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 165: Taking stock, Sophie realized she was only three files away from fully catching up.
Taking stock, Sophie realized she was only three files away from fully catching up. It felt like a huge accomplishment. ‘It took me longer to catch up last time,’ she thought as she picked up her notebook and went upstairs for her meeting with Elizabeth. ‘But I guess I was out for a month that time.’
The elevator took her upstairs and after greeting the receptionist and getting the all clear to go back, Sophie walked into Elizabeth’s office. She looked up from her computer and smiled.
“I can’t tell you how glad I am you are back,” Elizabeth said. “I tried to get through the files so you wouldn’t have such a back log but there was simply no way I could add your work to mine.”
Sophie sat in her accustomed chair. “I am almost caught up,” she said. “By the end of the day it should be back to normal.”
“And with only two days coming in early.”
“And a week skipping lunch,” Sophie couldn’t resist adding.
Elizabeth blinked. “I’ll make a note,” she said. “So where are you on the almost caught up list?”
Sophie brought her up to speed on the list of files she had yet to complete and Elizabeth looked relieved. “The most important ones are complete,” she said. “Not that they aren’t all important in their own way,” Elizabeth said. “But some of those clients could have major issues if their databases went too long without updating.”
Sophie nodded but said nothing.
Elizabeth made notes on her progress and then looked at Sophie. “There have been a couple of calls,” she began.
“Calls?” Sophie asked.
“Reference calls,” Elizabeth clarified. “People checking your references.”
“Oh,” Sophie said. “Yeah, I went on a couple of job interviews.”
“I see,” Elizabeth said. She sighed. “I can’t say I blame you. I would more than likely have done the same thing. I do also want to say that you ae a valued member of staff and we would hate to lose you. If one of the companies make you a serious offer I would like you to let me know before you decide to accept if at all possible.”
“I can do that,” Sophie said. She knew if Elizabeth was the only one left to pick up her work when she left and she couldn’t manage it, the company would have to get someone in place quickly. While Sophie was thinking of leaving, she didn’t want to leave anyone in trouble.
“Excellent,” Elizabeth said. “Then I will let you get back to work, and thank you for putting in the extra effort to catch up the files.”
Sophie left the short meeting and as she rode the elevator back down to her floor she thought about the meeting. She wasn’t really surprised that whoever was checking references called Elizabeth. ‘But if they are checking references, they might be thinking about offering me a job.’
It was something else to think about.
Sophie decided thinking about it could wait. For the moment, she had projects to finish because there was no way she was going to stay late if she could help it.
Ten til Midnight 