15. Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Noah stumbled into the break room in search of coffee. A flash of red caught the corner of his eye. Steam billowed from the cup Claire’s hands were wrapped around. Tea, he presumed, as he'd never seen her drink coffee.
"Good morning," she said, watching him methodically pour and doctor his morning caffeine boost.
"Morning," he replied. Mornings weren't his most productive time of day anyway, but the later-than-usual poker game last night made him sluggish today. He needed his caffeine jolt this morning.
"It's Friday," she said.
Sipping his coffee, he leaned back against the counter and watched Claire study him. "So?" he asked. She was kind of cute when she scrunched up her nose like that. He shook his head. Nope, not doing that.
"Isn't Friday a travel day for y'all?" she asked.
Because England was such a long flight home, he rarely bothered, but everyone else usually flew home each weekend. "My ten-hour flight isn't really worth a weekend home, only to turn around and come back."
"Oh. I never thought about it like that." She frowned and wrinkled her nose again. "How come I never see you around on Friday, then?"
Noah mentally reviewed his calendar. "Since we rarely have project meetings on Fridays, I usually visit the local plants and get caught up on my operations duties. I've been observing how they manage their inventory and production schedules. We've solved a few problems comparing notes."
"I see. That's smart." She paused, stirring her tea, and his curiosity kept him waiting to see what she'd ask next. "What about next week? Aren't you going home for the holiday?"
Next week was Thanksgiving for the US offices and they were off for two days. Employees often saved their vacation days and took off the entire week, which meant getting anything done during a holiday week was next to impossible. The same thing happened at Christmas.
"Thanksgiving is an American holiday. I don't get the day off.
And Canada's Thanksgiving was last month, so they've already celebrated theirs.
" He wasn't sure if Claire knew a few of their teammates were Canadian.
Aside from Rick and Jenny from VIG, the repair center in Calgary had strategically volunteered several members for the extended project team.
The Canadian controller liked to have his fingers in the pie.
"So, what, you'll be up here working by yourself next Thursday and Friday?" she asked.
"Not sure. But I am on call since the other plants don't shut down. I'll either come in to the office or work from home." He smirked. "You Americans always think the world revolves around you." The expected protest didn't come.
"What about everyone else on the team? Are they flying home to work or staying here?"
"I think those who live in the states are flying home and taking the holiday, but the non-Americans are staying in Houston for the week to get ahead of the schedule.
You know, taking advantage of interruption-free days.
" He waited to see what that brain of hers cooked up.
He could see the gears churning. She made connections quicker than anyone he'd ever come across, but he wasn't following her train of thought right now.
"Yeah, no kidding," she agreed absently. "Um, we're doing a massive Thanksgiving get together at my apartment complex. Y'all should come. There will be tons of food, all homemade. And it's an eclectic group of people, so the menu will offer plenty of choices."
Noah froze, unsure of how to respond. On one hand, the food she'd brought the week before last had been fantastic, and working in a nearly empty Houston office was nothing like being back in his own space.
On the other hand, fighting the pull between them at work was bad enough.
No telling what seeing her in a more personal environment would do.
Claire bit her lip and looked away, developing an interest in the non-functioning clock hanging on the wall. "Do you think they'd be interested?" she asked, then sipped her tea.
It was a kind offer. "You should ask them.
With as much as the core team travels, we always appreciate a home-cooked meal.
It's certainly been a while since I've eaten one.
" Unsure what made him add that, he watched as she shifted from foot to foot.
"Send a group email. See what they say. If the cooking's anything like what you brought last time, I'd be daft to miss it. "
She looked back at him and he smiled. Her face lit up with a matching smile, and his heart skipped a beat.
"Er, I better go work on that site list." He made his escape before he said anything foolish.
Claire typed up her notes from this morning's meeting, appreciating her desk phone's headset, which allowed her to be productive while waiting on her dad to find his itinerary for next week. She heard him shuffling through papers on his end of the call.
"Here we go. Yep, I'm getting in shortly after lunch on Monday. I've got an afternoon meeting downtown once I'm there, then I'm visiting the north Houston plant on Tuesday, and the east Houston plant on Wednesday. But Thursday through Saturday, I'm all yours. Flying back early on Sunday."
"Are you sure you want to stay at a hotel? You don't want to bunk on my couch?" she asked. "I've actually got room for you now at my apartment. I couldn't say that in California."
"Nah, kitten. I'll come hang out with you, but I'll sleep better in a hotel.
You will too, with my snoring." He chuckled, and Claire grinned at her end.
She'd been pestering her dad to get a sleep study for years, but he didn't want to be bothered with wearing one of those "pesky masks" while he slept.
"There's a decent one near downtown I usually stay at. "
"Okay. I'm so happy you're coming. I've missed you."
"I've missed you too, sunshine. Anything I need to bring or have shipped to you? I think you've gotten all the kitchen stuff from storage."
"Oh, yeah, thanks again. I've made some awesome dishes with the bakeware.
Mom had some great tools that are hard to find today.
There was a cool baking mat with a grid I can use to measure out my dough.
" Claire stopped, realizing her dad couldn't care less about cool baking tools.
"Anyway, I'm good. You don't need to bring anything. "
"Okay, sweetheart. So, what are the plans for Thanksgiving Day?"
"Oh, we're having a big Friendsgiving feast here in the clubroom with my cooking buddies.
And I've invited the MADS team from work to come eat lunch with us.
Those who aren't in the US don't have this as a holiday, so they're here on their own.
It didn't seem right for us to have this big party with lots of food while they were stuck in a hotel room away from their families. "
"Sounds fun. I'm guessing your cooking group didn't mind at all. Based on everything you've told me, I imagine your Brinnie would feed the lot of them if she could."
Claire stopped typing. "I haven't told her yet.
I just asked them this morning." It hadn't occurred to her that she should check before inviting the crew over.
She shrugged. "But I'm sure she's okay with it.
'The more the merrier' is one of her favorite sayings.
We're meeting for yoga after work today, so I'll tell her then. "
Claire had been tickled when the team members accepted her invitation.
And they seemed pleased as well. She guessed they weren't really looking forward to spending the week in the office with a skeleton crew.
As much as developers craved distraction-free environments, they also liked to get immediate answers to their questions.
Nothing worse than having a half-written block of code waiting for someone to get back to you.
Her dad asked a few questions about her work, and she shared a quick summary of the things she'd learned about Caprock.
When her accounting buddy, Randall, waved at her from the hallway, she said her goodbyes and gathered her purse for lunch.
They'd planned to walk the tunnels today and try the new Vietnamese restaurant three buildings over.
Noah surveyed the spacious room bustling with activity, then glanced at Rick and Larry.
They looked as awestruck as he felt. Larry, who was off today for Thanksgiving, had swung by the office to give him and Rick a ride to Claire's apartment building for lunch.
Upon arrival in the lobby, a brightly dressed older woman had directed them upstairs to the clubroom, where they now stood gawking at their surroundings.
The north wall boasted floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the professional baseball arena next door, and multiple TVs lined the remaining walls.
For now, the screens were off, but he could imagine them all lit up on game day.
He momentarily wondered if they ever carried the football matches from back home. Or soccer, as the Americans called it.
Scattered throughout the room were various eating and sitting spaces. Along the south wall ran a long counter stacked with piles of food. And what didn't fit on the counter spilled over onto the long bar next to it.
The room was crawling with people of all different sizes, colors, and shapes.
"Do you see Claire?" Rick asked.
Noah was taller than both Rick and Larry, but he couldn't spot the lively redhead anywhere in the mix. He was eager to find her, so he didn't feel like an interloper crashing a party with his tagalong friends.
"No. Do you think coming here was a mistake?" he wondered aloud.
"Hell, no," Larry answered. "Not if these are the folks who cooked for our Singapore meeting. Let's get a plate. We'll find her later."
Rick looked at Noah and shrugged. This was awful. An introvert's worst nightmare. A room full of strangers at an event he wasn't sure he should be at. He wiped his palms on his jeans and moved to follow Larry.