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 182: She stood up.
She stood up. Sophie headed back to her office. All thinks considered she was pleased with the way things worked out. As long as work was steady and calm she could focus on her sewing business and not worry about anything. She was certain that if she wanted she could probably survive off of her sewing business revenue, but it would be tight and more uncertain than she liked.
Sophie liked having that steady paycheck and all of the benefits that came with the regular job. ‘And if it gets to be too much I can always gire someone to work with me,’ she thought. Sophie couldn’t help but smile in amusement at the thought. She doubted it would get to the point where she would need to hire someone to help.
‘And once things settle down the extra money could be useful for an actual vacation. Sophie suspected that any time off she did take, beyond a few hours or a day here and there for doctor’s appointments and such would be all the time off she could expect. At the moment there wa no one else who could take up any slack caused by her leaving.
‘I suppose that is job security.’
She reached her desk and logged back into the computer eager to get her day started.
Sophie worked until lunch time and when it approached mid-day, even though it wasn’t one of the days where she usually went out, Sophie walked over to Lindas desk.
“Did you really stop Kristen from burning down the place?” She asked as she stopped by Linda’s desk.
Linda rolled her eyes. “I did,” Linda admitted. “Although truthfully I was just so mad that I don’t remember much. Are you going to pick up lunch?”
“I can,” Sophie replied. She didn’t mind stepping away from the desk and changing her schedule. She also had to admit she was curious. Linda picked up her purse and the two of them left. Sophie looked around for Petra but didn’t see her.
“She took the day off,” Linda said.
“Oh,” Sophie nodded. They got into the elevator and rode down in silence. In the lobby they showed their badges to the machine and were clocked out for lunch. Once outside, Linda took a deep beath and shook her head.
“I was just so mad.” Linda said. “I spent a chunk of time dealing with the insurance company. Even though they knew I wasn’t responsible for the screwdriver they wanted to make sure I hadn’t done something that I could be held responsible for. We got it worked out but I can assure you, we are switching insurance companies,” Linda huffed.
“I can understand that.”
“We just managed to sort that out and then there was Kristen, looking crazy as a loon. You know she was pouring gasoline on the pavement? All I could think was that I would have to explain to the insurance company how my car blew up and I lost it completely.”
“Not something I would want to explain,” Sophie said as they walked towards the food trucks.
Ten til Midnight 