The Fifteen Minute Novel is an attempt to take a single prompt and use the last sentence written each day as a start for the next day. This year I had several prompts circling around a similar story, so I have combined them. However, the story starts the same way each day, with the last line from the day before and a timer set for fifteen minutes. The hope is to end up with a complete, if very rough draft by the end of the year. Some stories are better than others, but I always learn a whole lot about my own writing when I do this so for me it is not only a nice way to work out a story, but it is a tool for helping my writing get better. And so, we continue this story for 2024 with…
Day 23: That hadn’t happened.
That hadn’t happened. Thus far no one asked about her workload or what she normally did. Early in the week there were sparks of anger at the rest of the office. Those sparks were buried under the mountain of work she needed to clear off her desk before she left for the month. Now that she wasn’t as swamped, the sparks began to flare again.
‘Maybe he just hadn’t gotten around to telling me.’
Sophie glanced at the clock. Everyone left at noon on the dot. It was now 1:25. Even though officially it was a one-hour lunch break, an hour and a half was closer to the norm. There was no getting to any of the local restaurants and back in less time than that. It was one of the reasons that when she did go out, Sophie ended up going to the local food trucks nearby instead of one of the restaurants. While the food trucks always had lines, they were quicker about turning food out and if need be, she could take what she picked up at the food truck back to her desk to eat if time grew short.
‘Not that I’ve even done that in a while,’
Initially the skipping of lunches out was done for a combination of reasons. When she started, she and those who worked with her would go to the food trucks once a week. Those people gradually left, and this lot favored the restaurants rather than the food trucks. Sophie didn’t really feel comfortable with them or the time it took and at that time she was saving up because there were some rather expensive silks she wanted to purchase. By then, making her lunch was a habit and she kept it.
‘So, I am probably partially responsible for them not inviting me,’ Sophie thought as she worked. The other part was her lack of affairs with anyone in the group. She suspected that it was her lack of involvement outside the office with them that caused her to be left out. She could only take so much of the blame.
‘But for a whole month, I won’t have to think about them.’ It was a nice thought.
Sophie worked and waited, eyes darting to the clock. Two o’clock came and went. Then two thirty. At ten til three, Sophie was beginning to wonder if something happened or if everyone decided to knock off early. Her phone rang and a part of her expected it to be some official letting her know of some accident or calamity.
“Havers, Limited, this is Sophia speaking how may I help you?”
“Hi, Sophia this is Elizabeth, I was just calling to see if you had spoken to your supervisor?”
“They aren’t back from lunch yet,” Sophie said.
“Really?”
“I’ll speak to him as soon as he comes in though.” “All right, just send me an e-mail as soon as you talk to him.”
Ten til Midnight 