Day 56

[from A Thousand Miles to San Francisco]

Wednesday began as a normal day for Samantha. She headed into work as usual, and settled down at her desk on the fourth floor, ready for another day of moving numbers back and forth. It wasn't very long, however, before her supervisor Rachel made her way over for what Samantha guessed would be an important discussion.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a minute, Sam?" she asked.

"Sure," said Samantha. Having not really started yet, she was happy for an excuse to put off the drudgery for a few moments more. She expected to have to follow Rachel to her office, but instead, Rachel launched into her talk right then and there.

"Okay," said Rachel, "this morning we just got a big new set of invoices from several of our clients, including one of yours. We're already a little behind as it is, what with that bug that was going around - not that you could help being ill, but y'know, it's not very convenient from our point of view… anyway, what I'm saying is, we've got a massive backlog to clear now, and not as much time as I'd like. So, I was hoping you and a few of the others would be willing to put in some overtime, just until we've caught back up to where we need to be. You'll be paid overtime, of course - I'm not a slave driver, you know me."

"How much overtime are we talking here?" asked Samantha. She didn't really have any commitments that might be affected by this, but it would still be nice to know.

"Well, the longest they'll let me keep you here is seven, so… ideally, until seven," said Rachel.

Samantha blew hard out of her mouth. "How long for?" she asked warily.

"Until it's done, however long that might be," said Rachel. "So the harder you work now, the less late nights you'll have to work."

"You make it sound like I've already said yes," said Samantha.

"Well, I don't wanna pressure you into it," admitted Rachel, "but I have to admit, my manager isn't too happy with the amount of slack I cut you guys. If it were up to him, you'd already be doing the overtime just to make up for the days you missed. But it's not up to him. It's up to me, so I'm giving you the choice. If you wanna do it, then like I said, I'll pay you overtime, and if you guys need caffeine to stay awake, or whatever, then I'm happy to get you some coffee. If you don't wanna do it, I'll find someone who will."

"What if nobody wants to do it?" asked Mark, sitting at the next desk along, having apparently been listening to the entire conversation. "You gonna draw lots or something?"

"Actually, yes," said Rachel, turning to him with a smirk, "and I'll put your name in four times." Mark took the jibe in good spirits, nodding with a grin before turning back to his computer.

Rachel turned back her attention back to Samantha. "Well, when you've decided what you wanna do, swing by my office and give me a shout, okay?" she said.

But Samantha had already made up her mind. "Eh- no, actually, it's okay, I'll do it," she said. "If it's one of the companies I'm dealing with, then it's my responsibility anyway, right?"

Rachel nodded, and smiled approvingly. "That's true," she said.

"And anyway," added Samantha, "I could always use the extra money."

Rachel's smile grew into a small, amused grin. "Couldn't we all," she said. "Alright, I'll go talk to some of the others about this, and then I'll go let the manager know. Keep up the good work, Sam."

"Thank you," said Samantha. "Will do." Rachel turned to go, but a question suddenly occurred to Samantha. "Oh, wait! Uhh… when will the overtime start? You know… what day?"

"Tomorrow, most likely," said Rachel. "I won't make you stay behind today, as it's too short-notice, but tomorrow will be fine, right?"

"Yeah, tomorrow's fine," said Samantha, nodding. "Okay, thank you."

"Don't mention it," said Rachel. With a curt nod, she headed off on her way, and Samantha settled down to a long day of manipulating spreadsheets.

***

Once again, Samantha was relaxing after dinner later that day when her phone began to ring. She checked the caller ID, then smiled and answered. "Hey, Dawn," she said.

"Hey, Sam!" Even down the phone, Samantha could sense the excitement in Dawn's voice. "I got the tickets for The Dark Knight Rises! It's all booked now!"

"Oh, that's great!" said Samantha. "When is it, then?"

"I managed to get tickets for a midnight screening over in Aurora, this Friday," said Dawn. "I know it's a bit short-notice, but you've got nothing going on then, right?"

"Midnight?" repeated Samantha, her stomach starting to sink. "Ohh… sorry, Dawn, but I don't think I'm gonna be able to make it."

"What?!" exclaimed Dawn. "Oh, come on, Sam, I've been looking forward to this all week! You could have at least told me before I bought the tickets!"

"I know, I'm really sorry," said Samantha apologetically. "It's just, we've suddenly had a whole bunch of work piled on top of us, and now they're making me do overtime starting tomorrow, and I'm sorry, but I'm just not gonna be able to stay awake that long. I'm tired now and I only worked nine-to-five today, I'll be working nine-to-seven tomorrow and there's no way I can make it to 2am, or whenever the film's gonna finish. Sorry."

"No, no, it's okay," said Dawn, "I understand. I should apologize as well; I got a little over-excited about this, I guess. I probably should have talked this over with you before I booked the tickets, you know, and tried to find a time that would suit us both… instead I just booked the earliest screening I could find. Should I-"

"No, it's fine, really," said Samantha quickly, "you can still go. Don't let my work commitments get in the way of your fun. You can always just sell the extra ticket on eBay or something, you can probably get, like, a hundred dollars for it."

 "I think there's websites for that, where you can sell unwanted tickets," said Dawn thoughtfully. "But, isn’t it a bit sad to go to the cinema by yourself?"

"Maybe," said Dawn, "but I think it's sadder if you refuse to go just because I can't come with you. I mean, you said you were so excited about it, you booked the earliest possible screening for it… please, Dawn, just go, I can always watch it some other time. It's no big, deal, really-"

"Alright, alright, I'll go," said Dawn, chuckling. "Geez, now who's over-reacting? Alright, tell you what: once you know when you'll be free, I'll pay for your ticket myself. Is that a deal?"

"It's a deal," said Samantha, nodding. "Okay, have fun, Dawn."

"I'll try," said Dawn. "Oh… but we still need to meet up sometime, don't we? How about we just, I dunno, go out for a coffee sometime? Something simple, you know?"

"You mean something I can't cancel at short notice?" joked Samantha.

Dawn chuckled. "You can, but if you cancel on me twice in a row, I'll be pissed. You know that, right?"

"I won't," said Samantha. "That's a promise."

"Alright, well, I'll speak to you later," said Dawn. "Have fun at work."

"I'll try," chuckled Samantha.

"Alright, bye."

"Bye," said Samantha, and the two hung up at almost exactly the same time.