quote from the new fiction writing project. this is fiction. this isn’t me, and it isn’t an email from a subscriber ? it’s the internal dialogue of the main character as they imagine what speaking with their boss will be like …
What, quit drinking? Are you high? Drinking is the only thing that’s holding me together right now. To suggest that it’s perhaps the cause of any of this is illogical. You don’t know me. My life is a mess, OK, that’s why I drink. You’d drink too if you knew what I have to deal with. Thanks for the judgement. (No judgement.) Really, you don’t think it’s just a tad judgey to accuse someone of being an alcoholic out of nowhere? (Didn’t say that. Asked if you’d thought to perhaps take a break from the booze to see if it improved anything.)
Like if skip my one glass of wine tonight, my job will magically improve? Yeah, right, that’s logical. And if I don’t drink next Monday, my credit card will be paid off? This whole conversation is stupid. I wanted … oh forget it. I thought you were going to give me a YouTube video about stress in the workplace or something like that. Shit. Really. What I do when I’m not at work, that’s none of your business.
~
question: did you ever have a conversation like this? with someone else or just in your head?
I would have been devastated at “being found out”!
yep… I had similar conversations… I hate to admit it, but I did. I’ve been in denial (even sober) that part of the reason I lost my beloved job was because of my drinking… but it’s really quite possibly true.