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 148: Sophie left the conference room and walked back to Elizabeth’s office.
Sophie left the conference room and walked back to Elizabeth’s office. She didn’t think that she was needed, but wasn’t sure about leaving without checking in. Given the past few days, Sophie expected that she would be asked about Kristen or Ryan, or even Carrie and Evers. She wasn’t she was just asked to relay her work with the department and go over how she made the transfer from the departments.
‘Strange,’ she thought. ‘But I guess corporate isn’t interested in gossip.’ As she stopped in Elizabeth’s doorway, Sophie wondered if this was because they planned to fire someone and wanted to make sure everything was official in case someone sued for wrongful termination.
‘I suppose they could be protecting the corporate behind.’
She looked into the office and Elizabeth looked up and smiled.
“All done?” she asked.
“Yes,” Sophie replied.
“I told you it would be relatively painless.”
“I guess so,” Sophie said. “Did you need me for anything else or can I get back to work?”
“You can get to work,” Elizabeth said. “Sorry for the strange start to the day. We will be skilling the afternoon meeting today though so at least you won’t need to come up here twice.”
“Okay then,” she said. “Have a good Friday and a good weekend beyond then.”
Elizabeth wished her the same and Sophie walked towards the elevator. She reached the receptionist’s desk when the doors opened and Kristen got out. She narrowed her eyes and huffed when she saw Sophie and then glided up to the receptionist; s desk. Sophie stepped away and walked towards the elevator.
“I have a meeting,” she informed the receptionist in a voice meant to carry. She was given the same conference room with directions that Sophie had been given. Sophie stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for her floor. ‘If anyone would sue for wrongful termination it would be Kristen,’ she thought as the elevator doors shut.
She rode to her floor and walked back to her office. The others were busy but the rush had lost it’s frantic edge from earlier in the week and Sophie guessed that the bulk of the evaluations were processed. She thought over her evaluation. it had gone well and then there had been this craziness with Kristen and Ryan. She knew her work was considered acceptable and thought she had proven that she wasn’t involved in much of anything beyond her work.
‘And if I was going to get fired, they would have to put me on probation first since I’m not on probation now.’ She was fairly certain that was part of the company policy. She couldn’t remember as it hadn’t come up since she was walked through the employee handbook during her orientation. That had been her first week and a lot of time had passed since then.
‘Maybe I’ll look over it during lunch.’ she thought. ‘It’s not like I am going anywhere.’
Sophie tried to set it to the side as she unlocked her desktop and took her files out of the drawer. Because of her shortened lunches and the infectiousness of the frantic pace of those around her, Sophie was actually in a fairly good position. Even though she hadn’t expected the morning meeting, she planned for her afternoon meeting with her supervisor. ‘But with that canceled, I’m still ahead.’
Despite knowing her work level was fine, she felt as though she was behind because of the late start. ‘And there is no way I am risking staying late tonight,’ she thought. With only a little bit left to finish on the final piece for her collection, there was no way Sophie planned to stay late.
Ten til Midnight 