Page 5 of Rewind

Her heart raced a mile a minute. She’d never hung up on him before. And when her phone rang again, Amina ignored the call.

She plopped on the bed and attempted to make sense of what was going on. Though it initially felt like a dream, all her memories of the past were intact. She was almost certain she had died last night. But how was this possible?

Her grandmother had heavily believed in an afterlife and reincarnation, but Amina didn’t think it worked quite like this. Maybe it did. Was this her second chance to fix all the mistakes she’d made in her life?

Was this her opportunity to live her life the way she wanted instead of being under the oppressive thumb of a man who never gave a damn about her outside of what she could provide for him?

She wasn’t sure how this worked and maybe this was some weird out of body experience before death where she experienced everything all over again before the real death setin, but did she dare miss out on this once in a lifetime chance for a redo of her life?

For now, she’d go through the motions and play things out as she remembered them to be and that meant going to work. She could figure things out on the drive there. She shuddered when she thought about going into that dreary office and being on the phone all day listening to customers yell in her ear about the lateness of their life insurance policy payouts.

She hated that job so much because she was in cubicle all day in an office that monitored how many bathroom breaks the workers took, a half an hour lunch and a micromanaging boss who spoke to everyone in a condescending tone but no one would complain to HR because her supervisor was the son of the owner.

The rest of her coworkers were just as miserable. No one spoke to each other and if they were caught chit chatting it would be a write up. Amina’s stomach twisted every time she walked into that dank building. She’d only been there for two years but she didn’t think she could stay there much longer. Not with all the debt…

Two years.

She’d only been at the Affinity Group for two years which meant she was still the office manager at the doctor’s office she’d once worked at Penn Neurology Associates. She’s been forced to quit that job because Mark thought one of her bosses was too familiar with her. Amina didn’t know what that meant since Dr. Han was friendly while keeping things professional with all of the staff.

Though she couldn’t explain this weird thing happening to her, Amina figured it was best to treat this like a normal day.

After showering and completing her hygiene, she picked out a pale pink blouse and a pair of white slacks. She’d never been good at applying makeup so she stuck to a brown liner with nudelipstick combo and mascara. To finish the look off she pulled her hair back with a big pink ribbon.

On the way to work, a song came on the radio she hadn’t heard in years. She hummed along as butterflies took free reign of her stomach. Part of her was scared she’d wake up and find herself back in the nightmarish prison of marriage to Mark.

For some reason, she had the sudden urge to buy a donut but not just any donut. She needed a triple chocolate crunch donut. It was a glazed chocolate cake donut with fudge icing, chocolate sprinkles with chocolate chips.

Giving into to this need to purchase this sugary concoction, she stopped by the bakery on the way that sold that specific treat.

Amina let out a sigh of relief when she pulled into the parking lot of a two story barn style office building that housed the three separate doctor’s offices. The office she worked in took up the entirety of the top floor.

Instead of taking the short elevator ride up, she slowly took the stairs, wanting to savor every moment of this new alternate reality in case she was pulled back into her old world.

The placard outside the door to the entrance of her office, listed the two partners who owned this practice with, Dr. Ethan Han’s name below Dr. Carter’s.

Amina took a deep breath before stepping inside the office and her heart sped up. She hadn’t set foot in this place in over two years, yet everything was so familiar from the gossip and news magazines in the corner to the water cooler by the window.

The plant that she watered three times a week rested on the receptionist desk by sign-in sheet.

Paisley, the receptionist sat at the front desk with one of her smiley face sweaters, despite it being an unseasonably hot spring day.

Amina pasted a smile on her face and walked through the reception door. “Morning Paisley.”

The usually upbeat receptionist gave her wobbly, “Hello,” with tear-filled hazel eyes.

“What’s the matter, Paisley?” Amina approached the other woman.

“I’m just being silly, but Dr. Han brought in donuts today and he knows how much I love those triple chocolate crunch donuts. I’m the only one who eats them because everyone else says they’re too sweet and should be named the diabetic special.”

“So whenever he buys donuts, he only gets that one for me. But Carole got to it first. She took one bite and threw it in the trashcan. If she didn’t like it, I would have still eaten it. I would have just picked off the part she bit around. Why would she do that? I was looking forward to that donut.” She burst into tears.

Amina remembered this incident that had caused a commotion in the office. Carole, one of the nurses who worked there, ate the donut, usually reserved for Paisley, and claimed she didn’t realize it was meant for someone else. That argument may have worked if other people didn’t hear her saying she wasn’t a fan of chocolate. One of the other nurses had accused Carole of doing it out of spite because Carole always took issue with Paisley’s cheerfulness.

It started an entire argument that led to the doctors intervening and a tense week in the office. Paisley, feeling guilty for causing a fuss over a donut, handed in her resignation.

Once she was gone, the office was never quite the same.

Amina plucked some tissues out of a box sitting on the reception desk and handed it to distraught receptionist. “Don’t cry Paisley, it’s okay to be disappointed when you were looking forward to something and it doesn’t work out.”

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