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 43: Monday rolled around and Sophie went to her morning workout.
Monday rolled around and Sophie went to her morning workout. She was getting used to the people around her and no longer worried about what they thought. People generally focused on themselves and she felt less conspicuous.
“Morning,” Kevin said as she finished her warm ups and moved to the treadmill. He was walking beside her, his cool down starting just as her warm up began. She knew that he lived on her floor as she had seen him for years. She didn’t see him that much as their schedules didn’t intersect, but he wass becoming familiar from the morning workouts.
‘Morning,” she replied with a smile. Sweat dripped off his face and he was slightly out of breath, but he smile back. While thee were some who took their workout seriously and seemed intent on competing for some sort of weightlifting competition she knew nothing of, Sophie liked that like her, Kevin seemed to just attempting to get a little more exercise in his daily life. It made him and the others like him a lot less intimidating.
‘And even sweat drenched it is much nicer a grating than I get in the office.’ As Kevin finished up and left, waving his farewells, Sophie wondered how this week would play out. She only had her regular week’s work this week, her schedule back to normal. She intended to only d her own work and not take on any other projects and suspected people would be extra grumpy with her.
‘I also plan to only stay a few minutes late each night so that I don’t have to ride down in the elevator with them.’ Beyond that, Sophie was looking forwards to having her evening’s back. Janine told her the company she was working with were thrilled with the first month’s selection and eagerly anticipating the second shipment. She dropped off the second shipment the evening before.
‘And while I have extra for my time off, I need to start working n things in the evening’s again if the contract is renewed.’ Sophie’s plan was to always stay a month ahead f she could help it. She thought, given her timing, that if she managed to leave the office on time, or relatively close to it, then she should be able to maintain the schedule.
‘It just means I have to keep saying no.’ Sophie decided.
While saying no had become easier and there had, thus far, been no repercussions from her returning the folders others dropped off, Mr. Evers had yet to come by her desk. She suspected that as she was caught up from her month out, he would soon be by.
Sophie pushed the thoughts away, pushing herself through her workout to erase them from her mind. She could do nothing about what was to come, only adjust for what she knew. By the end of her workout she suspected she was an even sweatier mess than Kevin was when he departed and she gratefully went upstairs to shower and change for the office.
Kristen offered her a dull ‘morning as she passed and Sophie returned a polite one. As Kristen had dark circles under her eyes, Sophie suspected her glumness wasn’t due to anything Sophie was responsible for doing or not doing.
Ten til Midnight 