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 111: On the other side of the cubicle wall, Sophie heard a thump and suspected Kristen too now knew that she was getting an actual office instead of just a cubicle.
On the other side of the cubicle wall, Sophie heard a thump and suspected Kristen too now knew that she was getting an actual office instead of just a cubicle. Sophie tried to smother her smile and maintain a calm expression. She had no reason to antagonize Kristen. Soon, she would not have to deal with Kristen at all. It would not matter if she was in a bad mood.
There would be no snarky comments and no need to pretend she didn’t know anything. ‘I might actually roll my eyes less,’ Sophie thought.
Soon enough Cal had her computer unhooked and loaded onto the cart. All of the associated cables were loaded up with it and Sophie followed Cal out of the cubicle, past Kristen and into the hall. When they came to a stop by the elevator, Sophie looked back. Kristen was scowling at her. Sophie tried not to smile.
‘Soon my mornings will start on a different floor,’ she reminded herself as the elevator dinged. ‘No more walking past her desk.’
Sophie considered that the best part of the deal. She knew there was some perceived hierarchy upgrade as she was moving to a higher floor and would have walls instead of an office in the cubicle. The truth was that not having to deal with Kristen was the best upgrade.
‘Not that I mind an actual door,’ Sophie thought. She and Cal rode the elevator up one floor and were soon exiting on the floor above. ‘It’s not permanent though,’ she reminded herself. ‘This is just what is available now, not where I will end up once they hire more people.’
As Sean said, the office was located between HR and Accounting. As Cal rolled her computer past HR, Petra gave her a little wave before walking over.
“Moving offices?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Sophie said. “They wanted me separate at last until they hire more for the department.”
“Cool,” Petra said. “It’ll make finding you for lunch easier.”
Call wheeled the computer into the office. The office wasn’t all that much wider than the desk. There was enough space to get around the end of the desk and into the chair to sit behind it. The office was longer than her cubicle though and around the walls were filing cabinets. They lined the wall between the desk and the door. As Cal started to reassemble her various computer parts, Sophie opened one of the filing cabinet drawers. It was empty. She looked in the others. They too were empty of files.
‘So, no one was using it for storage,’ Sophie thought. She wondered if the files that were being created for the new databases would be stored here. ‘Makes sense if they were.’
Cal finished hooking up her computer. “Should work good as new,” he told her. “You are linked to the HR printer, mostly because accounts sometimes print on special forms and it can be kind of a mess.”
“I can show you where it is,” Petra said from the hall.
“Excellent,” Cal said. “Your phone should be hooked up by the end of the day, if not, it will definitely be transferred over by the morning.” He looked around. “I think that covers it. I’ll just leave you to get settled in. Call down to IT if something isn’t working as it should.”
“I will,” Sophie said. “Thanks.”
Ten til Midnight 