going back to the cubicle. They were going down the hall to their supervisor’s office. Anna decided that this might just be a good time to put in her earphones. She reached into her bag and took out the ear buds. She synched them with her MP3 player and chose the first thing that popped up. This was not a time to be caught eavesdropping, even inadvertently.
Ten til Midnight 