Sent to the Wrong Printer

Day 4 Sent to the Wrong Printer You’re at work and you print something personal (and sensitive). Unfortunately, you’ve sent it to the wrong printer and, by the time you realize it, somebody else has already scooped it up.

Sally walked up to the printer quickly. She knew she shouldn’t have printed off the email but she had to have a hard copy of it and the printer she had at home had been out of ink since 2005. She couldn’t believe that he was finally noticing her and had asked her out on a date. They had been working together for ages. Jack was one of the most popular guys around. He was almost a celebrity in their office. Jack caught her attention one day when she was walking by his desk and noticed that he had about a million photos of the cutest little white dog on his desk. No lady friend though. Jack had been humming a tune under his breath while he worked. Something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Maybe a Christmas song? She wasn’t sure. Along with the photos of his dog, he had decorated his desk for the upcoming Halloween contest and she was sure he would win. He even had a chalk outline on the floor made out of masking tape and fake blood splatter. Halloween was her favorite holiday and she loved dogs. He seemed like the kind of guy that she would really like. Ever since then, she made it a point to say hi and be friendly, hoping he would one day notice. Today was that day. The email asked her if she like Italian food and if she was free for dinner and a movie that night. The new Stephen King movie looked good. Her reply was of course a yes. Then she decided that she needed to have a hard copy just to make sure it was real.

When she got to the printer she was terrified to see that there was nothing there. There were no papers on the tray. She knew it printed because the little icon popped up and said “This document was sent to the printer” Fear flooded her heart. If that letter got into the hands of the wrong person they would both be in trouble. Interoffice relationships were frowned upon. She glanced around quickly trying to locate the last woman that had been at the printer. The woman had short brown hair and a gray sweater. Glancing around she realized that could be about half of the women who worked here. Finally she spotted her. She was headed straight to the supervisors office.

What I she already saw that letter? She was going to get fired. She had to find a way to get that letter before the woman made it to that office. Sitting on the corner of the desk was a blue folder. She grabbed it and headed for the woman. She hurried up behind her. The woman had a similar folder and there were papers sticking out of it. Sally grabbed one of the papers and pulled gently. It came right out. It was not the one she was looking for but when she pulled the first paper out, it had pulled a few others loose too. She grabbed at them and got lucky. All of them came out. The one on the bottom was the paper she was looking for. She slipped the letter into the blue folder, dropped the others ont he floor and then called out to the woman.

“Excuse me! I think you dropped these!”

The woman spun around and saw the papers on the floor. She ambled over to get them. Sally realized just how large the woman was when she tried to bend over to get the papers and had a hard time reaching.

“Here, Let me help.” Sally bent over to get the papers and handed them to the woman.

“Thanks,” the woman smiled.

Sally felt a wave of relief. Clearly this woman either hadn’t seen the letter or didn’t know she was the one who printed it off.

Sally glanced in the folder again to make sure that she had the right paper before letting the woman slip away. She smiled back and stood up, “No problem!”

She turned and almost ran back to her desk. That was the last time she was going to print off a personal letter at work again. She sat down, took the letter out of her folder and folded it into four. She slipped the letter inside her planner in her purse to make sure that she wasn’t going to lose it again.

“I saw that!”

Sally jumped and spun around. It was just Jack.

“Did you print off the email I sent you?”

“What? No!” She blushed, embarrassed that she got caught

“Well, I have to say, I was impressed with your ability to sneak up on that woman and get it back. You would make a great cat burglar.” He winked at her. “So tonight at 7:00?”

“Yea,” she blushed again.

******