Waiting for the phonecall

3rd April
We'd just ordered pizzas in for the team. We were celebrating Laurie's birthday the week before and Chris' 40th was in two weeks! I'd just cut up the pizza and Chris' phone rang. I answered as Chris was getting everyone drinks. I could barely make out the voice over the laughter and chattering. It was the HR director from HQ. “Oh hi Oliver, how are you doing?”I asked. “Fine yes” he replied, “Is Chris there?”. He said it wasn't an emergency so I took the call. I could just about make out that he wanted to have a conference call with Chris at 3pm the next day. “Congratulations, that your wife is expecting”, I remembered to wish him, just before we said goodbye.
4th April
I'd not really expected to enjoy the karaoke but it was so much fun. Our normally reserved staff were on their chairs yelling the songs out at the top of their voices. Saw them in a totally different light. Thought to myself, we should do this more often.
I'd almost forgotten about the call when Chris came to get me. He said, “They want you in on the call too”. Me? What can they want? The phone we had didn't do speaker phone so we had to hunt around the office till we found one. We went up to our room for a bit of quiet and as we lay on the bed I said to Chris, “What do you think they want?” “Sack us” he joked? “Don't be silly”, I replied.
I could feel my heart beat racing as we waited for the call. That was the moment in time before we heard the news; the one moment when, if you could stop time and change the course of history, you would do it then.