Chapter Four
Janene
I knew I was being tough on Harlyn. I had asked the interns to open up their binders, but it wasn’t like we’d been reviewing the boring HR paperwork for hours, we were two pages in. Still there was something about her attitude toward my presentation of the AXP information that rubbed me the wrong way. She seemed to be off in dream land. The other two followed my instruction just as quickly as I delved it out. They seemed engaged in what I had to say. I had called Harlyn’s name twice before she even reacted. I made a mental note to talk to Madeline and make sure she hadn’t hired Harlyn just because I had put in the recommendation for the interview. If she wasn’t qualified and word got out that her mother and I were friends, that would be a nightmare. Of course, I had started out with NCARB info and Harlyn had already been interning for several years but still, it was a new job, a new employer, she should have come in to work trying her best to make a good impression.
I wouldn’t be lying if I said I was a bit disappointed in the way she was acting. She’d been such a motivated kid; it was the only reason I even gave Renee’s request any consideration. She was also Renee’s pride and joy, not that Renee didn’t love her other children, but as a kid, Harlyn was a straight-A student and she never found trouble that wasn’t typical for a teenager. Renee doted on her, of course she’d had a tough pregnancy with Harlyn and she’d delivered her early. The medical complications of those first few years almost broke her, so she protected her, kept her as close as a parent can keep a child.
“Do we get an office?” Colby asked, pulling my attention back to the rest of the room. He looked like he was young enough to be my grandchild. I felt like the interns just kept getting younger and younger every year. I had to remind myself that he had to be at least twenty, and I wasn’t old enough to have a twenty-something year old grandchild.
“No, sorry,” I replied. “This will become your communal office, so to speak. This is our smallest conference room and it’s rarely used for business meetings, so you all will have full access to it as your own space. If you make it past the summer then we’ll talk office space.”
“What about drafting tables?” Harlyn asked.
It surprised me that she would ask for such a thing. Most of the interns that came through our doors were more worried about which software we used.
“Why would you need a drafting table?” Anabelle asked. “Hello, we have 3D technology at our disposal these days.” She said it as if Harlyn was decades older, but I remembered being twenty and thinking that anyone more than five years older than me was old.
Anabelle turned to me and smiled wide. She was proud of her snide remark and I was to blame for that. Obviously Harlyn’s experience was vaster than Anabelle’s. Her willingness to use old school tools may have been the reason Madeline hired her. There were definitely occasions for pencil and paper drafts, not to mention that as an old school architect, I liked the feel of a T-square in my hand.
Harlyn didn’t bat an eye at Anabelle, she kept her eyes on me. I had forgotten how green they were, almost unnaturally bright like a well-polished emerald. They stood out even more because of her black hair. It framed her face, cut to curve just below her jawline. The little girl I remembered running around her mom’s yard had blossomed into quite a striking young woman.
“There is a drafting table in both Madeline’s and my office for you to use.” I had to force myself to look away from Harlyn’s stare so I turned to Anabelle. “We do use Revit for the majority of the BIM process but when we need to get creative, I find it soothing to sit down at a literal drawing board and work through the problem.”
Anabelle’s smile faltered with my comment and I felt bad for having set her up that way so I flashed a smile at her to let her know she wasn’t being reprimanded. She nodded eagerly and then turned her attention back to the new employee handbook.
“That reminds me. Since today is Friday, I have an important partner’s meeting to attend after lunch. I need you all to take that time to meet with our IT guy so he can assign you a work laptop and badge to help you access the building. It’s part of the reason we start on a Friday. We’ll get all the nonsense out of the way today and start the real work at the top of the week. Make sure you read the section in your handbook about appropriate use of company equipment. Last year we had to let someone go for not following the rules. It’s really simple, if it has to do with work, use the laptop we issue you, if it’s not work related, use your own computer.”
I looked down at my phone and saw it was a quarter ‘til noon. “Let’s go ahead and go to lunch. You have one hour, which is more than most people get so please be back at one. Misty, the receptionist, will be waiting for you to take you down to IT. Once you get all your equipment and passwords and whatever else they need you to do, we’ll meet back here.”
I stood to conclude our meeting and the interns followed suit. Colby was quick to gather his things and head for the door. Harlyn quietly stacked her paperwork and then organized everything into her bag as neatly as possible. I hadn’t noticed her outfit before because she was already seated when I entered the room but now, I had a full profile view. She had an average frame, much like her mother’s but unlike Renee, Harlyn was curvy and it seemed that she knew exactly how to accentuate her curves. She had on a pair of flat front slacks that pulled slightly at the zipper on her hip but left a gap at her waist in the back where her gray pinstriped shirt pulled out just a touch.
“Do you have plans for lunch?” Anabelle asked.
“I’m sorry?”
“Lunch. Do you have plans? I was going to run to the deli down the street. Would you like to join me?”
It wasn’t in my nature to turn down lunch with a pretty woman, especially one that was looking at me the way she was, but this was different. Anabelle was less than half my age, and a subordinate. Her smile started to waver and again I felt guilty over my previous faux paus. I had no reason to turn down the opportunity to at least enjoy the scenery during lunch. Just as well, it would probably save me from a future headache if I apologized and informed Anabelle that it was not okay to mock a fellow coworker. The last thing I needed was for Harlyn to go to HR with a harassment complaint or worse, tell her mother.
“Sure, I’d like that. Harlyn?” I asked, hoping that if I put them in the same social setting the problem would resolve itself. “Would you like to join us?”
There was the smallest twitch of her mouth as she and Anabelle shared a look. My hopes quickly shattered.
“No, thank you, Janene. You all enjoy.”
She lifted her bag onto her shoulder and turned to walk away. There was a muffled “figures,” that came from her direction before she opened the door and disappeared into the hallway.
It didn’t take long for us to reach the deli, it was only a few doors down, but the line was all the way out the door. If it weren’t for the look of excitement plastered on Anabelle’s face, I would have recommended we find another place.
“I’ve been wanting to try this place for such a long time. I’ve heard nothing but great things about it,” she said as we took our spot in line.
“They’re great. Misty caters from here all the time. Trust me by the time the summer is over you’ll be tired of it.”
“Oh, no. I didn’t even think to ask if you wanted to go somewhere else.”
There was that look again. It was more than a sad puppy dog look. She was so eager to please, I felt bad for her. Lunch should never cause anyone such anxiety.
“It’s fine, really. I like this place and it’s been a while since I’ve eaten here. The truth is most days I eat lunch in the office so getting out is a treat.”
The line continued to move slowly and our conversation moved to work and why Anabelle had chosen to become an architect. We’d gotten through that and several other topics by the time we finally got our food and sat down. I checked my phone and we only had half an hour left to eat.
Anabelle picked up the conversation again, no sign of nerves to be sitting down with her boss. I could appreciate that about a person. Most people would not ask their boss to lunch on their first day. That kind of confidence was a trait I admired in a woman. It was actually one of the characteristics I looked for most in the women that I got involved with. Not because I was interested in them long term, but because confident women knew what they wanted and were willing to do whatever it took to get it. That also meant that eight times out of ten, those same women liked to be in charge in the bedroom and that was a huge turn on for me.
Though she was confident, I was not getting that vibe from Anabelle. She seemed like the type that fell into the twenty percent bracket instead. If I was guessing, she liked getting her way in life but she was most likely timid in the bedroom. She was too bubbly. From the moment we started the walk to the deli she hadn’t stopped talking.
While I could appreciate that she kept the conversation going, because I wasn’t usually one to engage in small talk, she was a little too chirpy for my liking. If she hadn’t been so eager to please and follow my ill-advised lead, I would not have accepted her offer to join her for lunch.