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 162: ‘Maybe I should look elsewhere,’ she decided.
‘Maybe I should look elsewhere,’ she decided. When she was given the month off so that Sean and his team could check the productivity of the department, she pulled together her resume and started looking for job openings. When she went back to the office and things settled down, she stopped. ‘But I still have my resume,’ she thought.
She let the thought slide through her mind. Perhaps during this administrative leave she could actually put in for a few open jobs in addition to working on the collection. ‘As a stopgap in case things don’t work out with Havers.’
Sophie had to admit she liked the idea. Even beyond just having a back up plan, the way she was sent on administrative leave because of someone else’s problems, even when they knew she was a problem didn’t sit right with her. Having an out that didn’t depend on the potential for her garments to sell made her feel a lot better about the situation.
“So I’ll just mix a little bit of a job search in with my garment creation.”
She parked on the street in front of the fabric emporium. With the plan to look for work elsewhere in place, she felt better about spending money here. She had her list and managed to add everything she needed for the current project to the cart. She found a couple of closeout bolds she couldn’t help adding to the cart as material either for something just for her wardrobe or for a few one time only pieces and it felt like enough of a trat that she was able to leave any bad feelings behind.
Sophie drove back to her apartment and wrote out a check list of everything that needed to be done. She blended the sleepwear sets with the garment creation, added in a dash of job search and not only had a schedule for her unexpected time off but a checklist. It was similar to how she worked in the office and made her feel less like she was drifting.
Her days quickly fell into a rhythm. Knowing the leave from work was temporary, she made certain to keep her same schedule. She mentioned the admin leave to Kevin in the gym when he asked how work was without Kristen in the office. She mentioned that she was thinking of looking for work elsewhere and a few days later he mentioned a job opening in his building. She took the information and sent in an application to that as well as a few other opportunities she found. Beyond that she didn’t think about the office.
Sophie worked steadily through her list of necessary items and a few days before the two weeks was over, Sophie dropped off the first shipment with Janine to be shipped with everything else. When she got back, Sophie found several messages, each asking her to come in for a job interview. She managed to schedule them all in the time she still had off and they seemed to go well. The jobs were more or less similar to what she was doing now.
Some paid more, some paid less, but over all everything was comparable. At the end of her two weeks off, Sophie thought there would be a call letting her know they were either extending the time off or had decided to fire her. Instead she was told the matter was settled and that she was expected back in the office on the following Monday. Sophie found she wasn’t entirely certain how she felt about that.
Ten til Midnight 