14. Chapter 14
Chapter 14
Peyton
T he next day, after my fight with Max, I’m given no time to dwell because everyone at work is buzzing with excitement over Dr. Snazzeh’s visit. She arrives in the afternoon, though I won’t see her until the following day. Harris chirps away about the tour he’ll be providing, and I must admit I’m jealous. I’d like to join him in greeting her, but I have meetings. But there’s plenty of time to spend with her tomorrow.
After my afternoon meetings, I spot Harris and Dr. Snazzeh in an outdoor play yard. I stop at the hallway window and watch them for a moment. Harris points out a camera, so I’m sure he’s telling her about my project. I should’ve been more proactive in making sure he included me in the tour. Not that it matters that she hears about the project from Harris first, but I’ve let some of my thunder slip away, especially since I would’ve preferred to lead with results, rather than the logistics that Harris is highlighting. But no time like the present to fix the situation. I hurry outside to join them.
As I enter the enclosure, both of them are milling around the center. They’ve been in the yard long enough that the chimpanzees are ignoring them. At my entrance, a younger female chimpanzee spots me and rushes toward me like an eager puppy. Even with the distraction of her greeting, I’m able to catch the frown on Harris’s face. Sty ambles over. He has more spring in his shuffle—the extra fiber agrees with him. Though I’d like to think the chimps’ greeting is because they’re happy to see me, I know better. I show them my empty hands and with the hope of food removed, they immediately lose interest.
“I see you’re checking out the cameras,” I say with a smile at our guest.
Dr. Snazzeh comes forward. Harris stays put for a moment, but then with a purse of his lips follows behind her. “I’m giving Dr. Snazzeh a tour of the facilities,” Harris replies. “Dr. Snazzeh, this is Peyton. We’re squeezing into the same office at the moment.”
“If you have questions—”
But before I can offer my expertise, Harris cuts me off. “I need to bring her to a meeting.”
“He runs a tight ship, doesn’t he?” Dr. Snazzeh shrugs and meanders toward the door.
“I told Dr. Snazzeh that Ada would be here this afternoon.” Harris hurries past me and waves for Dr. Snazzeh to follow. “In case she has any technical AI type questions.”
I pick up my pace to catch up. “Well, yes. But if—”
Harris pulls open the door for her. “Right through here, Dr. Snazzeh.” Then he points at me. “Sorry we don’t have more time, Peyton.” Harris pulls the door shut behind him.
That felt oddly abrupt. I stand there replaying the scene over a couple times and keep arriving at the same conclusion—Harris is hiding something. The only thing that I can think of is that he’s trying to take credit for my work. This aligns with his strange behavior and him introducing me as his office mate rather than referring to my project. I hope I’m wrong, but it most definitely seems like he doesn’t want Dr. Snazzeh hearing about the project from me.
But I needn’t worry. I’ll see her in the all-hands meeting tomorrow. There will be plenty of time to correct any inaccuracies. I check my calendar to see when the meeting is, but I have nothing on my calendar. And nothing the following day, either. With as much discussion as there has been about Dr. Snazzeh’s visit, I missed that Harris hadn’t ever actually sent me any meeting invites. He hasn’t included me in a single thing with her!
My fingers clench around my phone, readying to charge through the halls to tackle Harris, but milliseconds before I launch into a complete freak-out, I remember that Dr. Wahl had emailed out Dr. Snazzeh’s itinerary for the next two days. There I see the time for the general staff meeting tomorrow morning. I can present myself then.
Or perhaps I’ll have time to catch Dr. Snazzeh and Harris this very moment before they go into their next meeting. It’s five minutes before the hour, which gives me a couple of minutes to set things straight.
When I find them, Dr. Snazzeh is already tucked away in a small meeting room with Dr. Wahl, but I intercept Harris nearby in the hallway.
“What the hell was that, Harris?”
“What are you talking about, Peyton?”
“You know damn well what I’m talking about. Outside. Just now. You were out there taking credit for the AI project.”
He cocks his head back. “No, I wasn’t.”
“I saw you all checking out the cameras. What else were you talking about? And why didn’t you tell her it was my idea when you introduced me?”
“You’re jumping to conclusions here. I wasn’t telling her about Shuggazoom.”
“You’ve been working on the project too. So why wouldn’t you have said something? And why else would you point to the cameras?”
“Peyton—”
“No, Harris. This is highly unprofessional of you. Shame on you.” I whip around and storm off to our office, the slap of my shoes reverberating in the hallway as I go.
I don’t know where Harris was headed, but smartly he does not show up in the office. I wonder if I should complain to Dr. Wahl. No, Harris would deny any wrongdoing, and what proof do I have? I’m not about to ask Dr. Snazzeh to provide a summary of Harris’s behavior.
Max would know how to handle Harris. The ease with which Max embarrassed Harris in front of his date was brilliant.
I want to call and apologize, but I don’t want to get in the way of Max testing things with Tris. If I’m to continue with Max, it’s of utmost importance that Tris is firmly in the past, especially since the thread of Shayna will continue to connect them.
Everything in my life is in disarray, and I’m no longer able to concentrate. I pack up my things and head home to my empty apartment.
Peyton
I arrive at work frazzled and tired as my sleep was fitful and filled with thoughts of losing Max and of Harris betraying me. When I enter the conference room for our dog and pony show for Dr. Snazzeh, I maintain eye contact with Harris. I want him to know that I’m here. I want him to see my presence and it to cause him discomfort.
Our gazes align for a millisecond, but then he resumes setting up the projector while I stare him down. He moves the remote closer to the ceiling-mounted machine and keeps pressing buttons, but it continues to show only a white box on the screen at the front of the room.
I take a seat near the middle of the long wooden table shaped like a gigantic honey-colored surfboard.
“I had this working last week,” Harris complains. He flips through some screens on his laptop and then the projector flickers and brings forth a slide deck. Then Dr. Wahl kicks off the meeting, explaining how the two organizations are looking to better use resources by sharing expertise and collaborating on key initiatives.
Harris then clicks forward and a title slide comes up for the primary project he’s assigned to. The names of the senior members are spread out across the bottom in three columns so that Harris’s name, as the most junior, is listed last, but is on a line by itself so the eye is drawn to it. The project is the largest, so there is logic in covering it first, but I also suspect that he would’ve arranged the deck to list the projects by astrological sign if that was what he needed for his project to be first.
The details on the slides are high level, so with a relative swiftness we step through all the other projects. As we move along, I notice that while there’s a template being used, each project included additional information. Harris collated the material, yet he hadn’t ever sent me the template or asked if I wanted to include anything else. Given my suspicions, he’s looking doubly guilty that this wasn’t an accidental oversight.
Shuggazoom is last, an interesting coincidence since first and last often leave the biggest impression in one’s memory. The title slide appears on the screen for Shuggazoom. There are no names listed on it.
“Where are the names?” I spin around to face Harris. “Why isn’t my name listed?”
“I guess I forgot them.” Harris clicks forward.
“And Ada’s? Shouldn’t she be here?”
“I invited her. She was busy.” Harris adjusts his tie.
“Given that the names were missed…” Dr. Wahl raises his eyebrows as he looks at me. This should be a look of surprise at Harris’s lapse, but there’s no mistake that this a warning for me to get in line. “I’ll provide the names of our newest initiative: Peyton Verona, Harris Arnold, and Ada Sparck. Peyton, please lead us through the next slide.”
Given that I’m not sure what information has been included, I stumble through the information, but when we move to the next slide, I’m not even sure what is being shown. Harris jumps in and explains the cryptic graph. Then he moves to the last slide with the word questions in the center.
Dr. Snazzeh lists some questions from notes she had taken during the presentation. There’s no surprise that she has none for me. I leave the conference room defeated and embarrassed that I’ve so completely bumbled my opportunity to shine in front of Dr. Snazzeh.
An hour later, someone knocks on the door of my office. I find myself clenching my fists. Harris is wise to be testing the room to see if it’s safe to enter. I yell out to come in, and to my surprise, it’s Dr. Snazzeh.
Suddenly seeing her after the morning spectacle flusters me. I hop up from my desk and fidget with the papers on top. “Please come in.”
“I hope I’m not disturbing you,” she says.
“No, of course not. I’m feeling embarrassed about my outburst at the meeting. That’s not really the first impression I wanted to make.”
“And that is why I came over to talk about it, because it seems I jumped to some unflattering conclusions myself. Harris came strutting in like an alpha male and I just assumed he was the head of the project. It seems even a practiced primatologist, feminist, and champion for the underserved can still fall for our societal stereotypes.” She crosses her hands and rests them over her heart.
“We all fall for the trap of these biological shortcuts at some point.” I stand and rest my hand on the back of Harris’s chair. “Would you like to have a seat?”
“Yes. Thank you.” We both sit down and she continues, “Dr. Wahl has set me straight. I’m very impressed with what you have put together so far.”
“Oh. Thank you.” Due to shock, this is all I manage to mumble. Dr. Snazzeh is impressed!
“I have a break before lunch. Would you mind showing me the latest results, giving me a little more detail on the project?”
She scooches over next to me and we squeeze in front of my monitor. Despite my quick stacking of papers, my desk is a mess of notes and drinking vessels. There are two coffee cups, one with yesterday’s remains and one with today’s fresh brew, as well as three reusable water bottles, all of which are empty and from last week. My current water bottle is in my bag, which I don’t dare pull out even though my mouth tastes of coffee and funk. But if she notices any of this chaos, she doesn’t let on. And soon her questions relax me and we’re exchanging stories about what hooked us on primatology.
Fifteen minutes fly by. I’ve only just accepted that it is an actuality that Dr. Snazzeh is sitting next to me when she checks her watch.
“This is really great work that you’re doing.” She stands up.
I simultaneously feel crestfallen that the visit is over and overjoyed by her interest in my work.
“And this seems like exactly the type of project that could benefit from a partnership with the Snazzeh Institute,” she says. “We could have some scientists join you here to put together a plan for a joint program.”
I hop up. “That would be amazing.”
“Am I correct in saying that this work is part of your internship?” I nod and she continues. “Then perhaps it would make more sense to bring you onto my team.”
My mouth falls open, but I quickly snap it shut lest coffee funk leak out. When I was applying for internships, the Snazzeh Institute was my top pick, but they had only one opening and I hadn’t made it past the phone interview. Working for Dr. Wahl was a close second. With how amazing my internship has gone, I can’t imagine a scenario where my postgrad assignment would have been better. I can barely imagine a scenario where I’d leave my work when it has only just begun, but Dr. Snazzeh’s institute could be just that. The offer does require consideration—working at the Snazzeh Institute is a primatologist’s dream come true.
“I’m very flattered and I’m interested in learning more, but to be transparent, Dr. Wahl has offered me a full-time position here.”
“And I can see why. But think about it. In fact, you should come to visit the Snazzeh Institute. Perhaps we can arrange for a tour on Friday.” She swings Harris’s chair around, moving it the few feet to the other side of the office.
“That would be amazing.”
“Do you have lunch plans? I’m joining Dr. Wahl and some others. If you aren’t busy, then I insist you join us.”
I happily accept without a thought to how awkward lunch could be when Dr. Snazzeh is trying to poach me directly under Dr. Wahl’s nose. But this becomes a lesser concern when I see Harris emerge from the same car as Dr. Wahl and Dr. Snazzeh.
Harris’s ability to suck up is as impressive as a remora fish hitching a ride on a whale. His appearance has taken this lunch from awkward to awful. To act as though everything is fine between Harris and me may be a performance too demanding.
Dr. Wahl and his colleagues hurry inside, but Harris lags behind. I pretend to need to get something from my trunk to avoid Harris, but as I shut my trunk, he appears at my side. “Hey Peyton.”
“I’m glad you now remember my name.” I move past him and disappear between two large SUVs. They’re parked close enough together I must turn sideways to get past their mirrors.
“I’m sorry about earlier.” He pops out next to me as I pass in the front of the vehicles.
His unsmiling face could be one of genuine remorse, but I’m not in the mood to accept his apology.
“She assumed I was lead, and I didn’t want it to come off like I was correcting her. It’s Dr. Snazzeh, you know?”
He has some nerve saying this to me with a straight face. “You really expect me to accept this explanation? Since when are you so shy?”
“I know. I know. I should’ve spoken up sooner.”
“Yes, you should have. That wasn’t a shining moment for either of us. It makes it look like we can’t work with other people. Thankfully, Dr. Wahl put in a good word for me after the meeting and Dr. Snazzeh came and visited me.”
Harris goes around me to the door, but he pauses, his hand resting on the handle. “I know. But I was there when Dr. Wahl was telling her about the project. Everything is straight now.”
“Is it?”
Harris holds the door open for me. “It is. It was a momentary mix-up. All’s good.”
My mind’s too muddled. I give a small head nod and pass through. Everything has been corrected, so this has mollified me, even if Harris and I aren’t good .