Amid the clicks and clacks of keyboards and greyscale Cisco phones letting out monotone rings, Ryan gave an intense yawn to the computer’s camera at his desk.

“Ryan, are you with us?” The unimpressive bubble of Ryan’s boss came over the screen. Although he was Ryan’s boss and the manager of his division, Mike, had a camera was eternally doomed to be pixelated and microphone worn to extreme tinniness.

Ryan straightened up and adjusted his tie, trying to wipe away the notes of the oncoming weekend that had swept him away from the task at hand.

“Yeah, yeah I’m here. Present and accounted for,” he said lightly, seeing his smile flash in his own bubble. Leslie and Linda seemed to give soft smiles in their own bubbles, but next door, Mike continued unamused about quarterly reports and blah blah blah…

Ryan ran his hand through his hair, attempting to avoid showing the stains of the day that had accumulated in his armpits. He added dry cleaners to his to do list, as his strained eyes continued to flirt with the clock at the top right of the monitor. His mouse hovered over the button to leave the meeting as soon as it flashed 5:00, but Mike’s banter refused to end.

“The sales, they aren’t where we want them to be…”

All around Ryan, coworkers were gathering coats and wishing each other a good weekend. The receptionist hung up from the final phone call and Ryan’s cubicle-mate, Brett, passed him a note asking him if he’d be at O’Brian’s for drinks after work.

“If Mike will stop reciting the goddam constitution,” Ryan wrote back.

“…a good weekend,” was all Ryan needed to hear from Mike’s raspy voice to exit the meeting and rub his eyes. In reality, he wanted a warm bed and an eternal sleep more than drinks with coworkers, but anything over being in this office would suffice. As long as it was relaxing.

Ryan wasted no time clicking “Shut Down,” playing the usual game against himself to gather his belongings for the weekend in the 59 seconds the computer took to wipe itself of the week. As he buttoned his coat and grabbed his laptop bag with 16 seconds to spare, his Microsoft Teams chat came alive.

Dozens, hundreds even, of messages flooded the inbox from an unknown user. He quickly canceled the shut down and examined their all-caps, ominous message. He was now the last one in the office.

TO: RYAN J. ANDERSEN READ THIS MESSAGE IN ITS ENTIRETY THERE IS GRAVE DANGER THIS MESSAGE IS A RESULT OF COUNTLESS HOURS OF HARD WORK TO CONTACT ANOTHER UNIVERSE THIS MESSAGE IS SENT FROM A SEPARATE UNIVERSE THAN YOURS BY AN ALTERNATE VERSION OF YOURSELF PLEASE RESPOND IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO RESTORE PEACE ACROSS THE MULTIVERSE

Ryan looked around at the computers, clean of any screensavers with smiling families on the beach, dogs in a cozy living room, or couples kissing. Ryan was completely and utterly alone. Just him and the weight of the week he wanted to dump. And this new message. That brought grave danger.

He yawned and opened his phone, putting in directions to O’Brian’s as he walked out to his car.