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 114: Once they were in the drawers, Sophie looked at the key ring.
Once they were in the drawers, Sophie looked at the key ring. One of the smaller keys was marked with the same company logo ass the filing cabinet and so she tried that first. It fit and she locked the cabinet that now had files in it, leaving the empty ones unlocked. There were several keys remaining on the ring and after pairing up the other filing cabinets, Sophie found that one of the keys went to the office door and another went to the drawer in her desk.
“So I can lock up the files currently in motion without having to put them in the cabinet at night,” Sophie told herself. That was a relief. She still put her files in the drawer before she left for the evening but with no way to lock it, they hadn’t really been secure. ‘But now they are.’
As she now knew what keys went where, Sophie went back to her desk and got back to work. At lunch, time Petra stopped by and brought with her a couple of others from the office. They made a small group as they went from the office to the food court with the food trucks. While Petra seemed to gossip a little less with the others around, Sophie was unsurprised she couldn’t wait to ask about the water incident.
“Is it true Kristen dumped water on you?” Petra asked. The others grew quiet to listen, the other conversations dying off.
Sophie had been expecting the question and was just surprised it had taken so long to come up. “It is,” she said. “I ran into her coming back from the water fountain and she dumped her water on me.”
“You got off lucky,” Linda said. She shook her head. “Kelly is pretty sure she is the one who punctured her tire about a year or so ago.”
“She punctured a tire?” Sophie asked.
Linda nodded. “There was no proof of course, but it was pretty obvious.”
“Kristen and Kelly didn’t get on?” Sophie asked.
“Kelly is Ryan’s wife,” Linda clarified.
“Oh,” Sophie said. “I didn’t realize she worked here.”
“She doesn’t any more,” Linda said. “She left to work for Davidson down the street.” Sophie nodded as Linda gestured towards the blue glass building. “I heard that she’s been saving up so she could divorce Ryan.”
“I’m not surprised,” Dana said nodding. “Kristen’s not the first he’s taken up with. I would have left him a long time ago.”
“I think they had some debt she wanted cleared before she left,” Petra said.
“Conversation flowed around her and while Sophie nodded politely and made a few non-committal sounds she was careful not to add to any of the gossip. ‘I’m just happy to leave Kristen behind,’ she though. ‘And as I have no interest in Ryan there is no need to go after my car.’
The group of them made it to the food court and dispersed to different vehicles so they could each pick up what they wanted for lunch. Then once they gathered their food items, they all headed back to the office. Sophie was pleased that they all went their separate ways once they were back in the building as she still needed to catch up from both the office move and the shifting of files.
The rest of the day flowed without interruption.
Ten til Midnight 