You have to love when your morning starts off with a bang. Okay I was the one banging a pot in an effort to convince the feral neighborhood cats to get out of my garden beds. Usually I frighten them with the hose but we have had a lot of rain recently so there was no need to water. A couple of blasts from the hose usually convinces them to leave for the summer, just he to make noise until I start watering regularly. I prefer a quieter start though. Yu should not have to defend your territory before coffee. But those are my basil plants. Now onto the prompt.
Okay I started off with one thought and then got ambushed by another. I think when I go back I am just going to make this about the soap opera the bored accountant makes up in her had. I’ll create another story for her as she lives her life, but I kind of like this idea as a dramatic parallel to her life.
Thursday, May 9th: The scent of her perfume was cloying in the small space.
The scent of her perfume was cloying in the small space. Mara tried not to breath too deeply as she watched the numbers for the elevator light up as they passed each floor. She knew there would be little reprieve as Denise worked on the same floor as she did.
‘But she will be on the other side of the space and not concerned with me,’ Mara thought. Denise not only had an office far away, but she considered Mara not worth her time. They were on the same rung of the office’s corporate ladder and Denise only had eyes for those who could help her get to the next rung.
Mara was of no use to her ambitions and therefore might as well not have existed The elevator dinged and they exited. Mara escaped the scent cloud with a feeling of relief. As expected they moved in opposite directions once released from the elevator’s confines.
‘At least I know that Jared will be visiting the office today,’ Mara thought. She had little to do with Jared, spending even less time with him than with Denise. However he was several corporate ranks above them and Denise always aimed to impress. As always, Mara was left wondering if Denise wanted to date Jared or have him put in a good word for her with those ranking higher than him. From what she observed of their interactions she couldn’t tell.
‘It could be completely non-work related.’
While Mara wasn’t really concerned, from her space on the other side of the room, their interactions, in fact the interactions of all those on the opposite side of the room were a fun past time. The conversations were too far away t be overheard so it was a bit like watching a silent movie when she looked up and over.
The office was divided by central conference table that no one used. Meetings were generally held by departments in the offices of the department heads. The conference table was supposed to be for inter departmental meetings, but the different departments didn’t really interact that much. And so the conference table served merely as a border between departmental countries. Mara’s Accounting country had borders with Graphic Design Land and the HR territories. Marketing, where Denise worked was across the great conference table sea.
When Mara needed a momentary break from numbers she looked up, watched those in Marketing Land interact and created fun story lines as a reprieve. She told no one of them of course, but in her head it was a grand tragic opera acted out by people dressed in Office casual clothing. It didn’t stop her from mentally crafting murders, illicit romances and attempts to dethrone kings. She had her own ongoing series going in her head. As there was a lot of turn over in the marketing department new characters were always being introduced.
‘And even I know that Gary was transferred to the Atlanta office instead of being murdered last month,’ she reminded herself as she made her way to her office.
Ten til Midnight 