Write a fictional short story about a man who has to swim across the river to get to an important work meeting. Use descriptive language and make the reader understand why he did it. Make the ending funny but sad.
Alan awoke to the sound of his phone alarm ringing, and without thinking, he reached over, one eye barely open, and tapped the snooze button. He then went back to sleep. Two hours later, as light beamed through the gap in his curtains, Alan woke once again. He instinctively reached for his phone, but when he looked for the word "snooze," he was horrified to instead see "08:15" on the home screen. "Oh no!" he gasped, tumbling out of bed. 

Today was meant to be a very important day for Alan. He was due to have a meeting with his boss at 8:45 to discuss the promotion that he had sought for so long. This promotion would be the difference between Alan scraping just to get by each month, and being comfortable financially, so missing it, or messing it up for that matter, was not an option. 

Looking out of his bedroom window, Alan saw gridlocked traffic. 

In a manic rush, he grabbed the waterproof bag that he used when sea kayaking, shoved his suit, phone, and shoes inside it, and ran down the stairs. Leaving his apartment block, he sprinted out over the road, and down the stairs towards the concreted riverside. He looked across the river, seeing the large, tall building in which his all-important meeting was due to start in ten minutes, and he made the decision to swim across. 

Alan dived into the murky water, and the cold caused him to gasp for air. Remembering to stay calm, he began to swim in a smooth fashion, combining breaststroke and front crawl with some unorthodox paddling. It took him around five minutes of steady swimming to reach the other side.

Alan paced twenty meters to the public toilets and grabbed the towel from his waterproof bag. He dried himself and got dressed into his suit in a matter of minutes, quickly styled his still-wet hair in the mirror, and set off running to the office. Moments later, he was on the escalator. He reached the top and walked confidently towards his boss' office.

"Alan, what can I do for you?" his boss asked.
"Good morning Mr. Johnson, I'm here for our meeting," Alan replied, still out of breath. 
Mr. Johnson looked down at his diary and said "I think you've made a mistake. The meeting is tomorrow."