Whose Adventure?

The tingle of anger started behind her left ear where it always did. She closed the folder. Then she opened it again and ran her finger down the page to where she'd left off reading.

How dare he.

The rage spread into her neck and up through her cheekbones until her forehead felt like a fever from inside. His sophistry was unbelievable. Unbelievably convincing. If he went to her father with this, no one would ever believe that she was the innocent one. Well, the more innocent one.

She closed the file again and willed the heat to leave her brain so she could think this through. How to catch the cunning in his own trap? Hoist him on his own pole, the Haman!

Some distance, for just a moment, might help. She crossed to the water cooler and filled a cup, letting the point rest for a moment on her palm so she would feel that more than the heat of her anger. She downed the water, then turned the cup upside down to let the last of the droplets land on her forehead. She listened for a sizzle.

"Honestly!" This was absurd. Back to reality.

Make copies. But the copier had a counter. Take it out to make copies. But if she came back in early to put the file back, the entry pad would show that. And the world knew she never came in early even when it was mandatory. Maybe it was time for a good, old-fashioned bomb threat. Take the file now. Have the call made in the morning just after her arrival, and who would know in the evacuation melee that it took her a few extra steps, a few extra minutes.

"Yes!" She crumpled the cup and almost threw it away. Instead she slipped it into her skirt pocket. She always worked late. She never drank water. And who put wine in a pointed paper cup? Now her mind was functioning on all cylinders and it was time to take the folder and begin his adventure. And what was an adventure but a simple act of bad planning?

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Courtesy: Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day August 26th:
sophistry • \SAH-fuh-stree\ • noun
*1 : subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation
2 : an argument apparently correct in form but actually invalid; especially : such an argument used to deceive

and a quote: Adventure is just bad planning. - Roald Amundsen