By The Side Of The Road

Each And Every Day

"Beep, Beep, Beep!" 

"Ugh." Turning over on my side, I tried to go back to sleep.

"Beep, Beep, Beep!"

I slammed my fist on the off button of my alarm clock.

"Why did I ever get this?" I asked myself.

Lazily getting out of my bed, I trudged over to my closet. Opening it, I grabbed an outfit. I then went to the bathroom and did the usual: shower, shave, put on deodorant, brush my teeth, comb my hair, use the restroom, and then get dressed. After all that, I went downstairs and ate some cereal.

With one glance at my watch, I jumped up, put my dishes in the sink, and put on my shoes. Throwing on a coat, I ran out the door and I started running. When the building came into view, I slowed down a little.

"Hey, Jonathan! Wait up!"

I stopped and waited for Michael, who was my best friend since third grade. He's a tall, skinny, shy, black guy, who is very loud when he wants to be.

"Hey, guess what?" Michael asked.

"What?"

"You remember when Timothy, Mr. CEO, said that he was gonna promote someone?"

Last week Timothy came into the office and announced that and then everyone freaked, wondering who it was.

"Yeah."

"Good, because I have some news," Michael said, his smile growing bigger when he saw that I turned my head to look at him, giving him my full attention.

"What is it?"

"I know who it is."

"Who?"

"You, of course."

"Me?"

"Did I stutter? Yes you!"

"How? Why?"

"Because you've worked harder than everyone else ever since you started working at the gosh darn place!"

I looked at him in surprise, he rarely ever said anything even remotely similar to a cuss word. So, in my state of disbelief, I diverted my attention to the random stores, shops, and cafes that we passed.

Upon coming up on the building, we silenced ourselves. I walked over to my office and started working on a spreadsheet that I had to get done before Thursday. Seeing as it's Monday and i'm more than half way done, I would say that I am doing pretty good.

"Hello, Jonathan."

I looked over at the door and saw Malia, Michael's wife, standing there.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Nothing much. What are you working on?" She walked over to my side of my desk and looked over my shoulder.

"Just a spreadsheet. Hey, why are you here?"

"No reason, I just wanted to check up on you. Our offices are right next to each other and my husband is your best friend, so it makes no sense why we haven't chatted for three months.

"Huh, I guess I just haven't been able to."

"No luck?"

"Yeah, I thought she was perfect. She had big, bright blue eyes. She was very kind, and she had a smile that twinkled like the stars."

"It sounds like you really liked her."

"Yeah."

"I don't get it."