Just another DAY

Claire had no idea where her life was heading — perhaps fate would lend a hand

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Another day lay ahead. Another 24 hours, just the same as yesterday and the day before that and... However long it was since she’d lost her job.

She sat up in bed and immediately regretted it. The mirror on the opposite wall reflected a woman not at her best.

If her mother had been there, she’d probably have said, ‘Well, you've really let yourself go, dear, haven’t you?”

Her mother always looked groomed and sophisticated, regardless of any situation she found herself in. How did she do it?

Claire sighed. She had been assistant to an editor in a well-known publishing company until three months ago. The firm was ‘overstaffed’, they said, and had asked for volunteers to take redundancy.

It didn’t occur to her to volunteer.

Surely her job was safe? And when she was told, ‘Reluctantly, we'll have to let you go’, she had clung to the hope that her boss, Philip, would leap to her defence. He would surely say he couldn’t possibly manage without her. After all, didn’t she organise everything for him?

And didn’t she stay late whenever he had to leave early, and finish his work for him? Work that was theoretically above her pay grade, but which, admittedly, she enjoyed and managed with ease. She would add his name to it, of course - she was loyal and thought him wonderful. More importantly, she believed he valued her too.

Only when she received the redundancy letter did she learn Philip had been party to the decision to let her go. Apparently, he ‘deeply regretted’ that the firm could no longer keep her on, although he didn’t pick up the phone to speak to her or even send an email. She tried to contact him at work, but he was always ‘engaged’.

She hadn’t coped well with this unexpected blow to both her career and confidence. She missed the buzz of office life and working closely with Philip.