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 126: Sophie nodded. “One I am glad I no longer have a front row seat to watch.”
Sophie nodded. “One I am glad I no longer have a front row seat to watch.”
“Well you won’t need to be going back there anytime soon.” Elizabeth assured her. She looked up and past Sophie and Sophie turned to see Saen in the doorway. He looked harried and annoyed.
“Sorry to interrupt, but when you are finished, Elizabeth, I could really use your help,” Sean said.
“Of course,” Elizabeth said. “Unless you have any questions I think we are done,” she said to Sophie.
“No questions,” Sophie said.
“Great, then I will let you get back to it,”
Sophie nodded and stood. Sean stepped aside as she exited the office and nodded to her.
“Good to see you, and sorry to hurry you along like this.”
“No problem,” Sophie said. She stepped towards the elevator. Sean moved into Elizabeth’s office.
“It’s Don Evers,” she heard him say before he closed the door.
‘I don’t care,’ Sophie told herself as she walked away. ‘I am not involved.’
While she expected that someone would hear some sort of gossip and it would e reported at lunch the following week, Sophie was more than happy to let someone else spread any gossip relating to her former department and supervisor.
She took the elevator down and tried to decide if mentioning the affairs to Elizabeth was a good or bad thing. She hadn’t meant to do it. ‘Maybe I said something because Kristen was now starting in on Carrie.’
While Sophie didn’t like Carrie much better than Kristen, she didn’t like Kristen pushing rumors off on others. ‘The way she tried to do with me.’
As the elevator sunk down to her floor, Sophie decided to let it all go. She had a few hours left off work and then she would be able to take her first attempt at patterns for her first outfit and start cutting out the pieces from her test cloth. Soon she would see the first of her designs for this style of clothing become a reality and to her, that was far more exciting than any office gossip. ‘Even if it is only muslin cloth today.’
At her desk, Sophie went back to work. Friday after her meeting with Elizabeth, she always ended up focused so that the time away from her desk wouldn’t eat into her productivity.
‘Although it is nice to know I won’t be adding anything else,’ Sophie thought. The level of work she was doing now was the perfect level for her. She could complete it in a work day and not worry about it when she left the office. If anything delayed her then she could shave a few minutes off of lunch to catch up and still leave on time.
The afternoon had her focused and clearing away the last of her files ass she started to hear the others getting ready to leave. Sophie hurriedly locked the last of her files away and shut down her computer as Petra appeared at her door.
“Ready for the weekend?” Petra asked.
“Very,” Sophie replied. She closed down the last of things and cast an eye over her desk as she picked up her bag to go. Everything was as it should be and she moved to the door.
“Elizabeth said I will be in this office a while as they don’t need to hire any more just yet,” she told Petra. It was her contribution to the office gossip. “She suggested I put a print on the wall or something.”
“It is a bit bare,” Petra said. Together they walked towards the elevator.
Ten til Midnight 