Catastrophe Averted

Lauren celebrated her new promotion with her girlfriends. They were hanging out in a posh bar downtown, drinking Manhattans and talking cheerfully to each other. Little did Lauren know that this meeting would be the last for a long time.

From her first day on her new role at the office, Lauren was bombarded with documents, phone calls, meetings, business trips. Her inbox kept on piling up. No plan she had made has ever came through. She was living from one event to another. No weekends, no holidays. No time to live.

On her birthday her friends had rented a fabulous beach house on a magical sandy shore. She had taken the day off and was waiting for that celebration like the farmers are waiting for the first drop of rain after the drought.

A day before her birthday the piles on her desk had reached a new height. She was working like a maniac, preparing for tomorrow, making sure she is going to have the day to herself and her girlfriends. It has almost been a year since they last saw each other at the promotion-party downtown.

She left her office at midnight. Exhausted and completely drained. The piles on her desk haven't even reached the half mark yet. She was worried. The next day, at 9 a.m., she got a phone call from the office. "There's an emergency. I wouldn't have called if it weren't so urgent. I'm sorry" The secretary said.

Lauren took a cab to the office and was frantically trying to handle the situation. More documents. More faxes. More phone calls and video conferences. At 10 PM she had left the office. Another catastrophe averted, but what about the havoc which is running in her private life?


--Time's up--