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 209: “Already panning to go back?” Janine asked.
“Already panning to go back?” Janine asked.
“I am,” Sophie said. “It is part off my do more things I like than just work all the time life plan,” she said.
“Ohhhh new life plan,” Janine teased. “I think that definitely has romantic movie potential.”
“I think it has make me less of a work-a-holic potential,” Sophie corrected. She smiled and then yawned.
“So anything happen while I was gone?” she asked.
“Jumping back into work already?” Janine asked. “Your non work-a-holic plan fading already?”
“I was just curious,” Sophie said with a laugh.
“Well I sent off the last of the holiday dressing gowns you did as well as the regularly scheduled shipment of sleep sets and of course the fantastic clothing that was ordered.” Janine said. “They have started releasing the dressing gowns to rave results and I just transferred a rather large sum of money into your account because they just sent me a rather large sum of money. I brought the file with me for your records, so you can take it with you when we get home.”
“Was that the file in the trunk?” Sophie asked.
“It is,” Janin said. “So once you have caught up on sleep and are back into a local time zone you can go over it and add it t your tax records. If you have any questions let me know.”
“I will,” Sophie said. “Thanks for that.”
“Not a problem,” Janine said. “Especially as I secured myself a lovely commission. Do you need to go back to the office right away?”
“Nope I have the rest of the week off, So I can reset my body clock and settle back into my own life before I get back to work.”
“Good,” Janine said “And Before you get back to the office, maybe wee can sit down and look at upcoming orders.”
“Sure,” Sophie replied. “Anything I should now about?”
“More long term planning, just because I know how long those dressing gowns take you to make,” Janine told her. “They are already looking at upping the number ordered for next year so I wanted to tell you what they were thinking so that you could arrange your schedule accordingly.”
“Not a bad idea,” Sophie said. “I kind of like spacing things put more so I don’t have everything all crunched up.” She shrugged. ‘Not that I planned to crunch things up, but they did say I had to either use or lose my leave and I didn’t want to lose it.”
Sophie was glad it was not a long drive to the apartment from the air port because a she and Janine talked, Sophie felt as though two weights had been placed on her eyelids and they were slowly growing heavier and heavier. Sophie reminded herself that she just had to stay awake long enough to get upstairs and into her apartment.
‘And my keys are in the zippered pocket of my carry on,’ she thought. It was one of the things she made sure she had access to, knowing she would need the keys as soon as she arrived. Janine pulled into the apartment parking lot.
Ten til Midnight 