Well, not really. But will you look at that poll? Last night at 9:45, AFTER the poll had closed, it was a clear, if narrow win for Jeff in the Five Minute Fiction Challenge Week Four. But now look at it! It’s a TIE between Jeff and Robert James Russell. GAAHH!!

Oh well, more kudos for Robert, @robhollywood, who has been the almost-winner of every challenge since he found us.

What are you people going to do about it? Are you going to let him get away with this?

Robert James Russell’s entry:

It was just after lunch when she called me into the nearest conference room. She was seated, and I’d been so busy I hadn’t had a chance to really look at what she was wearing: a black pencil skirt, white short-sleeved blouse with ruffles along the breast, grey high heels, no pantyhose. She had a yellow notepad propped on the table with a pen resting up at the top.

“Jonathan. Please, have a seat,” she said as I made my way to the chair across from her, wiping my mouth free of stray bits of my chicken salad.

“Uh, hi, Christine,” I said smiling, more of a smirk really. “What’s all this?”

“This is your annual review,” she said, taking the pen in her hand and clicking the end a few times.

“My…review? I thought we did those last month?”

“Not fully, no,” she said taking a piece of paper from a folder buried beneath the notepad. I could see check boxes on it, and some ominous note-taking fields.

“What’s that?”

“This is the report I fill out,” she said curtly, not even looking at me, looking it over with a wave of her index finger.

“Um, I’m confused,” I said leaning back, looking around the small room and the generic paintings on the wall depicting a fairly Picasso-ish man in a boat in varied poses.

“How so?”

“Isn’t this just a formality? You know, because of..”

“Because of what?” she said, looking up at me, her big brown eyes boring through me.

“You know, because of our…relationship…outside of work.”

“Anything that goes on outside of this office is not to be discussed at this time,” she said looking back down.

“Okay, so, this is…this is just part of the review process, this new report you have to fill out?”

“Yes, it is. What I fill out here will have a direct result on your future here.”

“Um, okay,” I said leaning forward. “Are you mad about something? How come no one else had to do a supplement review like this?”

“The only thing you have to worry about at this time,” she said writing something down, “is your performance. Don’t worry about anything else.”

“Fine, fine,” I said sighing loudly.

“Now, she said, before we begin, you are aware of the date today, yes?”

“Yeah, it’s June Fifteenth.”

“So you are aware of the date. Excellent, than we shall move on,” she said writing again, and it struck me, that I had forgotten her birthday, June Fourteenth, my face washing over white in embarrassment, wondering how I could’ve ever forgotten it.

“Oh, my God, Christine,” I said pleading. “I can’t believe I forgot—”

“Please don’t interrupt,” she said looking at me once again, her lips formed downwards, her face twisted with pleasure. “We have a ways to go still.”