The calendar showed it was Tuesday. Carissa sighed as she stared at the cityscape that hung above the dates. For a moment she was no longer in her cubicle but in New York. She had been there several times as a kid and teenager and absolutely loved it. The crowd was the most eclectic she’d ever been subjected to. The architecture was something to behold. The street names made it impossible to get lost. The conglomeration of smells was interesting to say the least.

Staring at the calendar, Carissa was reminded of a hole-in-the-wall Mom & Pop shop where she had found the charm bracelet that she wore nearly every day. She idly rotated the bracelet and fingered the charms as she tried to remember exactly where that shop had been located.

A ringing phone brought her back to the reality inside her cubicle.

Just another caller that meant to call HR instead of analytics.

Carissa wrote a note to remind herself to ask the boss for the third time about getting a new extension. She then crumpled the note and shot it through her garbage can basketball hoop. The request would be futile and a waste of effort. Instead, she pressed the Do Not Disturb button on the phone.

Back to the calendar. Daydreaming. Procrastinating. Did the boss really need to know what the highest selling feminine product was last week before the end of the day? Probably not. Was that even what she was supposed to be doing? Was that even what her job description entailed?! She had to get out of her cubicle before being crushed by a mid-life crisis.

Carissa got up to stretch her legs. The sudden pain in her toes reminded her she hated high heels, especially at her desk job where she had one or two interactions a day with someone face to face. She kicked them off and wandered towards the copy machine. She could probably waste a good ten minutes if Maureen was there, the gossip queen.

Gossip Queen was not there. What a disappointment. But wait! Janus! Janus was filling up a mug at the water cooler when Carissa stopped by to say hello. They had hung out outside of work once or twice with a couple of mutual work-friends, so Carissa considered her a good friend – Good enough to razz her about drinking water from a mug.

“Only two kinds of people drink water from a mug: Kids pretending to drink coffee and you.”

Janus rolled her eyes while sipping the cold water. “I forgot my water bottle again, so I’m using my tea mug.”

“Why not make tea then?”

“I don’t want tea,” Janus replied dryly, then took an excruciatingly slow, loud slurp of her mug water.

“Believe it or not,” Janus continued once Carissa had turned, threatening to walk away, “I’m happy we ran into each other. My car’s in the shop. I took the train this morning and it sucked. Would you mind giving me a ride home tonight?”

Carissa considered her evening agenda: Shower, eat, go to sleep.

“It’ll be tough to squeeze you into my busy evening plans, but yeah, I can take you.”

Janus thanked her and sped off. Carissa’s shoulders slumped. Only one minute had been wasted.

By the time 5 o’clock rolled around, the office workers were half dead. The consensus was there could be no way it was only Tuesday and some kind of sorcery was afoot.

Carissa met Janus in the lobby and together they briskly walked to Carissa’s car to get out of the cold New Jersey air.

“It’s only Tuesday!” Carissa fake sobbed into the steering wheel. Janus rubbed her back then told her to get on with it.

The ride was quiet until Carissa stopped short of a stop sign and rolled down Janus’ window.

“What are you doing?!” Janus cried as the cold hit her face.

From out of nowhere came a bag of bird seed which Carissa took a handful of and chucked it out the passenger window to the birds on the sidewalk.

“The birds are hungry, Janus! The worms are hibernating. The birds need my seed!”

Janus stared in amazement as Carissa rolled up the window and casually resumed driving. If she didn’t know better, Janus would have thought her driver had smoked something before they met in the lobby.

More silence ensued until Carissa cut in with a blunt question: “You know you have ‘anus’ in your name?”

“A casualty of my parents trying to be different.”

“You can change it.”

“Yeah, I’ll do that.”

Janice stared out the window for a long while as Carissa jammed to whatever came on the radio, including a jingle for dog food.

“Wait!” Carissa shouted, slamming the brakes.

“What?!” Janice implored, rubbing her neck.

“We’re not going home.”

“We’re not?”

Carissa shook her head and smiled broadly. “Let’s go to New York.”

“Like, New York City?”

“Yuh-huh!” Carissa answered excitedly. “Come on, work has been so boring lately! We have to do something spicy. It’s only a two-hour drive!” She went on to explain the shop she had remembered earlier in the day and bet she would know where it was as soon as they entered the city.

Janice was reluctant at first but eventually gave in. Her friend was right about things being mundane the last few months. The more she thought about it, the more exciting it seemed the trip would be for them!

Carissa threw a Rufus Wainwright cassette into the tape deck, and unfortunately for Janice, that was all they listened to for the whole two hours. Eject, flip, play. Eject, flip, play. Eject, flip, play. A, B, A, B on and on. Janice was rethinking this trip being a good idea.

Once they entered the city, Janice gave Carissa the Well? look. Had the location of the shop instantly sprung into memory? Carissa returned a shy smile. “Let’s drive around a bit.”

It was getting late and Carissa was beginning to doubt she’d ever find the shop. As quickly as she decided to not take her friend home and drive to the city instead, she dropped the idea of finding the shop in exchange for clubbing.

“Clubbing, Carissa? What are we, 21? We have work tomorrow!”

Carissa waved her friend off. “We can miss one day. What are they gonna do? Fire us? We have worked there forever and are the best they have!”

Janice considered this then agreed. It was time to have fun.

First, the outfits that said “I work for a 9-5 corporation” had to go. Second, they had to find something to eat. Third, they had to find a club.

The first two tasks were simple. It was the third task that was a bit problematic. Carissa had only been to a NYC club once and that had been nearly two decades ago.

After talking to some interesting people for information, they finally found a dance club.

Drinks were had and hair was let down. Music thumped and lasers blinded. Neither one could remember the last time they had so much fun on a whim.

It was nearly midnight when they’d had enough. Well, their minds were up for more, but their bodies were tired. Damn you, middle age.

Two more hours of Rufus Wainwright, then Carissa was waving goodbye to Janice.

Wednesday was spent sleeping until dinner time. The women checked in on each other then said they’d see each other at work the next day.

Thursday came around and it was time to get back to the routine of daily work.

“You’re fired,” the boss greeted both of them as they entered the office.

Carissa and Janice gasped.

“No call, no show AND you missed a very important meeting,” the boss accused, never once blinking. “You know our policy.”

In fact, they didn’t know the policy and tried to argue, but their boss had his mind made up. The women were to clean out their cubicles and be gone by 10.

At the end of the day, they weren’t mad. It seemed a change was needed, and this helped them to realize they could do better than some musty corporation in New Jersey.

Carissa and Janice moved to New York together and Carissa finally found the shop she was looking for. It just so happened the mom and pop were getting too old to run the shop, so the two women purchased it and started their lives anew.