Coffee Ice Cream Cone

I was all revved up for my half day off work today, I really was. Last night I even stayed up an extra hour and drank a couple more beers knowing that it wouldn't be such a big deal the next day, I only had to stay until midday after all. But things don't always work out according to plan, do they?
Soon after I got to work, the phone rang. It was Colleague calling in to say she wasn't gonna be coming in because her brat was sick and she couldn't leave him at daycare. She had to stay home with him and stick a thermometer up his butt every half hour or something. Oh, and she wasn't gonna be in the day after, either. Well, that was OK, I didn't have a half day the day after, but today. Oh well. There went that out the damn window, I knew it.
There was nothing to be done but accept it. Kids get sick all the time. I probably got sick once or twice when I was a kid. I know I did. And my mother didn't have to worry about ringing work when her brat was sick to tell them she was wasn't gonna be in and wondering if the stupid boss would get shitty, or her colleague would get pissed cos she took away his stupid half day.
So I accepted it. Fuck it, I'd just take the half day some other day.
After I had my lunch in Market City, I was walking back out and walked past the New Zealand Ice Cream place. I stopped in front of the glass display - which I never do, but today I did - and I looked in there. Goddam, that Espresso Coffee ice cream sure looked pretty damn tempting right then. It was talking to me. I got a double scoop in a waffle cone and walked back to work with it. It was a sunny day but cool, a perfect Sydney autumn day. I walked along the street with my ice cream, it was really something. It felt like I was eating it in slow motion. People walked past me looking at it. They wanted one too.
I forgot that I wasn't supposed to be going back to work.