She Wasn't You

Chapter 1

Friday was finally here, clock watching at my desk for the last 8 hours. It has been a long week, but there was only half an hour remaining in this god forsaken office. 30 minutes of pretending to be busy.

Come on, we're all guilt of pretending to look just at work on occasions, right?

29 minutes...

"Tommy, can you just run your eyes over this report before I send it on to the senior manager please?"

I looked up at my boss, his grey hair, drawn in face with more wrinkles on it than a Chinese Shar Pei, his cigarette breath pouring out into my nostrils, the stench of coffee followed him around. I'm pretty sure coffee was his natural scent.

"Sure, boss. No problem." I know he could sense the sarcasm but at this point in the week, I couldn't give a fuck. Like I was really going to find a problem with the report! It could be full of errors but I'd still okay it. Think I'm sticking around while he amends the errors and expects me to wait around to double check it again? I don't think so, buddy!

15 minutes...

I walk the paperwork back over to Robert's desk, laying them down beside his keyboard. "All good, boss. Think this is good to go."

And in actual fact it was, the document was fine. Thankfully.

"Amazing, thank you for double checking. I think I'm getting worse with my age at actually believing anything I do is right. Carry on working like you are, Tony and this job is all yours when I retire."

Retire? You should have retired years ago you. I should have your job now you cheeky fucker. It's not my fault your wife doesn't want you at home all the time. Can't say I blame her.

"That's very nice of you to say, Rob. But I'm sure you still have a few years left in the tank yet!"

I didn't want to get into a conversation with him so quickly turned away from his desk before he called me back. Rolling my eyes before facing him once more.

"Get out of here early, you deserve some time back. Go and enjoy your weekend." He used his hand to shoo me away like a fly around his dinner plate.

Oh wow! Thank you so much. I get out a whole 12 minutes early. What will I do with all of this time I now have on my hands?

"Thanks, Rob. Have a nice weekend."

I scurried back to my desk to pack my laptop away and lock my belongings in the drawer of my desk. This old bastard wasn't going to catch me now. I was out.

Flinging the laptop bag over my shoulder, I held my hand up to bid everyone still working a goodbye and wishing them all a nice weekend. The standard office goodbye.

                                  ~~~

Those extra 12 minutes of my weekend soon passed by without doing much but standing on the platform waiting for my train to arrive. Typically, the earlier train had been cancelled so I ended up getting the same train I always do.

Life has a funny way of slapping you in the balls, doesn't it?

When my train finally did pull up to the station, it was packed. Full of commuters who's weekends had started a little later due to the cancellation of their usual train. But in good old fashioned London commuter fashion, I made room on the carriage for me. I wasn't missing this one too.

I felt my phone vibrate in my jacket pocket, unable to reach it due to being packed against others like sardines, it would have to wait until I could access it with ease.