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 73: Sophie smiled and as he left, she focused on her own workout.
Sophie smiled and as he left, she focused on her own workout. She sweated her way through the workout and felt good about starting her day. She returned to her apartment, showered and dressed fr the day. Once ready, Sophie then gathered her things and drove to the office. Having made her decisions the day before, her steps were lighter and she didn’t feel the usual heaviness when going into the office. She was confident that if anything got worse she could find another job and if she didn’t find one right away, she would still be able to pay her bills.
It was a good feeling.
When she walked past Kristen’s desk, she was just settling in for her morning. She gave Sophie a smug smile as she passed. Sophie smiled back politely and wondered how long it would take before Mr. Evers read his e-mail and shared with the group. She went to her desk and settled in for the morning’s work. At the moment, all she had was her work to do and despite the potential drama was anticipating a fairly normal day.
‘I don’t think Mr. Evers is going to read the e-mail stating I am not on probation and throw some sort of screaming fit even if he doesn’t like it.’ Sophie suspected that if anything happened it would happen after lunch when he could talk with the others.
About twenty minutes after she settled in and began the first of her folders, Sophie saw Ryan in her doorway. He smiled and held out a folder. She refused and sent him away. He was frowning and she doubted he expected to be refused.
She got back to work. An hour passed and then Kristen was standing in her doorway. Sophie turned.
“I was told to send you to Mr. Evers’ office,” Kristen said sweetly. She set a stack of three folders on the edge of Sophie’s desk. “I’ll just leave these here for you.” She turned before Sophie could even stand and flounced off. Sophie rolled her eyes and got to her feet. She took out her earbuds, locked down her computer and left her cubicle space.
Sophie walked to Mr. Evers office and wondered what was going to happen. The door was open and she knocked on it before looking inside. To her surprise, not only was Mr. Evers there but so was Sean.
“A Sophia,” Sean said. “Please come in, this won’t take long. I just wanted to make sure everyone is on the same page.”
“Okay, sure,” Sophie said as she stepped inside
“I just wanted to say this where both of you are present so there is no more confusion,” Sean began. “We have begun transferring duties ahead of our incoming project. Sophia was chosen to participate in the set up of this project based on her exemplary work prior. Because of her new duties, she will be supervised by Elizabeth Walker from this point on.” He looked to Evers. “Should there be any reason you or any of the staff you supervise feel he need to pass any projects to Sophia to complete, you will clear them through Elizabeth before doing so.” Sean looked from Evers to Sophie.
Ten til Midnight 