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 166: For the moment, she had projects to finish because there was no way she was going to stay late if she could help it.
For the moment, she had projects to finish because there was no way she was going to stay late if she could help it. Sophie barely looked up the rest of the day and typed in the last of her file just as the clock ticked over to signal the end of the day. It was a relief too lock the last of the files away and know that she caught up, that normality had been restored.
‘And with Kristen gone then it should remain restored unless something else happens,’ Sophie thought as she shut everything down and picked up her bag. There was always the thought that Kristen wouldn’t be happy with the fact that after an administrative leave Sophie was sent back to work with no problems.
‘I wonder if she would know that,” she thought ass she left for the day. Linda, Petra and the others were chatty ass they left with her. They talked about their weekend plans and deliberately didn’t mention anything about Sophie’s leave. In fact aside from the welcome back she got at the beginning of the week there was no mention of it.
“At least I caught up,” Sophie said in the elevator, wondering if she started the conversation it could be cleared out.
“From your leave?” Linda asked.
“My unscheduled administrative leave because of Kristen,” Sophie replied.
Linda gasped. “That’s what that was for?”
Sophie looked at her. “You didn’t know?”
“No, we just knew you were on admin leave and thought it had something to do with your old department since your reviews came in positive.”
Petra nodded at Linda’s statement.
“Apparently Kristen made a stink about being fired and got lawyers involved so since I was mentioned they put me on leave while they investigated.”
“That’s why it was a paid leave,” Petra said. “I wondered because usually admin leave is unpaid so it is sort off a punishment, but yours specifically wasn’t.”
“They had to send you on leave to make sure Kristen was lying?” Linda asked. She snorted. “I could have told them that.”
“I was told it had to look like a fair review,” Sophie said.
“And so you had to go on leave and then spend the week catching up?” Petra said. She shook her head. “That woman really does cause so many problems.”
The elevator dinged and they all walked out of the elevator and towards the parking lot. The atmosphere between them felt a little more settled and Sophie felt better for airing it out.
‘But I shouldn’t have had to,’ she thought as she went to her car. The thought irritated her, but at the same time there was nothing she could do about it. ‘Accept take another job if offered one.’
She got into her car and drove home, determined to put the week behind her.
As she spent most of her off hours simply decompressing from work, Sophie was determined to make her weekend feel like she accomplished something. While she was too tired to do much on Friday night and after dinner collapsed on the couch, Saturday morning, she woke up refreshed. She got up early and decided that a drive to the fabric emporium would be her first stop for the day. She wasn’t in desperate need of anything, but she thought looking at some of the different fabrics might bring inspiration on its own, or at least shake her out of her work mode.
‘And I can always add more fabrics for sleep wear.’ Just because she was stocked at the moment didn’t mean that she wouldn’t work through her supplies. ‘Besides It feels positive. I will stock up because I know I will use it. This week in fact I will be getting back to making more sleep sets.’ Sophie liked the thought of knowing that she would use what she purchased. It made it feel like the long week was finally behind her.
Ten til Midnight 