I held out the sandwich, and she launched out of her seat—her hand stretching out to receive the foil-wrapped square.
She unwrapped her sandwich and made way too intense eye contact with me. “No, I want you to teach me how to do it. I want to show them I can do it.”
A strange sense of pride bubbled up in my chest. “Atta girl,” I said before I could stop myself. I made my way over to her side of the office and scrutinized the drawings. Cedric’s initials were in the bottom left corner.
It was remarkable Cedric had learned how to design this byhimself over the last few weeks, but it wasn’t uncommon. Every few years, they would find an engineer with a natural ability to pick up technical design and tricks.
Many moons ago, I was that intern.
I bit into my sandwich, glancing at Elizabeth, who, in all honesty, did not have that talent. She’d have to work incredibly hard to prove herself against him. It was a pity her year had a Cedric. Had she been part of the internship last year, she’d have easily been one of the best. She’d leveled up since starting and shown her dedication to the craft, to improvement, and sometimes, that was more important. Engineering was ever changing, and Elizabeth had already proven she could roll with the punches.
That was part of the evaluation comments I’d sent to Anders. He’d seemed surprised, and I didn’t ask whether it was because of how well she was doing or because I’d actually started managing her.
Elizabeth hovered around me while eating. Her gaze flicked between the drawings and my face. She spent a considerable amount of time trying to read me. Everyone did that. She was one of the few who succeeded.
“You’re comfortable with intersection upgrades, yes?” I asked, leaning in to read the contours while she stammered in the affirmative. “Interchange design incorporates many of those aspects. We’ll start there and build up to the entire interchange. What you can do, in the meantime, is tell me which kind of interchange would work best?” I walked over to my desk and leafed through the stack of drawings until I pulled up a few other layouts. “The options are endless, but these are the popular ones.”
She stared at them in silence. Her sea-blue painted nail traced along the curves of the four-leaf clover interchange. “They’re beautiful. I’ve driven on this one.”
“I designed it.” I shoved the last piece of the bread into my mouth to shut myself up.
Usually I wouldn’t tell anyone, but the genuine awe in her voice made me want to claim it.
“It’s art,” she said, still nibbling on her own sandwich. She ate with her mouth closed. Not a single crumb fell on her clothing or to the floor. She was like a princess.
“Yeah… for the birds,” I replied, pulling my gaze away from her. I crumpled up the foil and aimed for the wastebasket in the corner of my side of the office. I tossed it, and it ricocheted off the rim and onto the floor.
She giggled in a way that was gentle, warm, and caused flutters for whoever heard it. Probably. I’m sure it wasn’t only me.
“Diamond, I think?” Her voice peaked at the end in question.
“I’d have chosen that too.” I started scribbling on the drawing.
From the corner of my eye, I spotted her crumpling up her wrapper. She bit on her tongue as she aimed. When she released the silver ball, it landed inside the wastebasket. My mouth dropped open, and she spun around, her expression as shocked as I was.
“I’ll increase your evaluation by one point based on that alone.” I walked over to pick up my missed ball and tossed it inside.
She almost collapsed with the laughter that bubbled out of her. She leaned across the desk and watched me draw. If I hadn’t spent years doing this, I may have had some performance anxiety. But this was something I knew how to do. One of the very few things about myself I didn’t doubt. I explained everything as I went along, reciting guidelines from memory and enjoying how intently she listened.
Having her full attention was alarming. It made me feel somewhat… invincible. Like what I said mattered.
“I don’t recall them teaching this in college. I mean, the idea ofit, yeah… but maybe I missed that class,” she said as we moved to her computer and opened the design software.
“There’s no way they can cover everything in the few years you spend there. You’ll learn as you go along. Or you can go wild in your postgrad.”
“I’d like to do mine eventually, but part-time. I don’t think I have the luxury of full-time studies considering I’m already behind.” She navigated to Cedric’s design and imported the data as I’d previously taught her to do.
Without saying anything, I waited to see if she’d perform the checks I always recommended.
She did.
I grabbed my laptop and wheeled my chair into her office space. Her desk wasn’t that large, but before I could change my mind, she scooched over and shoved everything out of the way to make space. For me.
This was a completely normal thing for people to do for their bosses. Just because she laughed at my jokes or listened to me when I spoke didn’t mean anything. She was Elizabeth Gordon-
Bettencourt. Aside from being my intern, she was way out of my league. We weren’t even playing the same game.
After going through all the design principles and some trial and error, she hitPROCESSon the software and leaned back in her seat, her chest dropping with a heavy exhale. She undid the giant bun that held her red waves out of her face but then redid it. Her glance fell toward her phone. “Oh my goodness, it’s already after nine. You probably need to go.”
