Bob first suspected he was in a time loop on a Tuesday which was just like any other.

At first he thought it was his company's interior design choice of gray cubicle walls over gray carpeting with slightly less gray (one might even call it beige) tables which was playing tricks with his mind, but after giving it some more thought he came to conclusion that this is most definitely not the first time he had lived through this day.

He decided to talk it over with Ralph over lunch.

But before lunch he had to survive a conference call about the marketing plan. He tried to focus on the conversation. Had he heard this all before? It was a weekly meeting, so of course it all sounded familiar, from the meandering questions, to the vacant answers. But once more he had a feeling that this didn't sound like a meeting he had previously attended, it was the same meeting he had previously attended. When it was his turn to speak he panicked slightly hoping not to break the space time continuum with his new found insight. He must try to give that same answers he would have given without his understanding that he was caught in a loop. He breathed in slowly and in his most steady voice said

"Sounds good"

Bob met Ralph at the entrance to the Cafeteria. Bob was short and stocky while Ralph was tall and rangy and seemed constantly distracted by the smallest things such as the fact that the queue to the Indian food booth snaked a slightly different route than yesterday. Walking side by side they looked to be a corporate parody of Laurel and Hardy, the portrait of stagnated careers.

"A time loop you say" Ralph said as he was separating the tomatoes from his salad.

"yes" Bob responded chewing his Indian daal and rice.

"This would actually explain quite a bit" Ralph summarized.

"Exactly!" Bob concurred

"So you think you've lived through this day not only once but many times."

"Many many times" Bob agreed.

"And you think this isn't the mindless monotony of the job speaking" Ralph wondered .

"no, no, the mindless monotony had stopped talking to me years ago" Bob said.

"Well this is exciting" Ralph said, his slightly raised voice turning a few heads from the nearby tables.

They chuckled as Bob wondered if the conversation had anywhere left to go.

"So how does this work? – at some point – do you have to reset and start the loop from scratch?" Ralph asked.

"I would imagine" Bob said.

"And you think that happens at the end of the day?"

"I guess so."

"And then how far back would you go, is the loop only a single day, or do you think you are repeating the same week? The same month? Your whole life?"

"Not sure - wow, you've really thought this through" Bob said

"How about this one – do you think we've had this conversation before"?

Bob put down his fork and looked around

"Yes" he said in a surprisingly serious tone.

Bob thought about it some more and then said

"Anne is going to walk through the door now"

Ralph turned around to see Anne walking in to the cafeteria

"And she will walk over and ask you about the bug report" Bob continued.

Anne walked by them, then abruptly stopped and turned towards them

"Ralph, did you send me the bug report?" she asked ignoring Bob.

"First thing when I get back" Ralph muttered through a mouth full of lettuce.

There was silence after Anne left, with Bob starting to mildly panic and Ralph looking at Bob intently

"Oh my god, do you think this is actually happening?" Bob lowered his voice

"I do" Ralph said quietly

Ralph then pressed his finger to his ear and whispered some words.

Everything stopped, the cafeteria walls disappeared to reveal a large metallic room circling around them.

"Ralph?"Bob asked.

"You're getting better at this" Ralph said.

Bob tried to get up from his chair but was pushed down harshly by two of the people in cafeteria.

"What is this?" Bob asked.

"An experiment of sorts" Ralph answered.

Ralph motioned to Anne who placed a cold metal helmet on Bobs' head.

Bob looked around trying to commit this scene so deep into his memory that nothing could remove it. There was a cold white flash of light.

Bob sat at his chair admiring the color of the coffee he had made. His calendar indicated that the weekly marketing meeting was about to begin. Not again, he groaned to himself.

The End 

~~~

Short story originally written for a contest on the SciFi profile by Wattpadder Simplat whose profile is well worth checking out