An Hour Late

"I had a rough afternoon yesterday," Stefanie began.

"What happened?" I asked.

"So, after you, Becca, and I met for coffee yesterday morning, I went back to my office and spent two hours being incredibly productive. At 1:00PM I slowly noticed that my office was unusually quiet. Too quiet, in fact..."

Stefanie had looked up and realized that she was the sole occupant of her entire office. Thinking that this was weird, she immediately grew nervous that she had missed an important lunch or meeting. Nah, she thought to herself. If we had a meeting, someone would have come to get me.

If only. She checked her calendar and horror dawned on her, as she discovered she was an hour late for a very important all-staff strategy meeting. OH, SHIT, she thought, jumping out of her desk chair and bolting for the conference room.

She opened the door to reveal a room packed to the breaking point with staffers who, push come to shove, had all remembered the meeting save for her. And, of course, the only available seat was on the opposite side of the room from the door, squashing any desperate hopes of filtering in unnoticed. Fuck. This is going to be unbearable.

She proceeded to sidle into the room, eyes on the prize of the solitary open chair, avoiding eye contact as she brushed past the CEO and colleagues so prepared that not only were they on time, but they were busy scribbling notes on copies of the strategy plan they had brought with them. Well, there's no way I'm going back for my copy...

After what seemed like an eternity, Stefanie finally reached the empty seat. Beet-faced, she turned to a coworker from her team.

"Why didn't you come get me?!" she hissed angrily.

"Oh!" her coworker replied, eyes fixed on the strategy plan in front of her. "I didn't even notice you were gone."


Ouch. Wicked burn.