Now It Is Later

6 minutes, timed; prompt = title and picture of harried businesswomen on two phones.

"Hello? Hello"

Oh, God, did I just do that? Her mind slid and careened down sequin cobblestone alleys of caffeine like rivulets in a flash flood.

"Cynthia, you still there?"
"Excuse me, madame?"

Snapped back abruptly to reality when her panicked gaze flitted over one of the half-dozen Starbucks coffee cups strewn about on her desk, she dejectedly realized that indeed she did just do that? Now it was later, but there she was back then still, her addled mind rattling between the speakers of two phones, in one ear a pending hotel reservation for a week past when the voice in the other speaker had requested she make it. Oh, s**t.

"Bertrand, darling? Can I get right back to you?" Squeezing out a nervous chuckle, "Yes, it's been an absolute bear of a day!"

"Sorry, sir. An important client just rang. You don't happen to have any openings for the week before, do you? Oh, I understand perfectly, this time of year and all. The weekend of the sixteenth will be just fine. Thank you for being so accommodating on such short notice. Yes, you too."

Both hands finally free to tap their ruby fingernails on the desk, she stared out through the sudden silence onto the steel-and-cobalt river. But will Bertrand be as accommodating? Turning one corner of her mouth down into a scowl she picked up the office phone to find out.