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 46: Sophie wondered if he would try to get her pulled from the project.
Sophie wondered if he would try to get her pulled from the project. “It is doable with my current workload, but I will not be able to take work from others,” Sophie said. A part of her wanted to remind him that when she took off, no one picked up her work. She didn’t. Not mentioning it was harder than she thought it would be and she found she was still angry about that.
“Right,” Mr. Evers said. “I’m afraid it will cause others overtime,” he sighed heavily. “Are you sure you can’t possibly…” he let the sentence dangle hoping she would pick it up.
“I’m afraid not,” she answered.
“It isn’t really fair…” he began.
Not commenting caused Sophie to compress her lips. She lifted an eyebrow and stared at him. He blinked.
“If you can’t then you can’t,” he said. He sighed heavily. “I will have to make a notation about your unwillingness to be a team player.” Sophie knew from past experience that both asking for her to be a team player and reminding her of the quarterly reviews were his favorite pressure points.
“I’m still afraid that I can not take on the work of others at this time.” Sophie said.
Inside she reminded herself not to mention the long lunches or the frequently dropped off files or the work she came back to. It made for a lot she had to keep inside. It did communicate her point and Mr. Evers left, taking the files with him.
Wondering what would happen, Sophie left off her ear buds for the moment. “I am afraid she is not free to assist you at the moment,” she heard Mr. Evers say to Kristen.
“Can’t you just …order her to do it?” Kristen asked.
“She has been given a project from the top floor and needs to focus on it right now. It is only temporary,” Evers replied.
“But I can’t stay late tonight,” Kristen said. She dropped her voice a little lower and Sophie found herself leaning in. “Ryan and I have plans.”
“Ah yes,” Mr. Evers replied. “Well, your workload is particularly heavy at this point, I expect we can just give you an extension and then you can work on it next week.”
Sophie leaned back as Kisten thanked him. She rolled her eyes and put her ear buds in, more than willing to not listen in any more. She turned back to her computer monitor and decided that if she was going to be sent a file each week from the upper floors, she would make sure that even if she completed it early, it would stay out on her desk. ‘It might be the only way I don’t stay late on Fridays.’
Ten til Midnight 