"Great, just great," Haley commented to only herself. She had come into the office today because, everyone was supposed to come into the office three days a week and she had only been in two so far. Somehow though, people all mysteriously were out on Friday. Not everyone came into the office on Friday, but a good third of the office was supposed to and yet, she had ended up working at her cubicle alone on a freezing day with the chance of heavy snow.
And now the snow had come. And not only had it come, but it had arrived in abundance. This was beyond the predictions and Haley was snowed in. In her office. Alone.
Although, she supposed alone wasn't the worst. It could've been very awkward to be in the office with her boss or with the guy she suspected had a crush on her. Though it could've been the start of a romance novel if she'd been snowed in with the guy she had a crush on. But still, romance novels weren't real life so it was best that she was alone.
Haley went to the kitchen and silently thanked Ashley, the office manager, for buying up snacks for the office before she went on her skiing vacation. She also thanked her past self for buying her groceries on her lunch break from the nearby store. For now, the power seemed to still be on so she made a microwavable pizza and a hot chocolate and settled in to watch the snow. At first, she just went to her cube, where she had her blanket and space heater. She turned her chair around to face away from her comptuer, which could in theory still ding with work even though it was after five, and face towards the floor to ceiling windows to gaze out at the blizzard.
It was pretty, but it would be prettier if Haley was able to go home and watch from there. Yet, she could still appreciate the swirls that the flakes made in the wind and the way campus looked quiet and peaceful, blanketed and tucked in to the snow.
But soon it grew too dark to get a good view and now what would she do? Haley didn't really want to keep sitting in her desk chair or at her cubicle. She had already messaged her friends and family to let them know of her situation, but no one could come help. She made a brief call to campus security, but they said as long as she was safe, she should stay put. They always were so helpful.
A devious thought entered Haley's brain. The office was hers. She didn't have to stay at her cubicle. She didn't have to act like it was work.
Feeling free, she took off her bra and stuffed it in her purse. There was no reason to wear it anymore. No one was here and no one would be coming until at least the morning. No one locked their offices, so she went and snooped through their stuff. She learned that Deborah kept gummy worms in her desk. Haley didn't take any, but planned to ask Deborah if she had a snack stash the next time they were both in the office. She found out that Adam kept a bottle of whiskey in his filing cabinet and made a mental plan to check in with the guy. The best was going into the director's office. It really was the nicest office. It should be a bit chilly, being a corner office with windows, but it had its own thermostat and Haley cranked it. The chair was better and boy did it feel good to lay back and put her feet up on the large, wooden desk.
Haley spent the evening as she pleased. She tracked how long it took to run a lap around their side of the office as well as how long it took to run a lap around the financial services's side. She huffed hot air on the windows and drew dirty pictures. She ate bags upon bags of the office popcorn as she watched cartoons on the office's WiFi. She figured out where the leftover swag from last year's symposium was and snagged a water bottle, a shirt, and a hard drive (seriously, why had they sprung for hard drives?).
When it came time to sleep, she grabbed her blanket and raided offices for back pillows and made herself a little nest under her desk (something she dreamed of doing on her sleepier, in both senses of the word, days). It was quite cozy actually, she could tolerate this, at least for a night.
The next morning, she was still snowed in and the charm had somewhat worn off. But she still found new things to do. She recreated the games that they'd done with office supplies on that one TV show. She rearranged her tchotchkes into different scenes (some of which were NSFW). And she even organized the supply closet (yes, this is who she was as a person).
Needless to say, she was relieved when, later in the afternoon, public safety finally dug her out.
(Prompt by Kimisha Cassidy)
Comments
Post a Comment