Outtakes from current work-in-progress 2015-2017

Time to Break Free

She had intended working for 3D as a temporary measure, probably for six months, then she would return to London.   3 years on and she was still there.  The work was boring her to distraction and she had nothing in common with the people she worked with.

At forty she was, by far, the oldest employee in the burgeoning Young company, which included her boss, the fresh-faced 29-year-old Ken Lorenzo.

‘Here’s to the new Millennium!’  He had said at a recent staff meeting.  ‘And here’s to our company becoming bigger, stronger and more prosperous in the year 2000.  She admired his passion and drive, as it reminded her of herself at that age.

Initially, she had made an Effort to fit in and build up workplace camaraderie, by going to the gym or jogging after work, but had found it too depressing.  After seeing herself in the mirrors at the gym, bouncing up and down next to her young, svelte co-workers, she started making feeble excuses about having to be somewhere else after work which, given her lack of social life usually meant rushing home for a glass of wine and a tray supper.  

She still tried to make an effort on the fashion front but, tottering around in ridiculously high heels every day,  was beginning to take a toll on her ankles.

She often overheard her female colleagues, comparing notes about the sexual conquest they had made over the weekend, but she was never invited to join in these conversations.  Presumably, because they thought that any sex life she might have had would have been a very long time ago.

They were irritatingly right of course, but it wasn’t that long ago, even if she couldn’t remember when … exactly.  A flurry of short-lived relationships had come and gone after Ben before Luke totally destroyed her faith in men when he went to work one morning and never come back.

So the excitement of the forthcoming Millennium was everywhere, except in the heart Katie Lyons,  She was resigned to the fact that the New Year would bring more of the same, so she expected nothing on the promised wind of change.  She had no expectations to exceed but, in her heart, she knew she needed to break free.

Filed under: fiction, Getting Older, Humour Tagged: fix, humour, Jeff Stahler, Outtakes, Writing