“I need to tell you something, urgently. It’s about your boss.”

“Which one?” I asked without looking up from my computer screen. I had too many bosses with bosses of their own to really care. What I cared about was getting this spreadsheet completed so I could get out of here and not worry about it this weekend. At the lowest rung of the ladder in this company that was all my pay grade covered. I hadn’t even met three of my superiors since starting two months ago, and only regularly dealt with one of the four managers who had interviewed me. And if Jerry had some thing to say he could come say it to me himself.

The bureaucratic corporate life was already getting to me, what can I say.

“Colston.“

I stopped typing. Colston was the CEO of this company. The last person who should care about me. Spinning my chair around to give some education about the chain of command, I realized I didn’t recognize the person hovering over my cubicle.

At the sight of the small yet severe woman I sucked in all of the sarcastic comments I was about to make. Her jet black hair was cut short around her pointed chin, accentuating the sharp angles of her face. Everything about her made me freeze and reconsider the situation.

“Are you sure you have the right cubicle?” Was all I could say, although several questions were buzzing through my mind.

“Layla Frankston? This is you?“ she pulled my placard from the outside of my cubicle, waving it in my face aggressively.

I nodded, backing my chair into my desk as she entered the 5x5 space.

“OK. Good. Now, Harry Colston. Your boss. You are the only one who can stop him, Layla Frankston.” she rattled off quickly, scanning my cubicle with alert eyes. “He is an artificial intelligence from the future trying to destroy our life as we know it.“

I had been nodding along with her, but at that last statement I just started to giggle. I don’t have any friends who would set me up for an elaborate prank, but whatever this was, it was well done. Maybe a fun on-boarding prank at the company? I stood up from my chair to look around the office to see if any of my coworkers were watching and laughing.

They weren’t. She tugged my jacket sleeve, yanking me back into my seat.

“I am not crazy. This is real. You are working on the Cobra Phoenix Implementation spreadsheet, correct?“ she said pointing towards my computer screen. I nodded “Good. That is our solution.“

She shoved my chair out of the way and got to work selecting some cells, muttering to herself quietly as I stared in stunned silence. With a few key strokes she altered their contents, finished my last few steps, saved the file, and proceeded to submit it for me.

Backing away from my computer, she patted me on the shoulder with a wry smile. “Have a great weekend, Layla.”

And with that, she was gone. Not by walking out of my cubicle, but by zapping into the air leaving behind only white noise confetti.

Now, I could stay. I could investigate what she changed in those three cells, or what the spreadsheet really relates to. Or who she was, or even who my boss is. But like I said, all I cared about was getting the spreadsheet submitted. And now it is, 30 minutes faster than I expected.

TGIF